SPEAKERS

Aaron has lived and worked in India for the past 19+ years. Aaron is currently a principal with Locomotive Global Inc. (LGI), the media company he founded with its investors in 2012. LGI was recently acquired by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. LGI’s primary focus is to incubate and launch new India oriented media and entertainment businesses. Its present activities in India via Locomotive Global Media, its Indian subsidiary, include content development and production, programming sales and distribution, and television broadcast and OTT platforms

LGI has a number of premium scripted projects in various stages of production, financing and development, including Rana Naidu, the Hindi language adaptation of Ray Donovan, the long running and award winning Showtime series. The series has been commissioned by Netflix India.

From 2002 until 2012, Aaron served as executive vice president for Sony Pictures Television Networks India. He was country manager for both AXN and Animax from 2005 to 2008, and his primary responsibility was as general manager for PIX, the Sony network group’s English language movie channel in India, which he conceptualised and launched in 2006.
Aaron also co-owns and manages The Q India, a Hindi language general entertainment television channel aimed at Young Indians, 20-30 years old, that is broadcast nationwide in India.

Prior to moving to India, Aaron served as vice president, international networks for Sony Pictures Television International. Aaron also conceptualised and produced several Original TV Series while working with Sony Television Networks.  Prior to that, he was co-founder and chief operating officer (COO) of Cinema Entertainment Group (CEG), a startup entertainment media company with a board of advisors that included Mike Medavoy and Bob Pisano. In the past, Aaron has also held positions with Encore International, Liberty Media Group, Gotham Entertainment Group and J. Walter Thompson, NYC.

Acosta is president of ViacomCBS Networks International Americas and President of ViacomCBS International Studios. Based in Miami, Acosta reports to Raffaele Annecchino, president and chief executive officer of ViacomCBS Networks International.

In his role as president of ViacomCBS International Studios, Acosta oversees the international operations for the production studios, which will supply original content to the new Paramount+ service in some markets, while continuing to supply scripted, comedy and reality series to ViacomCBS Networks International’s free and pay TV networks as well as third party streamers and broadcasters.

Acosta is also responsible for the ViacomCBS Networks International operations for Latin America, spanning Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, as well as Canada and the U.S. Hispanic market. He is also charged with the ongoing expansion of the company’s portfolio and products in the region, including its multiplatform business, content distribution and licensing efforts and television channels; MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Paramount Channel, and Telefe, Argentina’s leading free-to-air broadcaster; and digital portfolio (including Porta Dos Fundos and Backdoor).

Award winning producer, Adams develops new business, produces and consults for international media and finance companies. Producer of the Netflix Original adaptation of Roger Guenveur Smith’s solo performance piece Rodney King, directed by Academy Award nominee Spike Lee. Adams recently collaborated on the marketing of Spike Lee’s hit series She’s Gotta Have It, and the Academy Award winning Blackkklansman, as well as such series as Delhi Crime Story and the Sundance indie pilot It’s Not About Jimmy Keene.

He also served for 4 years as a VFX executive producer representing Paris-
based VFX house BUF to the US Studio system. Adams brought in such Academy Award winners as James Cameron’s Avatar, Ang Lee’s Life Of Pi, Thor for Marvel Studios, as well as Green Lantern, Green Hornet, Stephen Sommers’ Odd Thomas, and Tim
Burton’s Dark Shadows.

Adams is a member of the Producers Guild of America, the Television Academy, Board Ambassador for the Blackhouse Foundation, Advisory board member for Content London and the Los Angeles Art Association.

Immediately after completion of his degree in law, Alberdingk Thijm started his career as a screenwriter. He created several original drama series for the Dutch screen, like ‘The Daltons’ and ‘Dunya and Desie,’ that have broadcast in the Netherlands, the Nordics and Germany. The series received awards including the Prix de Jeunesse, the Premios Ondas and nominated three times for an International Emmy Award.

The movie that succeeded the Dunya and Desie series, was selected for the Berlinale 2008 and was the Dutch entry for the Academy Awards. The series ‘All Stars’, which Alberdingk Thijm cowrote with Jean van de Velde, won both an International Emmy Award and the Silver Rose of Montreux. As writer and producer, he developed the series Adam and Eva – a mesmerizing love story that won the French Prix de la Fiction at the La Rochelle Festival and almost every Dutch drama award. In 2019 he wrote the movie ‘The promise of Pisa’, based on Mano Bouzamour’s debut novel, which won the Dutch Academy Award for best lead actor. He is thrilled to be working currently on Bestseller Boy with the team at CBS Studios (Meghan Lyvers), Paper Plane Productions (Alon Aranya) and Mano Bouzamour.

During his media career spanning almost 25 years, Alduy has helped broadcasters to acquire, market and promote the best scripted content to their audience. Alduy took on different roles within the Canal+ Group ranging from management control to head of Cinema and Foreign Series acquisitions (2008-2014) to Head of Canal+’s OTT division (2014-2016) in charge of SVOD and web content.

In 2019, Alduy joined The Walt Disney Company via the acquisition of Twentieth Century Fox where he was locally responsible for the sale of Fox & FX content to broadcasters and SVOD services in France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Africa and Switzerland as well as locally managing scripted format sales since 2016. At Disney, Alduy became SVP Content Sales for Europe, Russia and Africa.

In 2021, Alduy was appointed head of cinema and international development at France Télévisions, and is currently in charge of cinema strategy and acquisitions, young adult and international series coproductions and acquisitions. He was elected to the EBU TV Committee in April 2021.

Aranya has set up close to 50 scripted shows in the US and internationally, including Red widow (based on the Dutch format Penoza) and Betrayal (based on the Dutchformat Overspel) for ABC, and Hostages (based on the Israeli format Bnei Aruba) for CBS.

His current shows include Tehran, an original Apple TV international drama thriller, which is in production on season two; Your honor (based on the Israel format Kvodo) for Showtime, starring Bryan Cranston, which recently announced a second season; and Bestseller boy, an original Dutch dramedy based on the bestseller book by Mano Bouzamour.

The show is a co-production of the Dutch NPO and CBS Studios International, and is currently shooting in Amsterdam. Paper Plane Productions is under a first look deal at Apple TV. The company has productions in Israel, Holland, Germany and the US, and is continuing to expand into additional territories. Aranya received his BFA at Tel Aviv University in Film and Television and later became a faculty member at NYU Tisch School of the Arts where he received his MFA in Dramatic Writing. He is currently a faculty member at The American Film Institute in Los Angeles.

Arnold is the executive director of MTV Staying Alive Foundation, head of VIS social impact, and senior vice president of social Responsibility at ViacomCBS Networks International.

Arnold co-founded the MTV Staying Alive Foundation in 1998, and originally sat as a Board Member, until she was appointed as Executive Director in October 2007. MTV Staying Alive is a US, UK and South African charity, set up to tell stories to save lives, creating movements with purpose to improve young people’s health and well-being globally.

In July 2021, Arnold launched and has since been heading up, the latest division of ViacomCBS International Studios, VIS Social Impact. The studio is dedicated to creating content with purpose and impact.

As SVP of social responsibility for ViacomCBS Networks International, Arnold is responsible for developing social initiatives for ViacomCBS’ portfolio of brands internationally. She has conceived and led campaigns such as Generation Change, a global campaign that gives voice to young activists around the world; MTV Breaks, which helps young talent get their first break in the creative industries; and leads on how to implement cross-brand campaigns for ViacomCBS International on equality, diversity and inclusion.

Since 2018, Arnold is a board member of Girls Not Brides, an organisation dedicated to the eradication of child marriage. Ms. Arnold has been the co-champion of ‘Fusion’, Viacom’s ERG on cultural diversity, from 2017 onwards.

Ayech joined UKTV in 2008 and has been the channel director for Drama and Alibi since 2017. She is responsible for the editorial strategy for both channels – two of the network’s biggest brands. Both have experienced growth under Ayech’s leadership and in particular, Drama, the number one non-PSB owned channel in the UK. On Alibi, Ayech has overseen the successful introduction of original content which has achieved record-breaking viewing figures.

Ayechwas previously general manager for Really, Home, Good Food and Eden. During her time at UKTV, she has also worked on W (previously Watch) and Yesterday as a scheduler, and as a Programme Manager on Dave where she brought the hugely popular Red Bull Soapbox strand to the channel, as well as titles such as American Pickers and Storage Hunters’ UK.

Prior to UKTV, Ayech worked at Living and Discovery in a variety of roles including Scheduler, Continuity Producer and Presentation Scheduler.

Bajaria was named head of global TV for Netflix in 2020, overseeing all scripted and un-scripted series around the world. Bajaria leads the team for all of television, responsible for hit series including Bridgerton, The Queen’s Gambit, Lupin and Cobra Kai.

Previously, she oversaw local language originals, managing the teams behind shows like La Casa de Papel (Spain), The Witcher (Poland), and Kingdom (Korea).

Prior to joining Netflix in 2016, Bajaria was President of Universal Television, where she made history as the first woman of color to oversee a studio. Earlier, she held two key posts simulta-neously: senior vice president, cable programming for CBS TV Studios, and senior vice presi-dent of Movies and Miniseries for CBS Network.

Bajaria has been honored by THR’s Women in Entertainment list, Variety’s LA Women’s Impact Report, and named one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in 2020. She currently serves on the LA Board of Governors for the Paley Center, the Board of LA’s Saban Community Clinic and the Board of Trustees for Meridian International Center. Bajaria has been honored by the “I Have a Dream” Foundation of LA, The March of Dimes Foundation, and received the Industry Leadership Award from the LA Indian Film Festival.

A leading figure in the international TV industry,  Baker is a former head of programming at Sky and CEO at global production and distribution group, Red Arrow Studios. He has extensive experience in developing new financial models for production and M+A in the global content sector. As chairman of Anyway Content, Baker is helping shape a new approach to content creation, packaging and financing in what is a rapidly evolving international market.

Ballance co-founded Adorable Media in 2014 with Richelle Wilder, after working as a producer in the UK and abroad. With over 15 years’ experience in the film and televi-sion industry, her producing credits include The I.T. Crowd, Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy, Rogue, and Killing Bono. She has produced for Talkback, Warp Films, and Channel X, and past projects have been distributed by the BBC and eOne. Ballance has an MBA in Film Business from Cass Business School.

Bartel, born in Hamburg in 1985, is EVP Fiction at RTL Deutschland.

After obtaining his school-leaving qualification in Hamburg, Bartel began his career as a theatrical drama assistant and dramaturge. From 2008, he completed a Bachelor’s degree in Media Management and Communication Studies in Hanover and Örebro (Sweden) and a Master’s degree in Media Studies at Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF. While studying, Bartel directed the Sehsüchte International Student Film Festival in 2013, before starting work as a commissioning editor at Mediengruppe RTL in 2014. Here he was initially responsible for series acquisitions at VOX and from 2015 for series acquisitions and co-productions for Mediengruppe RTL. Two years later, he moved to the newly created position of head of fiction at VOX, before becoming EVP Fiction at Mediengruppe RTL  in 2020, with joint responsibility alongside Frauke Neeb for all original drama productions at TVNOW, RTL and VOX. Bartel has held this position alone since 1 May 2021. Current productions as part of RTL Deutschland’s ‘drama offensive’ include series such as Sisi, Schirachs ‘Glauben’, Faking Hitler, Der König von Palma, Torstraße 1 (House of promises), and Weil wir Champions sind (We are champions). Bartel is a member of the film funding committee of the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW (North Rhine-Westphalia Film and Media Foundation).

As MGM’s president of international television productions, Bauer oversees development, production and co-productions for MGM’s International Television scripted content for markets around the world. After just over a year at MGM, Bauer has built an incredibly exciting and diverse slate, with six greenlit series to date including Last Light (Peacock/ NENT), El Fin del Amor (Amazon Prime Video), Billy the Kid (EPIX/NENT), From (EPIX/Netflix), Shelter (Amazon Studios) and The Reun-ion (France Televisions/Make it Happen Studio). With offices in Munich, London and Los Angeles, Bauer is establishing creative synergy across the world’s top networks and streamers.

Prior to MGM Bauer served as partner at STUDIOCANAL TV (previously known as TANDEM Communi-cations, which she founded 22 years ago), where she steered their TV content and executive pro-duced series including Shadowplay from BRON Studios and Julie Delpy’s comedy series On the Verge (Netflix). She began her career at Alliance Communications, finishing there as president of their subsidiary Alliance International TV, where she managed several international offices out of its Paris headquarters. A Golden Globe® and two-time Emmy® nominated PGA Producer, Bauer has earned the prestigious Medaille d’Honneur for her outstanding contributions to the international television business, has been named to Variety’s International Women’s Impact Report on four dif-ferent occasions, including its most recent list in 2021. Additionally, Bauer has been named by The Hollywood Reporter as one of the 25 Most Powerful Women in Global Television. She sits on the International Emmys Board (iEmmys) and NATPE board, and is a member of the PGA and Primetime Emmys.

