The Fan Carpet was founded in 2004 by Jessica Alken-Theasby (neé Alken) and Marc Jason Ali. At first we were solely a fansite network, websites dedicated to actors/ actresses etc. with our flagship fansites being Kirsten-Dunst[dot]org, Hayden-Panettiere[dot]com and  I Heart Emma Roberts[dot]com.

As we grew, we decided to go in the Press and Promotion direction, and made the initial contacts with PR (Public Relations) companies and studios (something we have kept up to this day) we were exclusively a film outlet at this time.

We incorporated the company in 2008, and through various iterations our website is the best parts of IMDb and Empire Magazine merged into one. We have a film database of 8,000+ films and an actors database of 5,000+ actors and actresses (more films and actors/actresses are added daily).

We run regular competitions, interviews (both written and video) – as the industry changed so did we, the film news and features evolved into entertainment news and features, for example someone like David Tennant (who we have interviewed on a various occasions) was in ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’ and ‘Fright Night’ (films), he was also ‘Hamlet’ (Theatre), ‘Doctor Who’ (BBC Television) and ‘Kilgrave’ in ‘Jessica Jones’ (Netflix), if we had stuck to being exclusively film we would have ignored 3 of the 4 facets of his career.

That’s just one example – we tend to cover all manner of entertainment these days.

 

 

As The Fan Carpet: The RED Carpet for FANS, we have attended various Red Carpet Premiere events, ranging from World Premieres to European Premieres to Royal Premieres, to Premieres for Indie Films, previously ‘I Love My Mum’ and ‘Your Reality’, ‘Homeless Ashes’, Marc Zammit’s Directorial Debut and ‘Blinded By The Light’ from Gurinda Chandra.

We do not discriminate, so we’ll cover a low budget indie as well as the larger budget Hollywood productions.

Over the years, we have become a platform for Independent Cinema, a necessary direction for the industry, it’s rather unique, as there are not many places that put an Independent Short Film or Independent Feature next to a large budget film from major production companies such as Disney, and we give it the same level of care and attention with news posts, spotlighting on our homepage etc. that we would for a larger budget film.

In 2014, we launched The Fan Carpet: Network, which is a network of like-minded Individuals and sites that are either established like Red Carpet News TV and Premier Scene or less established like ActingHour and Take Five – with our contacts, we have been able to help with screenings etc.

In 2017 we began the process of entering production by incorporating The Fan Carpet: Slate where we aim to produce Short Films with the intention to make them into features, Web Series (with features in mind), Music Videos and PSA’s (Public Service Announcements), as well as keeping the core community aspect to TFC.

The Fan Carpet: Theatre Spotlight and The Fan Carpet: Arena were launched in late 2022, TFC: Theatre Spotlight is for theatre, whilst TFC: Arena is for music and other forms of entertainment including fashion shows and pageants that don’t necessarily fit into The Fan Carpet which is aimed at film, TV and streaming.

 

 

In 2023, The Fan Carpet: International was launched, which will see The Fan Carpet in America, covering film events that take place in the states, Director, Producer and Actress Ellie Torrez who has starred in screen favourites including EastEnders, Scrubs, Little Britain, Plenty of Dishes and many more and runs her own Production Company called Tripod Productions with Jake Francis and Joe Riley. She’s at the helm of The Fan Carpet: International, so we foresee a success!

We know our road map and trajectory and our story is far from fully written.