Margarita Verberaite has worked in the screen sector since 2009 starting her career in her native Lithuania as a Production Coordinator and later Production Manager for various TV Series before coming to do the MA Film, Production at Screen Academy Scotland in 2014. During and after her studies at Screen Academy, Margarita also worked for Faction North, assisting with feature film development. Since she graduated, Magarita has produced 9 short films. Her latest short Tomorrow Might Be the Day  produced with Shakehaus, was funded by the Scottish Film Talent Network New Talent Scheme. Magarita was selected for the Edinburgh International Film Festival Talent Lab in 2018 and IFFR (International Film Festival Rotterdam) Talent Lab in 2019.

Shakehaus
In 2016 along with fellow Screen Academy graduates Joséfa Celestin (MA Film, Directing, 2015) and Fraser Stephen (MA Film, Camera, 2015),  Margarita co-founded video and film Production Company Shakehaus. Shakehaus develops and produces original content, with a strong focus on elevated Sci-Fi Drama, while also providing branded video production services to local and international businesses. One of the first short films produced by Shakehaus was MA Film graduation short Event Horizon – now a successful UK/France co-production that has been shown at over 55 festivals so far and sold for distribution in Europe and Asia. Their latest production Tomorrow Might Be The Day is a Scottish Film Talent Network funded New Talent short film and also UK/French co-production which is currently running in the festival circuit.

In 2018, Shakehaus was selected to participate in Focus, a two-year pilot project that provides business support to screen production companies in Scotland. This has enabled the team, now a partnership between Margarita and Joséfa, to work with vastly experienced and supportive industry consultants such as Lee Magiday (producer of Lobster and The Favourite) and Mike Kelly development consultant for screen and entertainment industries (founder of Northern Alliance).

Shakehaus is currently developing a slate of feature film and TV projects with local and international talent. Their aim is to diversify the genre landscape in Scotland and the UK.

Margarita says of the collaboration at Screen Academy which eventually lead to the formation of Shakehaus:

“All three of us were successfully collaborating during our MA course in SAS and worked together on 3short films during the course. Soon after graduation, we started talking about starting a company. As we all had previous industry experience and worked well together it felt like a natural step.”