Blenkov has produced 16 feature and documentary films, numerous TV series, many of which have won awards. She began in the advertising sector in 1991 where she produced successful and prizewinning ads. Thereafter, she became an independent producer, producing features in London and Copenhagen; was a showrunner on TV series, one of which, ‘BROKE’, was picked up for remake by AMC; and wrote and directed prize-wining Children’s television. Since 2014, Blenkov has been CEO of Creative Alliance that she owns with the directors Lone Scherfig and Ole Christian Madsen.
Creative Alliance collaborates with both new and established writers, directors and producers to continuously develop and produce high quality projects.

Blue is the head, Smithsonian Channel and SVP of MTV News and works in close partnership with the extraordinary Smithsonian Institution to lead, expand and diversify Smithsonian Channel’s content offerings to build on its momentum and support the institution’s efforts to engage, inspire and educate. His oversight also includes content creation and all related experiential and event programming.

Most recently, Blue served as the special projects and senior producer of PBS NewsHour where he oversaw all NewsHour specials, as well as serving as the EP for the daily broadcast. Most notably, he managed several NewsHour initiatives, including Searching for Justice, Race Matters, and Chasing the Dream. During the 2012 election, Blue was an EP for BET Networks’ political broadcasts, securing exclusive interviews with President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as well as extensive coverage of Mitt Romney.

Blue’s work has won major broadcast journalism awards with eight national Emmy awards; two Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Awards; five George Foster Peabody Awards; two Overseas Press Club Awards; the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism; and the NABJ Award for Overall Excellence. Blue is a graduate of Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs.

Boey trained as an actor at East 15 Acting School and is a graduate of the Royal Court’s Young Writers Programme and BBC Writers Room London Voices group. Boey is one of 5 emerging writers selected for ViaCom’s First Look Deal – an initiative to amplify diverse voices. She is a BEATS fellow and was mentored by Vinay Patel. Her short film work includes Jade Dragon (Best Comedy at London International Short Film Festival), Troll Hunters (Jackdaw) and The Burglar (LAMDA). Her audio work includes Locusts for Audible, and two episodes of Julian Simpson’s sci-fi podcast Temporal for Storypunk and Sweet Talk Productions. Her audio horror series The Beach Hut has been commissioned to pilot by Storypunk. She’s developing a TV comedy with Sarah Brocklehurst and a feature film with Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor/BFI. 

Bouzamour (1991) is a Dutch novelist and screenwriter. He scored a stunning success at the age of 22 with his first novel De belofte van Pisa (The Promise of Pisa). The vibrant coming of age book depicts his childhood and youth as the son of Moroccan immigrants in Amsterdam. The internationally acclaimed novel has been translated into several languages and made into a film in 2019. The movie can be seen on Netflix. The book caused an outcry in the Moroccan community and his parents kicked him out of the house. These events were the inspiration for his second book, Bestseller Boy that was published in 2018. The television series of the same title is produced by CBS Studios and Willy Waltz International in association with Paper Plane Productions for AVROTROS. The scripts for the eight-episode dramedy were written by Bouzamour and Robert Alberdingk Thijm. Bouzamour also serves as executive producer.

Bouzamour works and lives in Amsterdam.

Brandon is the creator and writer of Bloodlands (Hat Trick Mercurio/BBC One). The drama debuted in early 2021 to 4* reviews and 7.9 million consolidated viewers, the best BBC drama launch in a year. The show was executive produced by Jed Mercurio with James Nesbitt starring. Brandon is currently writing the second series. He was named in Deadline’s 10 Rising Star British Writers for 2020. He grew up between England and Northern Ireland, and studied at Trinity in Dublin.

Broughton is head of podcasts at Hat Trick Productions, where she oversees shows such as Queen Bees with Jane Horrocks and Esther Coles, Armstrong & Miller: Timeghost, as well as scripted offerings London Pub Reviews (feat. Tim Key), and Whistle Through The Shamrocks written by Nicola Coughlan and Camilla Whitehill.

She has previously worked across film, TV and radio on titles such as Episodes, Plum House, The Constant Gardener, Black Books and Spaced.

Brown is the head of european originals for Amazon Studios where she oversees the development and production of scripted and non-scripted Amazon Originals in Europe, including series like The Grand Tour, All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur, Celebrity Hunted Italy, Love Island France; All or El Cid, and Voltaire Mixte.

Brown joined Amazon in 2017 from FremantleMedia where she was executive vice president of content and co-Productions, overseeing acquisitions for FremantleMedia International (FMI), the company’s distribution business, and working on a range of projects including Young Pope, D83, Apple Tree Yard and American Gods.

Previously, Brown was SVP of acquisitions at Shine International, where she worked on Broadchurch, Educating Yorkshire, One Born Every Minute, 24 Hours in A&E, Masterchef and Code of a Killer.

Before Shine, Brown was a commercial manager at BBC Worldwide and worked with over 120 independent producers in the UK and internationally to manage rights acquisitions and early investment on BBC Worldwide-distributed programming including Africa, Mad Dogs, Misfits, Natural World, Primeval, Sherlock and Top Gear.

Cardwell is SVP, deputy director of programmes for Viacom CBS UK (VCN UK) which includes Channel 5 and its digital channels 5STAR, 5Select and 5USA, as well as Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount Network. He is also commissioning drama for Paramount+ UK, set to launch in 2022. Reporting to Ben Frow, chief content officer, VCN UK, Cardwell is responsible for devising strategy across the portfolio.

Cardwell joined Channel 5 in 2011 and has been instrumental to its continued evolution into a destination for high quality originations across a range of genres, with an emphasis on drama and original commissions in peak slots. Spearheading Channel 5’s increased investment in drama, Cardwell has changed the face of the genre on the channel, giving rise to hit-rating titles such as the All Creatures Great and Small reboot, Penance, The Deceived and The Drowning.

Prior to his current role at Channel 5, Cardwell was digital controller, responsible for the day-to-day running of Channel 5’s digital channels, overseeing all commissioning, acquisitions and channel management. Here, he commissioned titles such as prison drama Clink, as well as Celebs on the Farm and It’s Your Fault I’m Fat.

Charalambous is an experienced TV professional with knowledge of both the UK and International entertainment markets. He has been a member of the acquisitions team at UKTV since 2017 and is responsible for acquiring and investing in shows for the network’s seven channels as well as BBC Studios’ global channels.

With a focus on scripted programming, Charalambous helps shape the content acquisition strategies for UKTV’s dedicated drama channels, Alibi and Drama. His most recent deals include Father Brown spin-off series Sister Boniface Mysteries starring Lorna Watson, RTE’s Smother, hit nineteenth century crime drama Miss Scarlet and The Duke, Limetown, starring Jessica Biel and Stanley Tucci, and Beta Film’s best seller, Hudson & Rex.

Before joining UKTV, Charalambous was at Sky for seven years where he worked in the Programming and Acquisitions teams securing content for Sky Atlantic, Sky 1, Sky Arts and Sky Living. Prior to that he worked at Turner Broadcasting and Showtime.

Bob Clarke has more than 40-years’ experience creating, funding, and running media and entertainment properties, businesses and projects with Virgin Group, News Corp, Liberty Media, Chernin Entertainment and major brands in the EU, US and China, B2B and B2C.

Clarke established Samahoma in 2018 to develop and finance its own multiplatform entertainment projects, including an immersive multimedia rock show, a comedy series, a multi season crime drama, and an Esport tournament / channels business.

Through Samahoma Media Advisors, Clarke has arranged financing from Insight Media Fund and others for nine media properties since June 2020 including the multi-award nominated Boiling Point, starring Steven Graham, Sky Arts music doc Get Blitzed, feature films Ire and Renegades and a ground-breaking 4D VR free roaming experience just opened in the Midlands. Most recently he has financed and produced YA drama series Kensal Town.

Initially a live event and independent TV producer, Clarke’s first company was acquired by Virgin Group plc after which he created private satellite TV networks for BMW and 20 other corporations, launched two subscription TV channels for Sky, pioneered the UK’s largest out-of-home digital screen advertising network, and partnered with Liberty Media to do the same in the US and China.

In June of 2021, Clemens-who has overseen Paramount Television Studios since September 2018— added a new role to her portfolio as president of Paramount+ Original Scripted Series. In the new role, she programs the original hour and half hour scripted series for the recently launched streaming platform.

As president of Paramount Television Studios (PTVS), Clemens has overseen a robust slate of shows for buyers across multiple platforms. Looking ahead, highly-anticipated PTVS shows include seasons 3 & 4 of “Jack Ryan” for Amazon Prime; season 2 of “Made for Love” for HBO Max; “Shantaram” for Apple TV+; “American Gigolo” for Showtime; “Long Slow Exhale” for Charter and BET; “The Devil in the White City” for Hulu; and “Station Eleven” for HBO Max.

Upcoming Paramount+ projects under Clemens’ purview include season 3 of “Evil”; season 6 of “The Good Fight”; and the highly anticipated series “Halo.” Paramount+ will also debut several upcoming series such as “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies”; “Joe Pickett”; and the limited event series about the making of The Godfather, “The Offer.”

Previously, Clemens was a producer at Anonymous Content for film and television. Prior, Clemens was executive vice president and head of series development for FX Networks. Before that, Clemens was a partner and head of the Motion Picture Literary Department at ICM Partners. Prior to her tenure at ICM

Collie-Cousins is UKTV’s dedicated drama commissioner. Since joining in 2018, Collie-Cousins has commissioned the hit forensic series Traces – starring Martin Compston (Line of Duty) and Molly Windsor (3 Girls, Cheat) – and We Hunt Together – a thriller detective written by Gaby Hull (Cheat). Both are set to return for a second series each on UKTV’s specialist crime drama channel Alibi next year.

Also coming soon to the channel and commissioned by Collie-Cousins is The Diplomat – written by Ben Richards (Spooks, Cobra, The Tunnel) – and Ragdoll – a serial killer thriller based on the bestselling novel by Daniel Cole, co-commissioned with AMC, produced by Sid Gentle Films Ltd (the company behind Killing Eve), and starring Henry Lloyd-Hughes (The Irregulars, Killing Eve), Thalissa Teixeira (Trigonometry) and Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars).

Collie-Cousins’ recently launched commission Annika – a co-commission with US network Masterpiece based on the successful Radio 4 drama, starring Olivier-award-winner Nicola Walker (The Split, Unforgotten) – has become Alibi’s highest rating show ever with the launch episode consolidating to over 1.3 million viewers.

Prior to joining UKTV, Collie-Cousins was the head of drama development at Hartswood West, head of drama Development at Fresh One and head of production for BBC Series and Serials in BBC Indie Drama Commissioning. She won best European Director for her film Happy Now, starring Jonny Rhys Myer and Paddy Considine, and is the BAFTA-award winning director behind The Deadness of Dad starring Rhys Ifans.

In her role at BBC Studios, Connock has responsibility for an extensive formats catalogue of more than 300 titles, including popular entertainment brands such as Dancing with the Stars, The Great Bake Off and Top Gear, alongside scripted formats Luther, Doctor Foster and The Office. Prior to joining BBC Studios, Connock worked as Head of entertainment at ITV Studios in Manchester, where she was responsible for multiple formats including Countdown, University Challenge and You’ve Been Framed!, as well as creating and developing new formats including the hidden-camera magic show and Broadcast Digital Award winning Tricked (ITV2), returning daytime cookery format, Yes Chef and children’s quiz, Top Class (CBBC).

Connock has an extensive background in Entertainment, having previously spent three years as commissioning editor for Entertainment at BBC Daytime, where she oversaw output including Eggheads, Are You an Egghead?, Strictly It Takes Two and Through the Keyhole; and also as an Executive Producer in BBC Entertainment with credits including Just the Two of Us, The Big Finish with Graham Norton and Dear Father Christmas. Further credits include: Streetmate, The Big Breakfast, MTV Europe Music Awards, Dirty Sanchez, An Audience with the Spice Girls, Animals Do The Funniest Things and Blind Date.

Curtis is a script development executive for HBO Europe, original programming where she works on scripted drama and comedy across all the HBO Europe territories. She started her career in the industry working in production, before joining the drama development team at ITV Studios. During her ten years there she worked on a wide range of drama series including Shetland (BBC), White Heat (BBC2), The Jury (ITV) and Vera (ITV). Since joining HBO Europe in 2018 she has, alongside the local HBO Europe teams, worked closely with writers and producers on scripts in development in Spain, the Nordics and Central Europe. In the last couple of years she has stepped into the role of executive producer for HBO Europe and HBO Max on greenlit shows: Por H o Por B (Spain), Welcome to Utmark (Norway), Kamikaze (Denmark), The Informant (Hungary) and Lust (Sweden).

