About
I have a wealth of experience as executive producer, show-runner, series producer and director of multiple, internationally award-winning documentaries. I’ve never stopped asking questions about the world and have embraced an enormous range of subjects, formats and roles to feed that curiosity. My particular strengths lie in running complex, multi-layered specialist factual productions, working with high level talent, building strong teams, trouble-shooting on productions that have gone awry, navigating complex licensing issues and devising new approaches to visual story-telling.
Lately I have concentrated on music/political hybrid films that draw largely on archive. The last broadcast series was the RTS-winning and Grierson-nominated Fight The Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World with Chuck D from Public Enemy. This 4-parter examines how Hip Hip arose as a voice of social commentary and opposition to the repression experienced by POC in the US over the last 50 years. I was also show-runner and director on another internationally award-winning production, 1971 a major series for Apple TV+. Produced with Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees, the powerhousebehind Amy, Sienna and Maradona, 1971 is an epic sweep of the music that emerged in a politically and culturally turbulent year. I’m currently exec-ing another major archive-driven series for Sky Documentaries and NBCU.
No matter the genre, story is at the heart of everything for me. I’ve used my story-crafting skills to write paid development projects, and steer series back on track in edits.
I’m constantly seeking new challenges. Executive producer on a feature doc whose creative director is the legendary Stephen Daldry? Yes absolutely, thank you very much – especially as my role on Freedom: 50 Years of Pride involved producing an as-live performance featuring leading singers and artists from the LGBT+ community. Make a series about the solar system that is so beautiful, even dogs go out to gaze at the wonder of the night sky? According to a tweet in the Wonders of the Solar System feed, that box is ticked. Put on another as-live event helmed by Professor Brian Cox where his one stipulation is no bells or whistles, just him lecturing about quantum physics, using an old-fashioned blackboard for A Night With the Stars? A tough ask but one of the most exhilarating nights of my career.
As well as my broadcast work, I have partnered with various NGOs such as Actionaid International, filming and photographing content for advocacy and marketing campaigns in Madagascar, Cambodia, Uganda, Bangladesh, Kenya, India and Brazil. I have also lectured and run seminars for a range of audiences – industry specialists and the general public, in the UK and abroad.
I’m a published and exhibiting documentary and fine art photographer. I took some time out from documentary production work to take a Masters degree and run BBC Pictures, the department that is responsible for the commissioning and management of all of the BBC’s marketing imagery. My own photography website can be found here