Electric Ray grabs Endemol creative

Electric Ray, the Sony Pictures Television-backed UK prodco from former BBC commissioner Karl Warner, has hired an Endemol exec as its creative director of entertainment.

In the newly created role, Shaun Parry will oversee Electric Ray’s slate of entertainment programmes and its development team, which is focused on international format creation.

His arrival follows the appointment of Meredith Chambers as joint MD alongside Warner in April last year. Chambers joined from Shed Media-owned Twenty Twenty.

Parry was head of entertainment at Endemol, a position that saw him involved in the creation of formats including BBC quiz Pointless and ITV’s The Whole 19 Yards. He previously held development posts at Silver River, RDF and the BBC. He will start work at the end of March, reporting directly to Warner and Chambers.

Electric Ray is currently in production with shows including BBC1 Saturday night gameshow Prized Apart and Salford Dreams United (w/t), a three-part access documentary about five ex-Manchester United stars attempting to propel Salford City FC out of the lower reaches of English football.

Warner was previously the BBC’s youngest ever commissioning editor, responsible for greenlighting shows on BBC1 and BBC3 including Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, John Bishop’s Britain, Junior Doctors and Russell Howard’s Good News. He launched Electric Ray with Sony’s backing just over a year ago.

Parry’s Endemol departure continues the rapid turnover of staff following the merger of production giants Shine, Endemol and Core Media into the Endemol Shine Group, which was completed at the turn of the year.

Nadine Nohr, who headed up the Shine International distribution business, is stepping down following the decision to combine that arm with Endemol Worldwide Distribution in a new sales house headed by Cathy Payne.

Shine CEO Alex Mahon, Shine chairman Elisabeth Murdoch, Endemol CEO Just Spee and Core Media president Marc Graboff have all stepped down from their respective positions.

Core MD of international content and production Simon Shaps and director of business strategy and acquisitions Maureen Kerr have also left, but Endemol president Tim Hincks will remain with the mega-indie.