After several years in the corporate world, a wonderful mid-life crisis led Tran to become a screenwriter. A taste for diversity, but also reluctant to being labeled, he chose to explore different genres for television: Comedy, with Fais pas ci Fais pas ça (FTV), Kaboul Kitchen (C+) and Call my agent(FTV); Thriller, with The Bureau (C+) and Nox (C+); Supernatural and horror, with Goal of the Dead (C+) Intrusion (Arte) and Marianne (Netflix).

Two TV series he has created are presently undergoing production/post-production: The Drops of God, an adaptation of the manga about oenology produced by Legendary TV and Dynamic television for FTV/Hulu Japan, and Parallèles, a teen sci-fi series produced by Empreinte Digitale & Daïmôn Films for Disney+.

He is currently developing two supernatural/horror projects for Bad Robot and Warner Media, and recently started his own production company – Daïmôn Films.

In June 2016, Darke founded True to Nature Ltd (TTN), a Bristol-based independent production company specialising in innovative, premium nature and Children’s nature productions, including Sky Nature – Shark with Steve Backshall 4 x 60’ series and Sky Kids, Sharks Up Close with Steve Backshall, 10 x 10’, premiering in November 2021.

Since its launch, TTN has secured over 19 commissions, consisting of 206 programmes, many of which have been viewed 160+ territories worldwide.

These include three series of the successful Sky Kids – Dreamflight and CBeebies – Garden Tales series which successfully premiered in Spring 2021.  Following on from the success of the first CBBC – One Zoo Three series, is a new 26 x 22’ series set for release in 2022.

Darke was the head of the BBC Natural History Unit (NHU) for four years and prior to that an NHU EP for over 7 years, responsible for delivering over 1,000 nature programmes, including the double BAFTA-winning Deadly 60 with Steve Backshall and Broadcast-winner for CBeebies – Andy’s Wild Adventures.

Darke and her TTN team aspire to deliver world-class productions with innovation and great story telling at their heart, creating life-long relationships between people of all ages, and nature.

De Maio recently launched De Maio Entertainment, a premium content company specialising in production, sales, and strategic advisory backed by Fremantle, the global production and distribution powerhouse.

De Maio was previously partner and EVP at Endeavor Content, where he was instrumental in the launch and growth of the company, working across multiple award-winning shows including Killing Eve, The Night Manager, and Normal People.

Prior to Endeavor Content, De Maio was president of production at the Dino De Laurentiis Company where he was an executive on the NBC series Hannibal and a producer across its film slate.

Deakin began her career as a freelance journalist before moving into producing and directing TV documentaries and arts programmes. She joined the Arts and Music department of Channel 4 in 1999 as editor, arts and animation, where she met Ruth Fielding, with whom she would go on to found Lupus Films in November 2001.

Over the last 20 years, Camilla has produced a number of animated and live-action films and series for all the major UK broadcasters, which have gone on to be distributed in over 150 territories worldwide.  Most recently Camilla produced BAFTA-nominated specials The Snowman and The Snowdog and We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and the International Emmy Award-winning The Tiger Who Came to Tea.  In 2016 Camilla produced her first feature film, Ethel & Ernest, based on the bestselling graphic novel by Raymond Briggs.

Camilla heads up Lupus Films’ feature film slate which includes an animated adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s best-selling novel Kensuke’s Kingdom, a feature film about the life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, Las Dos Fridas, and an adaptation of the best-selling Molesworth books written by Geoffrey Willans and illustrated by Ronald Searle. Camilla is also one of the producers of romantic-comedy A Christmas Number One for Sky Cinema.

Degroote currently serves as EVP, content development for French leading network TF1 Group.

He is responsible for commissioning, developing or creating and overseeing the new shows for the three TF1 Group national channels: TF1, TMC and TFX and the digital platform MyTF1. His credits include: The Masked Singer, Ninja Warrior, Star Academy, The Wheel, Tattoo Fixers, 1,000+ daily shows including docu-soap Large Families.

Degroote is also in charge of spotting the best ideas and trends around the world as head of scouting (scripted and alternative).

Prior to joining TF1 in 2014, Degroote has been a TV producer for 12 years. As head of programs in the French independent TV production company Coyote, he managed 200 hours of TV shows produced each year and multi-million budget for TF1 in different genres: Family Feud, Four in a Bed, People’s Quiz, 30 plus live entertainment prime time shows.

Previously, Degroote served as creative senior executive of Endemol France working on Big Brother, Star Academy and overseeing the adaptation of The Celebrities’ Farm.

Degree in Business Administration and Management (UC3M, 2011), Master’s Degree in Direction of the Audiovisual Company (UC3M, 2011) and Master’s Degree in Management of the Audiovisual Company (EAE, 2015). Since 2011 he has been working at Atresmedia Televisión, where he currently holds the position of manager of fiction content, overseeing the search, launch and development of the original fictions of Series Atresmedia, mainly for ATRESplayer Premium, the group’s SVOD platform. In addition, he has also developed a teaching work being a professor of several master’s degrees and programs in different universities and audiovisual business schools.

Devereaux joined the Disney+ EMEA team in 2019 as director of scripted content, commissioning drama and comedy for Disney+ and Star. Among the forthcoming series she is overseeing are Sally Wainwright’s Disney+ series The Ballad of Renegade Nell, produced by Lookout Point; J Blakeson’s Star Original heist series Culprits, produced by Stephen Garrett; and Star comedy series Extraordinary, from new writer Emma Moran and Sid Gentle Films.

Prior to this role Devereaux served as director of development for ABC Studios International, responsible for establishing the studio’s first scripted strategy outside of North America and building a slate across EMEA and APAC. She oversaw series including Harrow, starring Ioan Gruffudd, from Hoodlum Entertainment; and The Gloaming, by Vicky Madden, starring Emma Booth and Ewen Leslie.

Before joining Disney, Devereaux worked in IP and underlying rights at Curtis Brown and as a development executive in the independent production sector.

Downing is SVP marketing and head of factual & docs, Discovery UK & Eire, overseeing content strategy for Discovery, Quest and discovery+. He is focussed on ambitious factual formats and documentary series, with recent commissions including The Men Who Sold The World Cup, Richard Hammond’s Workshop, The Secrets of the Salisbury Poisonings, and Peter Crouch: Save our Beautiful Game.

He has led Discovery’s factual and doc portfolio to grow by 12% in 2020, making it the best year ever. Downing was also instrumental in the launch of Quest in 2009 and has led it to record successive growth, last year becoming the number one non-PSB-owned channel for men. Quest is also the largest and fastest-growing channel within the Discovery UK portfolio.

In 2019, he successfully led the transition of DMAX as a free-to-air brand, strengthening Discovery’s factual and entertainment offering. In 2016, he took over leadership of Eurosport UK which has been supercharged under the ownership of Discovery, signing landmark deals including the Pay-TV rights for the Olympic Games till 2024.

Downing joined Discovery in 2008 as the vice president of marketing, heading the UK consumer marketing strategy and brand development across Benelux, Germany, the Nordics and Southern Europe.

Doyle is the director of unscripted for Original Productions in EMEA. He is responsible for commissioning original unscripted content for Disney+ and Star.

Prior to joining Disney, Doyle was deputy head of features & formats at Channel 4 from 2019. As well as commissioning for C4 he was responsible for More4 where he set the editorial vision for the channel, which led to More4 being nominated for Channel of the Year for the first time in its history in 2020, as well as commissioning the channel’s most successful ratings programme ever in Matt Baker: Our Farm in the Dales.

Previous to this, Doyle was commissioning editor for Channel 5 from June 2015 until December 2018. During his time working for Ben Frow as the channel grew its ratings and reputation including an Edinburgh TV Award for Channel of the Year, he was responsible for a number of long running and successful series as well as being the commissioner behind the channel’s successful reboot of Blind Date.

Before this, Doyle was head of development for BBC daytime, features & formats where he created the likes of RTS nominated Blitz Cities.

Highly esteemed TV industry leader, Dungey serves as chairman, Warner Bros Television Group. In this role, she has creative responsibility for all of Warner Bros’ unrivalled television production activities, including scripted and unscripted programming for streaming services, cable, and the U.S. broadcast networks. As of May 2022, the studio is producing more than 100 series.

Select signature shows include Warner Bros Television’s global hit comedy Ted Lasso, new breakout comedy hit Abbott Elementary, All American, All Rise, Animal Kingdom, Bob♥Abishola, The Cleaning Lady, The Flash, The Flight Attendant, Gossip Girl, Kung Fu, Lucifer, Maid, Manifest, Peacemaker, Queen Sugar, Riverdale, The Sex Lives of College Girls, Shining Vale, Superman & Lois, Sweet Tooth, Westworld, You, and Young Sheldon, plus Warner Bros. Unscripted Television’s The Bachelor franchise (including The Bachelorette and Bachelor in Paradise), Paris in Love, The Voice (U.S.), and more. Upcoming series include Bad Monkey, Mrs. Davis, Night Court, Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, The Sandman, Shrinking, and The Wheel, among many others.

Dungey was previously vice president of original series at Netflix. Before that, she was president, ABC Entertainment, after working in drama development at ABC and ABC Studios. She was a partner at Dexterity Pictures and president of film production company Material, after five years as a Warner Bros Pictures production executive.

Eaton is a founding director of Go People Productions Ltd, a theatre production company that focuses on joyful escapism on an intimate scale. The company also runs luxury service Revels in Hand, which takes West End quality productions into a client’s own home or private space. Revels in Hand is partnered with the Shangri-La Hotel at the Shard, the Club at the Ivy, House of St Barnabas and Consensio Chalets.

Eaton is also a podcast producer and host. In early 2021 she launched Hear Me Out, an interview show in which note-able actors discuss their favourite speech. The first series of featured guests such as Patricia Hodge, Adrian Lester, Brendan Coyle and Denise Gough and was recommended by Vanity Fair, The Times and OK! Magazine. Before that Eaton was the co-creator of The Thing About That, a modern feminist’s exploration of wedding planning that was hailed by the BBC as “fascinating!” and “really cool”.

As an actress, credits include: Staged (BBC), Murder Maps (Netflix), A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Trafalgar Studios), The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui (Donmar Warehouse) and Daisy Pulls it Off (Park Theatre).

Eckersley became a household name playing the role of Polly in 4 O’Clock Club for CBBC. She trained from the age of six with Gary Lloyd’s Studio and StepUp performing arts appearing in 2010 in Selena Gomez’s clothing launch and fashion show Dream Out Loud. She then continued her training at the Sylvia Young Theatre School and during this time worked on a number of projects including recordings for Island Records and SYCO. Eckersley subsequently spent two years on CBBC’s live Ultimate Glee Club before spending five years on 4 O’Clock Club, where she also sang the theme tune. Eckersley recently appeared as Princess Jasmine in Aladdin for Qdos, and as herself in Top Class Celebrity Special for the BBC . Her most recent role is Ximena in the Young Adult drama series Kensal Town, due for release in 2022.

Edkins is a South African documentary filmmaker and producer based in Cape Town. He has produced various documentary film projects that have been broadcast around the world, such as Steps for the Future, Why Democracy? and Why Poverty? earning multiple international awards including an Oscar for Taxi to the Dark Side, and the Special Teddy Award at the 63rd Berlinale for Steps for the Future. The Peabody awarded Why Poverty? project, with 8 long and 34 short documentary films from 28 countries, was screened globally by 70 broadcasters. He is currently producing a collection of 25 documentary films from across Africa on the theme of migration, and is Executive Producer of AfriDocs, the first weekly primetime documentary strand across sub-Saharan Africa. He has co-authored a book with Iikka Vehkalahti on documentary filmmaking, Steps by Steps.

As senior VP international fiction – coproduction and acquisition, Emmelius is responsible for the ZDF company with its entities ZDF main channel, ZDFneo (entertainment channel for a younger target audience 25-50 years), 3sat (cultural channel, target audience German speaking territories), arte (cultural channel, target audience Germany and France), and funk (nonlinear program offer, target audience 14-29 years). Until May 2018, she was SVP ZDFneo, responsible for one of the top 10 channels in Germany, basically focused on drama, crime, and comedy series, feature films and on entertainment programs (e.g. neoMagazin Royale / Jan Böhmermann). From 1987 to 2009, Emmelius was in charge in various functions for the strategic development of the upcoming digital market activities of ZDF, setting up digital channels and initial interactive programs. After her studies of literature, economy and film in Mainz and Konstanz (degrees: M.A. and Dr. phil.) accompanied by several freelance contracts for ZDF, SWR, Südkurier and FAZ, she started her career in ZDF as a trainee, and later on as an editor in the Social Affairs department.

