BBC Bake Off exec joins Twenty Twenty

MIPCOM: Warner Bros-owned UK prodco Twenty Twenty has hired the commissioning exec behind BBC factual formats The Great British Bake Off and The Great British Sewing Bee as its new creative director.

Emma Willis was most recently head of documentary commissioning for BBC1, BBC2 and BBC4 and will now focus on creating new returnable formats across genres for Twenty Twenty.

Willis joined the BBC in 2006 and became head of documentary commissioning in early 2013, working on shows including The Tube, Zimbabwe’s Forgotten Children and Honour Kills.

She was also behind formats such as The Choir: Sing While You Work, The Farm, social history series The Secret History of Our Streets and Britain From Above.

Before the BBC, she was executive producer at UK prodco Wall To Wall, where she oversaw programmes such as Edwardian Country House for Channel 4 and George Orwell – A Life in Pictures for BBC2.

Willis joins Twenty Twenty, which is behind shows including The Choir and First Dates, in 2015 and will report to CEO Tim Carter.