About
Poor Polly Productions (P3) was founded in 2022 by Todd Hartsell and Jeff LaGrone, as the two began pre-production on their breakout film Jester.
Founded on the back of a deep friendship that thrived on a collective desire to collaborate and share creative ideas, P3 seeks to find and tell stories about characters that are often cast aside into the margins. They strive tell the untold stories of human struggle, sacrifice, and redemption, and to give a voice to those who often feel like they do not have one.
P3 has built its vision around the idea that, like all its projects, the core team must always reach out to include a diverse representation of cultures, genders, spirituality, and sexuality in the hope of truly expressing a fully realized artistic expression. P3 will always look to the best medium, whether it be film, television, music, or another expression to tell our stories.
The name Poor Polly originated out of the idea that Jeff and Todd had to immortalize Polly McLendon, a character in Jester that plays an important role. Yet, they found her part cut time and again. Their shared rally cry “Poor Polly” kept them focused on the idea that even the smallest of characters should not be forgotten or overlooked.
Meet the Founder
TODD HARTSELL
Born in Houston, Todd Hartsell lived most of his life in Texas. A trained musician since age 7, Todd has a creative mind with a variety of artistic projects to his name. A film student and director in his early years, Todd went on to a successful career in TV, and commercial production. His passion has always been in film, a bond that he shared with his father, and is avidly pursuing with his collaborator Jeff LaGrone, through their upcoming film Jester and their production company Poor Polly Productions.
Todd is a talented musician, who in his free time, also plays in two bands - The Divebar Boombox and City Folk. He learned piano at age 7, and later learned the drums. He attended Southeastern Oklahoma State University on a full ride for his jazz percussion skills. In his early 20s he struggled with injury related epilepsy, but credits his friends for helping him through it, which led him to play guitar. He now plays original songs, as well as, classic pop, folk, jazz and Americana.
In college, Todd studied film and won acclaim for his short-film The Sixth Commandment. He was awarded the Crystal Reed Award, the highest honor to filmmakers in Florida, by the Florida Motion Picture, TV, and Arts Association. He won for Best Film, Best Director, Best Technical Achievement, and Best Director of Photography.
After graduating with his degree, Todd went into the production side of the industry, working for Yahoo!/Broadcast.com, where he met Jeff. Their experience there would form the basis for their friendship that built throughout the years. Todd continued his work in the digital media space throughout his career, working as the director of digital media, operations, and sales at Nexstar Broadcasting as well as senior producer for digital media services at Yahoo!. He cites one of his career highlights as producing the 10th anniversary video Yahoo! played on Times Square on the NASDAQ big screen.
Even though his career has taken him into the business side of the industry, Todd has continued to do various film projects, including directing a video for Psycho Better called Still, directing national campaigns for the charity organization Rainbow Days, as well as several of his own passion projects. He also co-hosted The Other Kind Radio podcast with Jeff, and today, Todd co-hosts the Minute of the Apes podcast.
Life took Todd in a direction he never expected, but as his daughter prepared for college, he was ready to start a new chapter of his own. He went back to his roots and was determined to pursue his dreams of film-making. Reaching out to his long-time friend Jeff, the two began writing Jester, based on their shared experiences with adoption and life taking you to unexpected places. The two largely wrote the screenplay over Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Todd has been married for 28 years to his best friend, Shelly, and has a college-age daughter, Abbey.
Meet the Co-Founder
JEFF LAGRONE
Jeff LaGrone has over 30 years in broadcast and live events. An entertainer and storyteller at heart, Jeff has been a producer, podcast personality and stand-up comedian. Born in Mexico, Jeff spent his formative years in foster care before uniting with his adoptive family. This and many of his life experiences form the basis of the upcoming film project Jester.
Growing up in the mountains of New Mexico until sixth grade, Jeff was an avid radio listener and stand-up comedian fan. He was raised and draws inspiration from comedians like Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, and Robin Williams. That’s where his passion for storytelling first began. Throughout high school he was in theater and excelled in improv. He attended the University of Nebraska in Omaha working towards a degree in broadcast journalism.
His career in production and events began at Yahoo/Broadcast.com, where he was a broadcast engineer, setting up event streaming on the ground floor – before the modern-day video and streaming took off in more recent years. This is also where Todd and Jeff first met. Over the years they would stay in touch through mutual friends and connections, ultimately building a strong bond and lasting friendship.
Over the last 20 years, Jeff has produced and worked on live events for major associations, film companies, musicians, and much more. He has project managed events with multimillion dollar budgets and is solution oriented. He cares about each of his clients and is focused on ensuring their events are successful.
In his personal time, he’s an avid storyteller. From an early age he aspired to create and control his own narrative, because of the instability of his early childhood years. He grew up wanting to be a stand-up comedian, and spent several years pursuing this goal doing comedy at open mics and comedy clubs. Ultimately though, he found his passion was in radio and podcasting. He enjoys stories above all else, no matter the medium. He had a radio show called The Other Kind Radio in 2001, which Jeff and Todd brought back to life in 2018.
Jeff and Todd have stayed in touch over the years despite the many miles between them. In 2019 the story of Jester was born when Todd asked Jeff to write him a story. Jeff describes their friendship and business partnership as a synchronicity when the two write and collaborate. Something you can hear in their upcoming podcast Todd and Jeff Make a Movie, and something you will see in the film Jester and other film projects the two have planned from Poor Polly Productions.