Writer, director, and co-creator Evans’ theatre directing credits include the inaugural season at Found111, productions for West End playhouses including the Donmar Warehouse and the Trafalgar Studios, and international venues including Dublin’s Smock Alley and the Goodman Theatre, Chicago. His writing credits include The Vanishing Man and The Extinction Event (w. David Aula), Bait and Seven Actor Dream. Evans was resident assistant director at the Donmar Warehouse, staff director at the National Theatre and creative associate at the Bush. He is a founding director of Myriad & Co., writing and creating work for clients including Disney, Microsoft, Lexus, BMW, Bombay Sapphire, Johnnie Walker Blue Label and currently Warner Bros.

Award-winning founder and president of Media Ranch, Ferron has 30+ years’ experience, including a decade as format giant Endemol’s exclusive sales agent in French Canada. Co-based between Los Angeles and Montreal, Ferron is a second-generation producer, helped pioneer the unscripted format business in North America and leads Media Ranch in the creation and sale of unscripted format IP, solidifying its worldwide expertise status. Internationally, Ferron speaks often at major industry events such as MIPCOM, Content London, Content LA, Realscreen Summit and others.
Ferron is an Advisory Board member of FRAPA (Format Rights and Protection Association); an elected member of the International Emmys (IATAS), and a Rose d’Or and International Emmy Awards juror.
During her career Ferron sat on the board of directors of Quebec’s SODEC; was a Banff World Media Festival French Advisory board member and former president, Association des Studios d’enregistrement du Québec. Prior to creating Media Ranch in 2008, Ferron held senior management positions with TQS, Technicolor and Astral Media.

Flint is a freelance critic and writer who has been covering film and culture for nearly a decade. She is the cohost of MTV Movies with bylines at GQ, Empire, the Guardian, Elle US, Sight & Sound, Front Row, Radio Times, BBC Culture and elsewhere. She cohosts of the weekly film review podcast Fade To Black, cofounded The First Film Club event series and is a member of London’s Critics’ Circle.

Flynn serves on the creative leadership team for Wiip, an independent, global, digital, talent-driven studio. In this position, Flynn focuses on international drama and plays an integral role in the studio’s efforts to identify, develop and produce projects for the cable, streaming, domestic and international marketplace.

Flynn’s emphasis is to find great storytellers from around the world and shepherd their projects for global audiences. Flynn oversees a deep slate of projects for the studio and is an executive producer on Arthur Mathews and Matt Berry’s Toast of Tinseltown for the BBC. Flynn also works on projects with Alexander Payne, David Milch, Vikram Motwane and Anne Sewitsky to name a few.

Previously, Flynn served as EVP of international strategy at Paramount TV. Prior to that, Flynn spent 11 years as an agent at UTA, where he built up a robust international business with filmmakers including Baran do Odar and Jantje Friese (Dark), Zal Batmanglij (The OA), Thomas Bidegain (Un Prophète), László Nemes (Son of Saul), Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty), Saverio Costanzo (My Brilliant Friend), Rupert Wyatt (The Escapist), Andrey Zvyagintsev (The Return), Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene) and Bart Layton (American Animals).

Foad is the writer, creator and executive producer of an upcoming UKTV sitcom, and has also written for BBC3’s The Young Offenders, Channel 4’s The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice and Comedy Central’s The Motherf*cking Pep Talk.

As an actor, he stars alongside Taika Waititi and Rhys Darby as Lucius Spriggs in HBO Max’s pirate comedy Our Flag Means Death. He also plays Spencer in Bloods on Sky/Hulu, opposite Samson Kayo and Jane Horrocks.

Fratto is an award-winning executive producer with an international track record in TV development, programming and production, as well as feature films.  He is co-Founder of the recently launched production company Cognito Entertainment.

Fratto recently ran the scripted department for The History Channel, overseeing hit shows like Vikings and Project Blue Book, and supervised drama for Pukeko Pictures (affiliate to New Zealand’s Weta group). He has produced TV series including Cleverman, Haven and Greek.

Freeland is a renowned producer and executive producer. He has been head of original programmes at Sky, held head of comedy posts at the BBC and was controller of drama, entertainment and comedy for BBC Studios. He has also worked at production companies such as Hartswood Films and Working Title Television.

Throughout his career he has worked on some of the biggest shows on UK television including Top Gear and Doctor Who. He has collaborated with some of the biggest names in UK comedy including Armando Iannucci, Matt Lucas & David Walliams, Miranda Hart, Julia Davies, James Corden, Catherine Tate, Brian Cox, Stephen Fry, Rob Brydon, Dawn French, Ricky Gervais and may more.

Dodger is his latest venture and the first project under his deal with Universal International Studios as Executive Producer. Freeland also served as executive producer on recent hit music comedy We Are Lady Parts for Channel 4 and Peacock.

Garvie is president of international production at Sony Pictures Television (SPT) and oversees SPT’s global network of production companies outside the US, covering Europe, Asia, Latin America and Australia. The 21 wholly-owned or joint venture production companies within the business deliver both original and formatted content for local broadcasters in their markets, and create nearly 1,500 hours of entertainment around the world each year. He is also responsible for driving creative development within international production, steering the business to develop locally created properties into global formats and fostering co-developments across the group.

Garvie joined SPT in June 2012 and reports to Ravi Ahuja, chairman, Global Television Studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment Corporate Development. He joined SPT from All3MEDIA, where he was managing director, international production with special responsibility for the company’s growth in the US. Previously, Garvie was managing director for content & production at BBC Worldwide, responsible for establishing the corporation’s global network of production companies and overseeing its international formats business. Prior to that role, he was head of entertainment group for the BBC, where his teams were behind shows like Strictly Come Dancing and Dragons’ Den. Garvie also held senior positions in UK broadcasting, including director of broadcasting for Granada.

Garvie holds a First Class Honours degree and Honorary DLitt from the University of Kent and is both a PhD in Economic History and Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Sheffield.

Gatiss has had a long and varied career as a writer and director as well as being an award-winning actor.

His early career saw him co-write and star in The League of Gentlemen and more recently he co-wrote and executive produced the multi-award-winning Sherlock for the BBC as well as writing episodes of Doctor Who and the critically acclaimed An Adventure in Space and Time for the show’s 50^th Annivesary.  He is also the co-creator of the BBC’s recent adaption of Dracula and has written and presented several documentaries about horror.

His passion for ghost stories has seen him write and direct a number of MR James’ adaptations for the BBC including the forthcoming The Mezzotin’ with Adorable Media with whom he has also worked on the forthcoming The Amazing Mr Blunden for Sky.  Both of these are due to air at Christmas.

Ghettuba is Netflix’s manager of African series. In May 2019, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta appointed her to chair the Kenya Film Commission for a three year period. Ghettuba has been tasked with working with African creatives to tell and take African stories to the rest of the world. Joining Netflix over two years ago, she has looked after the growing Netflix portfolio of local language original series programming for scripted series in the Sub-Saharan Africa region. Ghettuba is dedicated to developing creative talent, creating quality content and telling authentic African stories that resonate and engage audiences.

Though NYC will always be home, Glass resides in Los Angeles. He is a TV Writer/Executive Producer of such shows as Supernatural, Cold case, Criminal Minds, The Chi, Barksins, and Jupiter’s Legacy.

When Glass is not writing for TV or films, he’s writing graphic novels for Marvel Comics’, Deadpool Suicide Kings & DC Comics, Suicide Squad 1 & 2, were all NY Times best sellers and introduced Harley Quinn to the team. Along with his recent critically acclaimed two-year run-on DC Comics, Teen Titans. Glass also has a foot in the independent market with creator-owned titles from Aftershock Comics such as Rough Riders, The Normals, Lollipop Kids, and Mary Shelley Monster Hunter, which is being developed by BBC Studios.

Glass is currently the showrunner of a new Netflix show he created called In From the Cold. IFTC wrapped production in Madrid, Spain in the spring of 2021 and will premiere first quarter of 2022 on Netflix.

Glynn is an award-winning producer and writer. He has worked with such directors as Academy Award Winners Juan José Campanella and Marleen Gorris, Oscar Nominees Agnieszka Holland, Mike Leigh and David O. Russell. Actors in his productions include Academy Award winners Christoph Waltz, Judi Dench and Leonardo di Caprio. He is a former senior executive at Sony and Pearson and for many years was CEO of Portman Entertainment, one of the UK’s leading independent film and television producers and distributors. In addition to writing and producing films and TV he teaches part time at Oxford University. He is currently producing The Chelsea Cowboy starring Alex Pettyfer and Poppy Delevingne.

Glynn is a producer & writer with 8 features credits over the last five years including Mad to be Normal (David Tennant and Elisabeth Moss), The Doorman (Ruby Rose), Waiting for Anya (Noah Schnapp, Jean Reno and Anjelica Huston) and You, Me and Him. He recently formed Infinity Hill alongside Argentine producer Axel Kuschevatzky. He is developing works by Lawrence Osborne, Graham Greene and Craig Clevenger. Infinity Hill’s first English language feature, The Doorman, was released in the US by Lionsgate, their first Spanish language feature El Profugo played in competition at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival and is Argentina’s submission for the 2022 Academy Awards. Infinity Hill are currently in production on two Amazon originals, a documentary for Discovery + and have just wrapped a feature film called A Bit of Light that stars Academy Award winner Anna Paquin, Ray Winstone, Pippa Bennet-Warner & Youssef Kerkour.

Goddard is a podcast producer and sound designer specialising in scripted podcasts & radio including The Sink (BBC Sounds), Tech Tech Boom (BBC Sounds), Eastenders: The Podcast (BBC Sounds), Wooden Overcoats, Armstrong and Miller: Timeghost (Hat Trick Podcasts) and Lasties (BBC R4). He is also a composer and sound designer for immersive theatre installations for companies such as Rogue, Shotgun Carousel and Warner Bros.

A co-founder of Ark Media, Goodman’s films have been nominated for an Academy Award and won multiple Emmy and Peabody Awards, the RFK Journalism Prize, and three times been official selections at the Sundance Film Festival. Barak’s most recent film is Slay the Dragon with Participant and Magnolia Films. His credits include Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation; Oklahoma City; My Lai, and Scottsboro, Gene: An Intimate History, and its prequel, Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies, both based on books by Siddhartha Mukherjee and executive produced by Ken Burns. He also directed or co-directed six films for the PBS series Frontline, including the Peabody Award-winning Lost Children of Rockdale County and the Columbia Du-Pont winning series Failure To Protect.  Founded in 1996 by filmmakers Barak Goodman and Rachel Dretzin, and joined by fellow partner and filmmaker John Maggio in 2003, Ark Media produces both feature documentaries, and over 30 hours of television/streaming content a year for such outlets as HBO, PBS, Participant, Netflix, MSNBC, History, NatGeo, AMC, and more. Ark’s films have premiered at Sundance, Tribeca, DocNYC, and other major film festivals.

Gråbøl was born in 1968 and is one of the most popular actresses in Denmark. Gråbøl drew considerable attention with the Danish film EARLY SPRING, directed by Astrid Henning-Jensen in 1986. She achieved international recognition for the lead role as investigator Sarah Lund in all three seasons of the BAFTA awarded crime series THE KILLING. For her performance, she was nominated for the International Emmys in the category Best Performance by an Actress in 2008 and was honored as Outstanding Actress in a TV Drama Series at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival in 2013 and Best Actress at Crime Thriller Awards UK in 2011.

Her latest on-screen performances include the horror film THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT by Lars von Trier (2018), all three seasons of the British thriller series FORTITUDE (2015-2018), the historical drama series GENTLEMAN JACK (2019) and the BBC One comedy drama US (2020), which is based on the book “Us” by David Nicholls and adapted by him for the screen. In the same year, Gråbøl starred next to Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant in the American mystery psychological thriller miniseries THE UNDOING (2020).

In her home country Denmark, Gråbøl was awarded twice with the major Film Award Bodil and several times with the Robert-Award, the Danish Film prize.

Gustafsson has more than thirty years’ experience within the film, TV and advertising indus-try. Since September 2020, he has been working at TV4 Media as director of scripted content for the Nordic territory. Gustafsson has also been running Black Spark Film & TV since March 2016, a film and television company mainly focusing on development and production of local originals. He has recently produced “TIGERS” by Ronnie Sandahl and “LAMB” featuring Noomi Rapace. Previously Gustafsson produced STHLM Requiem, Moscow Noir, The Wife and The Snowman among other series and films. Before this, he used to work for the Swedish national broadcaster SVT as head of pro-gramming and commissioning editor for drama series, culture, feature films and documentaries and was also member of SVT’s board of directors. Examples of programmes commissioned by Piodor are: “The Bridge”, “Real Humans”, “Anno 1790”, “The Condemned”, “Death of a Pilgrim” and many more. Previous to SVT Piodor was for four years a Commissioning Feature Film
Consultant at the Swedish Film Institute. He was involved in the films LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, THE KING OF PING PONG, METROPIA, IN A BETTER WORLD, THE GIRL WITH A DRAGON TATTOO, BURROW-ING, BEYOND etc.

