Blue Ant hires for development, production

Blue Ant Media-owned natural history channel Love Nature has expanded its development and production division by filling two newly created roles.

Alison Barrat

Alison Barrat has been appointed VP of development and production, while James Manfull has come on board as executive producer. Both will be based at Love Nature’s fledgling commissioning office in Washington D.C.

Barrat joins Love Nature from Living Oceans Foundation, where she launched a specialist wildlife film production unit and executive produced films for PBS, the Smithsonian Channel and CuriosityStream.

James Manfull

She will report to Carlyn Staudt, who arrived from National Geographic Channels as executive VP of programming and development at the turn of the year to oversee a transformation of Love Nature’s programming and build up the Washington office.

Barrat will be attending the Sunny Side of the Do market with the company in June and will be responsible for executing programming strategies for the brand’s international channels through development and production.

Manfull, meanwhile, joins Love Nature, a joint venture between Blue Ant Media and Smithsonian Networks, in August and will report to Barrat. He will oversee the production of Love Nature’s commissioned series and documentaries.

Manfull has previously held senior roles at Discovery Communications as executive producer and National Geographic Television as staff series producer.