Gérardin started her TV career at WGBH-Boston. She spent four years in Los Angeles for the acquisitions of French network TF1. After 7 years at TF1 and TF1 Consulting, she managed programs and acquisitions at French channels TV Breizh, TPS Jeunesse, and for the launch of kid broascaster Gulli. In 2005, she joined producers on developing drama and innovative tv series, and turned to creative writing with her first detective TV series (created with 2 co-writers) broadcast in France in 2015.

She joined CANAL+ International in 2015 as head of drama to develop and coproduce original premium tv series, with a focus on the African Continent. She holds a MBA from Boston College Carroll School of Management, and an MBA from French Graduate Business School Sup de Co Reims (NEOMA Group)

Haapkylä is an internationally renowned actress and producer. Her acting career has spanned over four decades, and she has been the winner of multiple Jussi Awards (Finnish Academy Awards) and international awards, including a Shooting Star. Some of her most memorable roles include The Interrogation, FC Venus, Deadwind and Maria Kallio. Since 2018, she has been the head of scripted at Rabbit Films. Haapkylä is currently producing two feature films and two international TV series, including Mobile 101, the upcoming drama series about the rise and fall of Nokia.

Harriman is a major talent whose strong reportage style and unique eye for narrative has captured the attention of editors and art buyers around the world.

From documenting historic moments in history, most recently the Black Lives Matter movement in London, to photographing high profile people, including Jay Z, Dakota Johnson, Tom Cruise, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Kate Winslet, Idris Elba, Regina King, Lewis Hamilton, Michelle Dockery, George & Amal Clooney and Olivia Colman, Harriman is a photographer of extraordinary range. His commissions include advertising and PR stills for film studios, royal, private and high profile portraiture as well as reportage documenting and covering behind the scenes at major awards, music festivals and film sets.

Harriman’s striking images have featured in Vanity Fair, British Vogue, British GQ, Harpers Bazaar, People Magazine and The Telegraph among others. In 2020 Harriman became the first black man to shoot the cover of British Vogue’s September issue. He was selected as a GQ Hero, giving the keynote speech at the GQ Heroes event. Harriman was recently appointed chair at The Southbank Centre.

Harris is an award-winning, BAFTA nominated writer from Dublin. She is the creator, writer and executive producer of the upcoming comedy drama series The Dry directed by Paddy Breathnach (Element Films for Britbox, RTE). She wrote two episodes of the channel 4 series Dates for Balloon/C4, starring Sheridan Smith for which she was nominated for BAFTA TV Breakthrough Talent Award. Her other television credits include Secret Diary of a Call Girl (ITV/Showtime/ Tiger Aspect) for which she wrote the series finale and Cuffs for BBC1/ Tiger Aspect.

Harris also writes extensively for the theatre.  Her most recent plays include Two Ladies at the Bridge Theatre, London directed by Nicholas Hytner and The Beacon at The Gate Theatre, Dublin directed by Garry Hynes. She has written the book and lyrics, along with composer Marc Teitler, for a new musical of The Magician’s Elephant (based on the book by Kate diCamillo) now playing at the Royal Shakespeare Company. She received The Rooney Prize for Irish Literature for her plays No Romance and Our New Girl in 2012.

As director of original productions at Sky, Hartmann has overseen the making of in-ternational TV series such as the Gomorrah franchise, the political trilogy 1992, 1993 and 1994, The Young Pope by Academy award winner Paolo Sorrentino as well as its successor, The New Pope (starring Jude Law and John Malko-vich), ZeroZeroZero by Gomorrah showrunner Stefano Sollima, Devils starring Patrick Dempsey and Alessandro Borghi, Domina starring Kasia Smutniak along with an interna-tional cast; up next will be the last much awaited chapter of Gomorrah – the series, Il re the first italian prison drama series with Luca Zingaretti, Christian a super-natural- crime drama; and many original projects are currently in development under his watch.

With 25 years’ experience in tv production under his belt, Hartmann (who is currently also exec producer of the Italian editions of X Factor, Masterchef and Italia’s Got Talent), joined Sky Italia back in 2003 for its launch in the role of creative director, after helping set up the Studio Universal movie channel as Creative Manager in Rome, where he had previously started out as Promo Producer at Orbit Network upon succesfully completing a Master at the London International Film School. Born in Hannover, Germany in 1967, Nils grew up in Milan, Italy, and is now mainly based there again, working out of Sky’s Italian Hq.

Hartmann, born in Osnabrück in 1963, is a European theatre and opera director, among others at La Scala Milano, Opera Paris, and the Burgtheater Vienna, the latter of which he also was the director of from 2009 to 2014. In recent years he has been increasingly active in television. He is creator of the series Trakehener Blut and Gestüt Hochstetten (ARD) and was head of Austrian TV broadcaster ServusTV. Currently, as creative director of content development, he develops series for Red Bull Media House, including The Net. Together with Moritz von Kruedener, he is managing director of the Red Bull/Beta joint venture Das Netz GmbH.

In 1982, Hasselhoff landed in primetime for one of the most recognizable roles of his career, that of Michael Knight on the hit series Knight Rider. In 1989, he returned to TV to produce and star in Baywatch, which became the most watched show in TV history; Hasselhoff himself remains a fixture in The Guinness Book of World Records as the most watched actor in the history of television. He also appeared as a judge on America’s Got Talent and Britain’s Got Talent. His TV series, Hoff the Record, won the International Emmy Award.  

Film credits include Sharknado, Kung Fury, the Spongebob Square Pants Movie, Click, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Hop and Marvel’s original Nick Fury: Agent of Shield, Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 (and also performs the end title song, Guardians Inferno, especially written for him by James Gunn), and Killing Hasselhoff, which he produced.  

His album, Open Your Eyes garnered rave reviews.  The album features collaborations with a stellar cast of backup musicians.  Hasselhoff also completed a sell-out multi-city concert tour in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.  

Currently celebrating the highest chart entry of his illustrious music career with his brand new album Party Your Hasselhoff, an album he has produced which everybody can sing and dance along. 

He also stars and serves as executive producer for the new, dark, action-comedy series Ze Network produced by Syrreal Entertainment and CBS Studios for TVNOW.  

Henry is the head of content strategy & acquisitions for WarnerMedia’s kids brands and platforms in EMEA.

In this role he oversees the curation of the kids and family content pipeline for HBO Max, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Cartoonito and Boing working closely with WarnerMedia’s global studio and content teams as well as with independent producers and distributors across EMEA.

Henry joined WarnerMedia in 2016. Prior to this he spent the previous 10 years working in programming roles at Disney and Channel 4.

Hirst was born in Bradford, Yorkshire, England in 1952. He attended Bradford Grammar School, The London School of Economics, Nottingham University and Trinity College, Oxford. He has been a professional writer since 1980.

Film scripts include: Fools of Fortune, starring Julie Christie, produced by Working Title, 1990.; The Ballad of the Sad Café, starring Vanessa Redgrave and produced by Merchant-Ivory, 1992; Meeting Venus, directed by Istvan Szabo, starring Glen Close, 1993; Elizabeth, starring Cate Blanchette, produced by Working Title, 1996. Television series include: The Tudors, for Showtime, 4 Seasons, 37 episodes, 2006-2009; Vikings, for MGM and History, 6 Seasons, 89 episodes, 2012-2021.

Hirst lives near Oxford. He and his wife, Deb, a painter, have 9 children between them.

Holland became director of factual, arts and classical music in April 2021. As director, factual, arts and classical music, Holland is heading up a new, fully integrated commissioning powerhouse for factual, arts and classical music television. The new structure, put in place in April 2021, will bring new opportunities for collaboration and programming of scale to help grow BBC iPlayer and bring specialist depth, modern storytelling and ambition across this new expanded genre.
Previously, from March 2017 he was Channel Controller of BBC Two, following his earlier appointment as channel editor in July 2016.

During his time at BBC Two he oversaw the revitalisation of the channel as a vital cultural force, re-inventing history and documentary output and creating a raft of factual entertainment successes. Under his leadership the channel built an unparalleled pipeline of series that graduated to BBC One, finding even bigger audiences and impact.BBC Two won the channel of the year awards in 2020 and 2021 at the Edinburgh TV Awards and Broadcast Awards. Prior to joining BBC Two, Patrick was Head of Commissioning, Documentaries, leading one of the biggest commissioning teams at the BBC, responsible for a huge range of output across all channels.

Hyams is the head of originals for YouTube in EMEA where he oversees all original program-ming across the region. At YouTube Hyams has been responsible for a wide range of cross-genre pro-gramming, including Raise your Game with Gareth Southgate and Seat at the Table with Sir David At-tenborough and Jack Harries. Before joining the Google owned video platform, Hyams was director of global content at The Walt Disney Co where he worked with the worlds best digital creators and leg-acy Disney brands to create original digital franchises for a variety of platforms. Hyams has spent time in Asia partnering with brands to produce web-series and micro-movies and before that worked ex-tensively as a writer and director creating award-winning interactive series including “Dubplate Drama,” and ‘Katemodern’, for which he earned the Broadcast Press Guild award for innovation.

As director original production scripted, Jastfelder is responsible for commissioning all fic-tional in-house and co-productions for Sky Deutschland, both nationally and internationally. He joined the Unterföhring-based pay-TV provider at the end of 2010, having previously worked for several years as a freelance filmmaker for non-scripted formats and documentaries. He has been active in the German film and television business for 25 years.

Jennings is founder, chairman and president of Shaftesbury, a content company known for innovative storytelling and hugely successful productions both in Canada and internationally. Spanning the production of TV, feature film and digital content, Shaftesbury titles are sold in over 180 countries worldwide. Primetime projects include acclaimed international hits Murdoch Mysteries, Frankie Drake Mysteries, Hudson & Rex, Departure and ReGenesis. Digital projects include the global phenomenon Carmilla (created through a branded partnership with U by Kotex/Kimberly-Clark) and the queer sports comedy Slo Pitch, recently acquired by IFC for a second season.

Shaftesbury’s slate of kids and family programming includes global hit Life With Derek, as well as the upcoming series Ruby and the Well for BYUtv and WildBrain.

Jennings currently serves as chair of the Canadian Film Centre’s Board of Directors. In 2019, she was appointed to the prestigious Order of Canada.

Before launching The Immigrant, Jiminez Villa was co-president and chief content officer of Fusion Media Group (FMG), overseeing the Fusion Television Network and a portfolio comprised of 15 digital brands reaching 100+M monthly unique visitors, which included household names such as Gizmodo, Jezebel, The Root, and The Onion. While at FMG, Jiminez Villa launched FMG Studios and Story House, the group’s premium original content division, which went on to create Netflix hits such as El Chapo and Murder Mountain.

Prior to FMG, Jimenez Villa served as vice president of CEO projects at Univision Communications Inc. (UCI) and was co-founder and managing director at Cut the Papaya, an independent film production company that won 20+ awards and participated in 100+ international film festivals.

Jiminez Villa holds an M.B.A in Strategy and Finance from NYU Stern, a postgraduate degree in Film Directing from The National Film and Television School in the U.K., and a BA in Communication from IULM in Milan, Italy.

Jones initially began in the animation business working in events (Cardiff International Animation Festival, British Animation Awards) and then moved into production as a film editor on animated TV shows (The Cramp Twins, Captain Pugwash) before becoming a full-time script writer. He has written across the age ranges for television, audio, and online on series such as Peter Rabbit, Molly and Mack, School of Roars, Dennis and Gnasher, Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch, Doctor Who and many others.

Superna Kalle is president of international networks for Starz.

Kalle reports directly to Starz president and CEO Jeffrey Hirsch and is based in the company’s Santa Monica office. Kalle leads the international expansion of Starz-branded digital and linear services and channels, including Lionsgate+, overseeing strategy and operations.

Most recently, Kalle was a senior advisor to several media companies guiding them on international SVoD strategy, digital operations, restructuring and global business development. Major clients included Starz, Lionsgate and CBS/Showtime.

Kalle spent 16 years at Sony Pictures Television (SPT) where she served as senior vice president and GM, Networks. Based out of SPT’s headquarters in Culver City, CA., Kalle oversaw the company’s television networks portfolio and equity investments in the U.S. and Canada. For the U.S., she launched and served as general manager of the wholly-owned Sony networks, Sony Movie Channel, SPT’s first multi-platform television network; Cine Sony Television, SPT’s Spanish language movie network; and getTV, the Company’s first digital subchannel dedicated to classic programming. Kalle also served on the board of other popular cable and digital channels, including GSN (Game Show Network, LLC) and fearNET (a joint venture with Lionsgate and Comcast). In Canada, Kalle oversaw SPT’s partnership with Hollywood Suite, which carried the Sony Movie Channel brand.

Keelan is the VP for original productions in EMEA. He is responsible for commissioning original content across all genres for Disney + and Star. Prior to joining Disney, Keelan was the director of scripted at BBC Worldwide from 2014. He led the team responsible for securing and developing drama, comedy and children’s content from BBC Television, UK and overseas indies.

Previous to this, Keelan was controller, BBC Daytime and Early Peak from February 2008. Under his tenure, the schedule was revamped, with an emphasis on drama, consumer/current affairs and event-led programming.  His commissions included the Jimmy McGovern drama Moving On, quiz show Pointless, and Father Brown.

Before this, Keelan held positions as controller for Daytime at ITV, head of scheduling and planning for BBC One and Two and channel editor at UKTV. He has also acted as a media consultant for Amazon Studios and a number of independent production companies.

Founder of Sixth Sense Media, Keizer is driven by a passion to deliver social impact and empower young people through media content, with a particular specialism in mental health. She and her award-winning team have delivered hundreds of hours of content to mainstream global broadcasters over the past two decades – including the BAFTA winning CBeebies hit, ‘Our Family’.

Keizer is the founder of two mental health non-profits, including her most recent offering, www.bow-wowza.com, which delivers short-form content and resources to support our younger generation’s emotional wellbeing and growth. She has been working with the BFI’s Young Audience Content to develop a longer-form Bow-Wowza drama. Over four years in the making, Bow-Wowza’s vision is to empower every child to flourish by delivering evidence-based mental health tools through the medium of comedy and entertainment.

Khanna is a content innovator, executive and entrepreneur, with proven success growing global businesses in TV, broadcast, digital, film and distribution.  She believes in the opportunities that content provides when it intersects with technology across infinite platforms.

From 2017 to 2020 Roma was the CEO at REVOLT Media and TV, responsible for leading strategy and operations of the real-time, multi-platform brand and network, reporting directly to the Chairman, Sean Combs, and the Board.  She remained on as advisor to the board after she chose to step down as CEO.

From 2011 to 2015, Khanna was president of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) Television Group and Digital where she oversaw creative development and production as well as worldwide TV and digital distribution for branded channels. Under Khanna’s leadership, MGM Television developed and delivered several award-winning series, including The Handmaid’s Tale to Hulu, Fargo to FX, Vikings to HISTORY and Teen Wolf to MTV.  Before joining MGM, Khanna served as president, Universal Networks International & Digital Initiatives, with NBC Universal, where she oversaw and grew a portfolio of 70+ NBC Universal international television channels, including the Syfy Channel, 13th Street, Universal Channel, Hallmark Channel, Divatv and Movies24 brands.  Khanna has also served as senior vice president, content and co-head of television for CHUM in Canada. Khanna began her career in digital media with Snap Media and in music at Sony Music Canada.

Khanna has received The Euro 50 award from Eurodata and was the first recipient of Reed MIDEM’s “MIPCube Media Architect of the Future Award” for her pioneering work in the use of new digital platforms.

As SVP, head of international television production, Khosravi oversees the team working with producers and distributors on all aspects of packaging, financing, sales and distribution for scripted television series for global film and television production company Endeavor Content. Notable international TV titles include BBC/Hulu’s Normal People, BBC/HBO’s His Dark Materials, and BBC/AMC’s The Night Manager.

In her role as senior vice president of global television for Participant, Kite oversees Participant’s narrative and documentary television slate by identifying, developing, packaging and executive producing high-end properties for premium cable, digital and emerging platforms.  At Participant, she developed Ava DuVernay’s limited drama series When They See Us for Netflix, and executive produced Noughts + Crosses for BBC1.  Current projects include Interior Chinatown set up at Hulu and In Memoriam set up at HBOmax.  Previous to Participant, in her role as head of development at Playtone, Kite co-produced HBO’s Emmy Award®-winning miniseries, The Pacific and the HBO Emmy Award®-winning film, Game Change and served as development executive on five seasons of HBO’s series Big Love and the miniseries John Adams as well as films Where the Wild Things Are, Mamma Mia! and Charlie Wilson’s War. Kite serves on the Advisory Board of WeForShe, a women’s advocacy group that strives to find practical ways to bring about a gender-balanced landscape in television.

Klein joined Netflix in July 2015, and has worked on the TV licensing team, Co-Productions team, and now the UK Series team working across titles such as Sex Education, The End of The F***ing World, After Life and The Duchess. Before Netflix, Klein worked in the TV and Below The Line department at The Gersh Agency and as a freelancer in independent film in New York. Prior to that she worked in talent and lifestyle public relations and talent management.

Køhn has been head of drama at the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) since 2013, after six years leading the development and production department at the Norwegian Film Institute.

Former professional experience includes TV-drama and film commissioner at the Norwegian Film Fund, co-owner and development producer at Maipo Film, head of development at Swedish Television Drama and chairman of the Board at Nordic Film & TV Fund. He has also been a writer/creator for three TV-drama productions.

NRK is a significant player in Norwegian and Nordic TV drama. In 2020, 18 series are produced internally and externally for NRK, as an important part of the channel’s strategic focus on streaming services. NRK has in recent years produced and co-produced Norwegian series such as Nobel (Prix Europa 2016), Mammon (International Emmy Award 2017), SKAM (Ros d’Or 2017), Home Ground (Best drama Nordic Serie Days 2018), State of Happiness (Best script CannesSeries 2018), Exit (Best drama International Panorama Series Mania 2019), and 22th of July (Prix Europa 2020).

Lalli is the creator, scriptwriter and director behind Mobile 101, the upcoming drama series about the rise and fall of Nokia. She is a well-established film maker in Finland. Her first feature length film Almost 18 won the Jussi Award (Finnish Academy Award) for Best Film, Best Screenplay, and Best Director. At the time, she was only the second female to have won Best Director. Lalli has also directed several award-winning short films, as well as written for the YLE series Kotikatu and directed the MTV3 series Käenpesä and Sydänjää.

Based between London and Paris, Langenberg is Banijay’s chief operating officer. He was appointed to the role in November 2016 and is responsible for operations across the global footprint, next to his focus on building synergies and increasing development opportunities. Prior to joining the business, he was VP business management at Warner Bros International TV Production, a role he held from 2011 to 2016. Before that, he was COO for R&D Media Holding and 3 Circles Media Holding.

Langenberg also spent ten years with Endemol, where his roles included executive director of operations for Latin America and later for the entire Endemol Group – before leaving, he was managing director entertainment for Endemol Nederland B.V.

Laycock currently occupies a dual role; firstly overseeing the programme planning and consumer insights team across Discovery’s portfolio of linear channels and non-linear products; and secondly leading on entertainment and lifestyle content commissioning for the portfolio.

Her recent commissions include the hit franchise Faking It, now in its 5th series, and for Discovery+ a series of highly successful Faking It Specials focussing on the stories of Jimmy Saville, Gary Glitter, Michael Jackson, Ted Bundy and Chris Watts. There’s also a much anticipated UK version of 90 Day Fiancé currently in production for Discovery+ in early 2022.

In her previous role, Laycock led Discovery’s lifestyle and entertainment channels – free-to-air networks Really, Quest Red, Food Network, and HGTV and pay television channels TLC and ID – to record growth.

Under her leadership, the UK versions of the super-franchise Say Yes to the Dress were must-watch for TLC viewers, along with Curvy Brides Boutique, Vicky Pattison: The Break Up, and many more. On Quest Red, Katie Price: My Crazy Life and The Nolans Go Cruising became returning franchises, while top lifestyle talent such as Tom Kerridge, Michel Roux Junior and Sarah Beeny became key faces for Food Network and HGTV.

Lederman, executive vice president, global scripted development, Sony Pictures Television is based in SPT’s Culver City headquarters and facilitates creative and logistical partnerships between SPT’s US and international production teams to expand SPT’s slate of TV series in the US and around the world. Lederman works closely with SPT’s portfolio of international production companies to foster relationships and sales to US-based platforms and works in association with SPT’s US development teams in identifying and developing US projects for international buyers. In addition, her Global team develops culturally authentic scripted series in numerous languages for the global market.

Lederman joins SPT from All3Media America, where she was EVP, scripted programming. In that role, she advised on scripted development slates for labels under the All3Media umbrella and developed the sales strategy on UK originals. She also served as executive producer on international co-productions, formats and original series, including Kaos (Netflix). Prior to that, she was at Lifetime Television for eight years, most recently serving as SVP, scripted programming and development and was responsible for developing UnREAL. Lederman got her start in the industry as Vice president, production, for NBC Studios.

Levasseur is head of international for Newen Studios, one of the leading European production groups. In this role, he oversees Newen’s activities in Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, the UK, Germany and Canada.

Previously, he ran the factual and documentary division of CAPA, managing the leading documentary production company in France and producing documentaries himself. His latest production as Executive Producer is Room 2806, The Accusation, a 4-part Netflix docuseries.

Before joining CAPA, Levasseur ran Babel Studios, a production company he cofounded in India in 2007. In 2010, he established another Babel office in Miami, producing content in North and South America for European broadcasters over four years.

Levasseur has directed more than 20 documentaries, including several award-winning films. His initial background was in journalism.

Lombardo is the president of global television at Entertainment One, where he is responsible for eOne’s Scripted and Unscripted TV divisions across businesses in the US, the UK and Canada. Lombardo oversees a slate of series in production, including The Rookie on ABC, Cruel Summer on Freeform/Hulu, Yellowjackets on Showtime and Graymail on Netflix, as well as dozens of shows in development at a number of platforms. Recently acquired by Hasbro, eOne is a global independent studio for television and film.

Prior to eOne, Lombardo served as president of programming at Home Box Office for 12 years. Under Lombardo, HBO launched some of its most acclaimed and successful series including Game of Thrones, True Blood, Boardwalk Empire, The Newsroom, Silicon Valley, Girls, Veep, Looking, True Detective and Last Week Tonight With John Oliver. Lombardo also shepherded the development and production of Westworld and Big Little Lies.

Lombardo currently serves on the board of The Los Angeles LGBT Center. He was appointed a member of the Board of Trustees at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts by President Obama in February 2014.

Lombardo resides in Los Angeles with his husband and two children.

Lopez-Otazu joined Discovery Networks International in September 2013 as director of programming and acquisitions for Southern Europe, overseeing content sourcing for the networks in France, Italy and Iberia. Since then, she has held different positions within the Company and has recently taken a newly created and expanded role within the content, consumer and marketing team, as group VP content, dourcing and acquisitions for EMEA and International.

Working closely with the global leadership team, she leads editorial strategy across the areas of development and production, acquisitions and planning for both linear and Discovery+.

Lopez-Otazum and her team super-serve content teams across international markets, defining and executing internal and external sourcing strategy, partnering on multi-market commissions and implementing D+ merchandising and utalisation plans.

Prior to joining Discovery, Lopez-Otazu was VP of content sales at Zodiak Rights for 5 years. In her role, she oversaw all sales activities, including formats, to Southern Europe and Latin America, where she built strong relationships with all production companies and major broadcasters to launch international formats and successfully adapt IP.

Born in Belfast, MacSorley is an award-winning TV producer. She joined the BBC in 1995 where she worked for many years for BBC News and Current Affairs making a range of investigative programmes from undercover in one of Britain’s top private prisons to exposing serious failings in the UK’s childcare industry. Her 2002 film for the BBC Death at Deepcut won a European TV award. It was the first of four TV investigations she produced looking at the suspicious deaths at the Deepcut army barracks. Now freelance, MacSorley lives in Edinburgh.

Mason recently joined the Disney+ EMEA team in July 2021 as a director of scripted content, commissioning original content for Disney+ and Star.

Prior to joining Disney, Mason was a drama commissioning editor at UK broadcaster Channel 4 for nearly a decade. He cut his commissioning teeth on the long-running soap Hollyoaks, then going on to oversee dramas including Ackley Bridge by Ayub Khan Din, Loaded by Jon Brown, the final series of Paul Abbott’s No Offence, The End of the F**king World by Charlie Covell, the critically acclaimed It’s A Sin by Russell T Davies and Jack Thorne’s upcoming drama Help, starring Stephen Graham and Jodie Comer.

McDaid is managing director and creative lead of new media entity, Red Bull Studios. Based in Salzburg, Austria, with offices in LA and London, Red Bull Studios is a commissioning, financing and distribution hub for premium filmmakers, broadcasters, and streamers.

A multi award-winning filmmaker and commissioning executive, most recently, McDaid was acting head of development and programming for National Geographic in London and prior, head of programming for discovery science in Washington DC. McDaid is the recipient of a Cine Award for Excellence and four Emmy nominations for Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman. She has also been nominated for an Outstanding Science and Technology Programming Emmy for Creating Synthetic Life and secured two Emmy wins for Stephen Spielberg’s Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero. In 2020, her work with filmmaker Tom Jennings on Apollo: Missions to the Moon won the Producer Guild of America’s prestigious Outstanding Producer of Televised or Streamed Motion Pictures.

Paper Owl Films is about the creation of  standout creative content that makes a difference, inspiring audiences to see the world in different ways.  As creative director, McGuiness leads the development of ambitious content for international audiences.

Creator of Pablo for CBeebies and RTÉJr., the series is celebrated all over the world for its timely portrayal of a smart autistic preschooler. McGuiness is also creator of Happy for CITV a series about the highs and lows of the preschool emotional rollercoaster and Ladybird and Bee for RTÉJr. which celebrates the part that even the smallest of us play in a balanced world.

McGuiness has an exciting slate of new projects for younger viewers: in the preschool, 8 – 12s and early teen space. Her passion is the creation of meaningful content that inspires audiences about the world.

Mensah is vice president, original series at Netflix. Prior to this, she was director of Drama and Sky Studios at Sky UK. Before joining Sky, Mensah served as head of independ-ent drama at the BBC as well as Head of Drama for BBC Scotland. Mensah has commissioned a wide variety of internationally acclaimed dramas such as the BBC’s Wallander with Ken-neth Branagh, BAFTA award winning Patrick Melrose starring Benedict Cumberbatch for Sky/Showtime, John Ridley’s political drama Guerrilla as well as BAFTA and Emmy award winning Sky/HBO drama, Chernobyl.

Currently, Mensah is an independent governor and chair of the diversity committee at the Royal Central School of speech and drama, on the Board of the schools based educational charity, Into Film – as well as sitting on the Board of ScreenSkills, a UK based charity dedi-cated to training in the television and film sector. She is a member of the 2018 Class of Henry Crown Fellows within the Aspen Global Leadership Network at the Aspen Institute.

Mercurio’s latest series Bodyguard and Line of Duty have both topped the ratings for UK television drama. With other credits including Bodies, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Critical, Strike Back, The Grimleys and Cardiac Arrest. Mercurio’s work has achieved award wins/nominations at the Golden Globes, Emmys, BAFTAs, Royal Television Society, Broadcasting Press Guild and Writers’ Guild. Mercurio is a former hospital physician and Royal Air Force officer, having originally planned to specialise in aviation medicine.

Millichip is chief content officer of Sky Studios where she is responsible for editorial activities in original drama and scripted comedy for Sky Studios’ UK, Italian and German markets. Jane also oversees Sky Studios’ commercial activities, including international deficit funding and production partnerships.

Previously, Millichip was managing director of Sky Vision, Sky’s former production and distribution arm. At Sky Vision, Millichip and the team grew the business from £8m revenues to £250m in six years, spearheading Sky’s investment into independent production companies and content distribution.

Millichip started her career as a journalist, and since moving into TV, has been a commissioning editor, producer and distributor.

Millichip is a Trustee of the Royal Television Society and a board member of the Edinburgh TV Festival and several UK and US production companies. She is also a Trustee of the environmental educational charity, SEEd.

One-time Entertainment weekly’s “man of the year”, Milligan was at the forefront of the revolution in comics which were created for a more sophisticated, adult audience. Shade the Changing Man for Vertigo offered a skewered look at American culture, while Enigma, Face and Rogan Gosh pushed the boundaries of what comic books could do. The hugely-popular X-Statix was a radical reworking of the X-Man paradigm.

Milligan was the longest-running writer of the cult horror comic Hellblazer, and his take on Human Target inspired the TV series.  Other work includes the critical hit Britannia, about an Ancient Roman detective.  Recently he’s written the critically-lauded American Ronin for AWA and Happy Hour for AHOY.

Milligan has also written screenplays. He is currently working on other film and comic, and non-comic projects. He lives in London and has been known to struggle with German separable verbs.

Montgomery is a leading writer, producer and actor. She is co-writer and executive producer of upcoming BBC series Dodger. She also stars in the series as Fagin’s landlady, Minnie Bilge.

As a writer her credits include Tracey Ullman’s Show (HBO/BBC One), Two Weeks To Live (SKY ONE), RTS-nominated Psychobitches (Sky Arts) and Bumps (BBC One). She also had her own sketch show, Lucy Montgomery’s Variety Pack (Radio 4).

Her TV acting credits include the Absolutely Fabulous 25th anniversary episode (BBC One), Hapless (Netflix), Mongrells (BBC Three), The IT Crowd (Channel 4), The Mighty Boosh (BBC Three), Brian Pern (BBC Four), You’re the Worst (FX), Tracey Ullman’s Show (BBC One), Harry and Paul’s Story of the Two’s (BBC Two), Bellamy’s People (BBC Two), Armstrong and Miller (BBC One), Strutter (MTV), The Friday Night Project (Channel 4) and Tittybangbang (BBC Three). She has also appeared on stage and voiced characters on beloved animations from Hey Duggee (CBeebies), to Matt Groening’s Netflix series Disenchantment.

Morton joined the BBC earlier this year as BBC Children’s head of commissioning and acquisitions for 0-6s.

She leads on all BBC pre-school programming and is responsible for all commissions and acquisitions – from both in-house production teams and the independent sector alongside delivering outstanding content, products and onscreen talent across all platforms for audiences 0-6 years old.

Before joining the BBC, Morton was content strategy director of family brands at entertainment one. Before then she spent 12 years at The Walt Disney Company where she was responsible for all aspects of programming, acquisitions, commissions and creative strategy for Disney Junior and Disney Channels linear and on-demand across multiple territories.

Throughout her 25 years in television she has overseen a number of hugely successful kid’s titles including most recently at eOne: Peppa Pig, PJ Masks, Ricky Zoom, My Little Pony, Transformers and Power Rangers.

Mundell is an award-winning creative executive and MD, creative director and founder of Synchronicity Films, a scripted and feature film indie based in Glasgow, Scotland.

She developed and exec-produced the BAFTA and RTS winning BBC One / ABC series, The Cry, a psychological thriller starring Jenna Coleman, adapted from Helen FitzGerald’s novel by Jacquelin Perske, which debuted to critical acclaim in the UK and internationally. Synchronicity has an impressive slate of high-end scripted projects in development, often based on award winning IP such as Andrew O’Hagan’s Mayflies, Graeme Armstrong’s debut The Young Team, Hanif Kureishi’s The Body and a limited series adaptation of The Sunday Times / New York Times Bestseller The Tattooist of Auschwitz, by Heather Morris.

Film credits include Karen Gillan’s directorial debut, The Party’s Just Beginning and BIFA nominated Only You, starring Laia Costa and Josh O’Connor. Mundell is  a PACT council member and co-chair of Scotland’s TV Working Group. Prior to Synchronicity she enjoyed ten years at the BBC leading the Children’s BBC department at BBC Scotland, and latterly as an executive producer within BBC Drama. Synchronicity has a First Look deal with All3.

Murphy was appointed Sky’s first head of kids content in 2015. She is responsible for Sky’s on demand kids content across all platforms. Sky Kids offers families 8 kids channels and over 10,000 episodes of on demand viewing as well as the Sky Kids app, a safe space for younger kids focussed content, games and art tools.

Recent commissions include mental health and wellbeing shows such as Clam Brain and two seasons of mindfulness series Dreamflight  – both of which give children and their parents practical tools and advice on how to manage their emotional wellbeing. Coming-up Sky Kids has all new animation with Aardman’s Very Small Creatures and a host of new originals for 2022, including kids talent competition drama Take Note & make and do craft series The Makery, both co-pros with US streamer Peacock.

Murphy has over 20 years of experience in producing and developing shows for children’s and family audiences. As a producer, script editor and development executive, Murphy has worked for a diverse slate of clients from small indies to major international media groups on shows ranging from The Gruffalo to Aardman’s BAFTA and Guinness World Record holding Tate Movie Project. Prior to joining Sky, Murphy held a role at Azoomee, a new video on demand platform, as creative director and head of content. She also lead the writing team and exec produced 78 episodes of hit CBeebies show Bing Bunny for Acamar Films.

Nelson is an award-nominated comic book writer, international filmmaker, entrepreneur and co-founder/former chief executive officer of Kugali, the African-based media company created in 2017, which publishes African comics from all across the continent and promotes African storytelling through augmented reality, comics, animation and games.  He is currently writing and directing, in collaboration with Walt Disney Animation Studios, the original long-form, science fiction themed streaming animated series, “Iwaju,” set to debut on Disney+ in 2022.

Born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, Nelson spent the last couple of years of his childhood in the United Kingdom.  He studied creative writing at City University in London, where he found guidance and a community within the entrepreneurship team, and where he wrote his first screenplay.  Authoring his first graphic novel, Ito, was the next milestone on his road to success.

Nelson joined his childhood friend Tolu Olowofoyeku, along with Hamid Ibrahim, in co-founding Kugali, a fledgling media company with the goal of creating a platform to provide millions of fans with stories inspired by African culture using animation, art, virtual and augmented reality. Kugali became the official lens for Snapchat, where their augmented reality filters have received more than 50 million views.

Oliver is chairman of boutique strategy advisory company Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates (O&O). He was the BBC’s first head of strategy and its youngest ever member of senior management. After leaving the BBC in 1995, he set up O&O, which advises major companies, investors, regulators, sports bodies and governments across the global media, entertainment and sports sectors.
Clients past and present include the English Premier League, UEFA, Liberty Global, Sky, BT, Google, Spotify, Discovery, NBCUniversal, Creative Artists Agency, the Music Publishers Association, KKR, Providence, CVC, BeIN, RTL, ProsiebenSat.1, AMC Networks, Endemol Shine Group, Disney, Fox.
Oliver has taken a leading role in introducing innovative new approaches and business models to a number of sectors – sports rights exploitation, multichannel TV, web news, independent TV production, sports ownership, high end scripted content funding, addressable advertising, music streaming, SVoD etc.
Before joining the BBC, Oliver worked as a regulatory and antitrust economist at NERA and then PwC. He has a BA in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University and lives in Somerset and London in the UK.

Pearl joined Channel 5 in February 2018. He is responsible for a broad range of factual series across documentary, premium factual, formats and specialist factual. He is also overseeing unscripted originals for Paramount+ UK which launches in 2022. Since joining Channel 5, he has commissioned more than 200 hours of peak time shows and has launched over 25 new series including Our Yorkshire Farm, the channel’s most successful factual show of all time, and upcoming hit quiz show, Eggheads. Pearl has brought a large number of high-profile talent to the channel including Adrian Dunbar, Gregg Wallace, Bill Nighy and Chris Packham.  He also originated and oversees the highly successful Jeremy Vine daily show.

Pearl moved to ViacomCBS from Channel 4 where he held the roles of deputy head, news & current affairs and later, editor of Dispatches. He commissioned more than 175 high-profile investigations for Dispatches, which won a host of industry awards. At Channel 4, he also originated and commissioned the global hit Leaving Neverland.

Prior to Channel 4, Pearl was at the BBC where he held the roles of deputy editor of Panorama, deputy editor of the BBC Six and Ten O’Clock News and deputy editor of Newsnight.

Pedersen is the CEO of All3Media International (A3MI). A3MI works with television producers to co-finance television programmes and is a leading global tv sales business, with offices in London, Singapore, New York and Miami and broadcast clients in over 200 countries.

A3MI’s turnover has grown by 50% in the last three years to over £100m and Pedersen has overseen a tripling of investment into content during this period. She started her distribution career at ITV and had an 18-month spell in drama production as managing director of Playground Entertainment in 2015/16. During her time in the distribution industry Pedersen has sat on PACT Council, mentored for Nesta and been part of Skillset’s industry training programmes. A3MI has twice been awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade. Pedersen was appointed to the NATPE board of directors in 2019.

Pedersen has a degree in English Literature from London University.

Phahle is the chief executive officer for connected video and general entertainment for the MultiChoice Group.
She started her career in music, and as a classical pianist and violinist, toured and performed with Soul II Soul, Duran Duran, Take That and Jamiroquai. Her broadcast career began at the BBC World Service as a radio studio manager before moving to television in 1998 as a presenter, and sound and vision mixer.
Phahle produced live music sessions with Amy Winehouse, Willie Nelson and many other renowned musicians. She produced some of the biggest names in music radio including John Peel, Jo Whiley and Steve Wright.
She has held senior roles within MultiChoice South Africa and is now the driving force behind the Group’s strategy to be the world’s leading and most-loved African storyteller. This means delivering the best international and local content to the organisation’s more than 20 million customers across 50 African countries, with a strong focus on innovation and industry development. MultiChoice has 24 local and 8 international channels as well as African streaming service Showmax. Phahle has driven MultiChoice’s co-production strategy, delivering critically acclaimed drama in collaboration with Freemantle International, Cinemax and Canal+. She holds an MBA from GIBS Business School.

Phillips is best known for creating and showrunning teen series Get Even for BBC iPlayer and Netflix based on the novel by Gretchen McNeil. Get Even was nominated for a Kidscreen Award in the Best Teen, Live Action Category. The second series is currently in post-production. She also served as lead writer and creator of BAFTA and RTS nominated series The Athena for SKY, currently airing on Amazon Prime in the US.  Previous credits include story editor and writer on Dance Academy 2 which (among others) won a LOGIE and an AWGIE.  Phillips also wrote and created the original series Nearly Famous for E4 and was on the writing team for BAFTA nominated Sugar Rush.  Other credits include Millie Inbetween, Dead Gorgeous, Robin Hood and Scandi Noir Trapped.

Qiao joined the drama team of ZDF Enterprises in early 2020 as director ZDFE drama for the English-speaking territories and Scandinavia. In this role, she is in charge of sales of scripted content such as Channel 4’s Before We Die or the international co-production The Window to English-speaking territories and Scandinavia. Furthermore, she is responsible for co-productions, financing and acquisitions of new drama projects for international distribution and currently oversees a number of projects in various stages.

Prior to joining ZDF Enterprises, Qiao worked for many years in the international sales department of Red Arrow Studios International in various locations. In her last remit as senior sales manager based in London, she had the ultimate responsibility for all sales activities across all genres to the UK, Benelux, Scandinavia, Middle East and Africa.

Raikes has been a commissioning editor for unscripted factual at National Geographic Channels since 2018 and at Disney+ since autumn 2021. He has developed, commissioned and executive produced a broad range of singles and series for the US and international channels – and the National geographic tile on Disney+ – including Drain the Oceans, Car SOS, Nazi Megastructures, Lost Cities With Albert Lin, Buried Secrets of the Bible, The Real Right Stuff, Mars: One day on the Red Planet and Narco Wars.

Before joining Nat Geo, Raikes spent 3 years as a factual commissioning editor at Channel 5 where he commissioned some of the channel’s most defining shows, including Can’t Pay – We’ll Take it Away, The Yorkshire Vet, Gangland, Britain’s Bloodiest Dynasty, 10,000BC, Body Donors and the Inside….and Year in the Wild strands.

Before Channel 5, Raikes was co-founder and creative director of Wildfire TV, where he developed and delivered more than 100 hours of factual programming for international and UK broadcasters.  Credits include: The Big Royal Dig Live, Who Downed Douglas Bader, Digging the Great Escape, Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan, Combat Cars, and Walking Through History with Tony Robinson.

Reardon is an entertainment executive with over thirty-five years of experience in the domestic and international licensing and marketing of film and television programming. Reardon joined Incendo in 2009 and is responsible for all sales and co-productions for Incendo. Incendo specialises in the creation and production of television programming with a catalogue of over 100 made for television movies, as well as numerous television series and documentaries. Incendo’s most recent television series co-production was the global success “Versailles,” produced for Canal+.

Prior to working with Incendo, Reardon was president of IM Global Television. He was president of …and Action! Distribution, a co-venture with renowned German television producer Action Concept for three years, and prior to that, was president of GRB Entertainment for eight years. He spent three years as vice-president of MTM International Distribution where he was responsible for the distribution of primetime U.S. network and first run syndicated series and also spent three years at Republic Pictures International Television where he represented a library of over 1500 classic, and award winning films. Reardon started his career as a talent agent at the MGA Agency.  He lives in Laguna Niguel, California.

Root is head of original production, WarnerMedia EMEA, leading the team re-sponsible for producing General Entertainment original content for WarnerMedia linear networks and for upcoming HBO Max launches across the region. Prior to this he was EVP original programming and production, HBO Europe, where he was responsible for all local original programming produced for its twenty-one regional markets across The Nordics, Iberia and Central Europe.

Ross and his team develop and produce animated content originated in Europe and Africa, working with independent studios and producers across the region, for Disney’s global platforms including Disney Junior, Disney Channel and Disney+.

Recent and upcoming projects include the Disney+ Originals Chip ’n’ Dale: Park Life and the African sci-fi anthology Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire; pre-school series PJ Masks, Gigantosaurus and Kiya & The Kimoja Heroes; original children’s series Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir, 101 Dalmatian Street, The Unstoppable Yellow Yeti, Viking Skool, Counterfeit Cat, Furiki Wheels and Space Chickens in Space; and the BAFTA-winning Disney XDFC shorts program.

Prior to joining Disney’s London team, Ross lived in Hong Kong and worked as a producer for Star TV before his appointment as creative director for Turner’s Asia Pacific entertainment networks, where he developed original content including Exchange Student Zero for Cartoon Network, Galli Galli Sim Sim with Sesame Workshop, and the arts format M.A.D. for Pogo.

Sakaan is the CEO of BritBox International, a BBC and ITV-backed streaming service. In this role, Sakaan is responsible for the overall strategy and operations of BritBox globally, leading a world-class team over multiple regions. Sakaan drives creative success, maximises commercial return, fosters the BritBox brand around the world, and provides vital strategic and operational leadership.

Having worked on growing the partnership between ITV and BBC since the beginning, Sakaan was responsible for the creation of the BritBox brand and global concept. Before becoming CEO, Reemah served as chief creative officer for BritBox Global as well as the group director of SVoD for ITV, launching BritBox in the UK in November of 2019 and serving as a pivotal part of the leadership team behind BritBox Australia. Prior to this, Sakaan spent 18 months living in New York where she oversaw the growth of BritBox US’ subscribers and worked on the expansion of BritBox into Canada in February 2018.

Sakaan was formerly ITV’s director of marketing and media. She looked after all ITV’s UK and international TV channels, online brands and pay services. Sakaan managed the rebrand of ITV in 2013 and following this in 2014 she launched ITV Encore and ITV Be. In 2015, she relaunched ITV Hub.

Sakaan previously worked at the BBC for eight years, in roles including head of marketing for BBC One, BBC Drama and BBC Film and launching shows including Sherlock, Doctor Who and Frozen Planet amongst others.

Prior to this, Sakaan was head of marketing for BBC Three, BBC Comedy and BBC Entertainment and worked in BBC digital marketing. She worked on platform brands including BBC iPlayer, and the BBC HD channels.

Sakaan started her career outside of media in product marketing with roles at Diageo and Reckitt Benckiser.

Salt joined the Original Series team at Netflix in June 2019, as part of the new UK team, led by Anne Mensah. Before Netflix, Lindsay worked as head of development at Sky Drama, in charge of overseeing all development for original drama across Sky Atlantic and Sky One. Prior to joining Sky, Salt spent eight years at Left Bank Pictures, working across both development and production. Productions included Wallander(BBC One/BBC America), Strike Back(Sky One/Cinemax) and the ITV single Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This.

Salvat is the VP & commissioning editor of original production in Spain for WarnerMedia International. Based in Madrid, he is responsible for original drama, comedy, documentary and unscripted programming commissioned in Spain for HBO Max and TNT channels. Salvat started his television career at WBZ-TV Boston, returning to Spain to join Canal+, where he was a producer and part of the team that successfully launched pay television in Spain in 1990. After a period as general manager of the Paramount Comedy Channel he returned to Canal+ as director of content. In 2010 he was appointed director of premium channels for Movistar. He joined HBO Europe in 2017.

Santer took up his current post as chief creative officer, BritBox International, in September of this year.
He began his TV career in 1996 script editing ITV dramas. He joined BBC in 2000, where he developed and pro-duced a number of series including Cutting It and the Emmy-nominated Jane Eyre.

In 2006 he became executive producer of EastEnders, delivered consistent ratings and awards success over four years (700+ episodes).

After stepping down as executive producer, Santer started his own production company, Lovely Day, a label within Kudos, which went on to produce the hugely popular crime series Grantchester.

In 2015 Santer became chief executive of Kudos. Under his leadership, Kudos thrived with a string of hits including the International Emmy Awards-winning Man in an Orange Shirt, Channel 4 and AMC returner Humans, International Emmy-nominated Apple Tree Yard, Gunpowder for BBC One, BBC Two’s The Boy With The Top-knot, and the Sky Atlantic hit, Tin Star.

In 2017 he had the honour of chairing the Edinburgh International Television Festival.

He left Kudos in 2019, and spent much of the last year working with the commissioning team at BBC Drama, helping to oversee a number of their 2021 titles (including Time, The Pursuit of Love and Ridley Road).

Savitsky has served as senior vice president, development and programming for HISTORY since November 2019. Previously, Savitsky served as senior vice president, development and programming for sister network, A&E. Since joining A&E Network in 2015, she been responsible for overseeing some of the network’s most acclaimed series, including the Emmy Award-winning “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath” and the IDA Award nominated series “Kids Behind Bars: Life or Parole.”

Prior to joining A+E Networks, Savitsky served as vice president of development for TLC, where she oversaw the day-to-day management of the network’s development team. She managed key relationships in the production community and supervised the editorial, budgetary and delivery components of the development process. Among the franchises launched under her tenure are Breaking Amish and My 600lb Life. Prior to TLC she was vice president, development for Discovery Channel where her credits included Alaska: The Last Frontier, Property Wars and Swamp Brothers. She also managed the team responsible for series development. Savitsky also held development roles at Discovery Health Channel. Previously, she worked for DreamWorks SKG as a story editor.

She holds an MA in Film from American University and an undergraduate degree in Business from the University of Virginia.

Sawyer is an English journalist and broadcaster. Besides her features and radio criticism for the Observer, her writing has appeared in GQ, Vogue and the Guardian. She is a regular arts critic in print, on television and on radio. Her recent book, Out of Time, was published by Fourth Estate/HarperCollins. She is currently writing her third book, entitled Long Term about long term relationships, to be published in 2018. She broadcasts on Radio 4 and for The Culture Show (BBC TV). She is on the board of Tate Members, the South London Gallery and Sound Women. 

Born in Copenhagen, Scherfig studied at University of Copenhagen and The National Film School of Denmark. She began working as a 1st AD and script supervisor, moving into directing commercials, short films and tv-series.
Her third feature film, Italian for Beginners, a dogma 95 film, gave her an international breakthrough. It was followed by six English language features: Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself, An Education, One Day, The Riot Club and Their Finest. As well as directing, Scherfig as a scriptwriter and executive producer. Scherfig’s most recent film, The Kindness of Strangers opened the Berlin Film Festival in 2019.

Silver is director of commissioning, drama at Sky Studios, Sky’s development and production arm. Silver joined Sky in 2017 as an executive producer before becoming commissioning editor. He has overseen a slate of award-winning Sky Originals including global hits Chernobyl and Gangs of London, as well as returning fran-chises COBRA, Britannia and Temple. He is currently Exec Producing upcoming Sky Origi-nal dramas Extinction, starring Paapa Essiedu and The Baby, a co-production between Sky and HBO.

He started his career in factual entertainment, working as a film researcher on music doc-umentaries and managing the pre-game entertainment at Arsenal football club. Following his passion for drama, he script edited for LWT studios, then at Kudos on Life on Mars, Spooks and The Fixer. He started his production career on the Miss Marple films for Granada/Mammoth Screen and developed the climactic series of Waking the Dead for BBC One, before going to Left Bank Pictures where he developed the Sky/Cinemax se-ries Strike Back and worked as an executive producer.

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Smith, executive vice president, formats at All3Media International has over fifteen years’ experience of working with television formats. He has spent time developing formats (part of the development team that devised Strictly Come Dancing AKA Dancing with the Stars), producing formats, and the international distribution of formats.

He’s previously worked for Sony Pictures Television International, the BBC, and a number of independent production companies. He looks after all3media’s international productions, including over 30 versions each of Gogglebox, Kitchen Nightmares, Cash Cab and Undercover Boss, along with format acquisition and strategy. He is the visiting professor of TV Formats at Sunderland University, sits on the general board of the Format Recognition and Protection Association (FRAPA), created the Diversify TV Excellence Awards, and is a founder member of Reed Midem’s diversity advisory board.

Award-winning writer and producer Spotnitz founded Big Light Productions, a London-based production company, in 2013. Their high-end drama productions include Amazon’s Emmy award-winning The Man in the High Castle and three seasons of Medici for Netflix and Rai. Their latest drama series Leonardo was co-created and written by Spotnitz, and co-produced by Big Light Productions and Lux Vide, for Rai and Amazon Prime.

Big Light is currently co-producing series 2 of Patrick Dempsey drama Devils for Sky and is in production on a series of scripted podcasts with Audible UK, including Mask of Sanity, starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

Spotnitz has over 25 years’ experience in television as a writer and producer. Serving as EP, he wrote or co-wrote more than 40 episodes of The X-Files, and on both feature films. He shares three Golden Globes for Best Dramatic Series and a Peabody Award for his work on the seminal science-fiction series, and was Emmy-nominated both for writing and three times for Outstanding Drama Series.

In 2013 Spotnitz helped establish and began teaching at Serial Eyes, a postgraduate training programme in Berlin which prepares for the next generation of European TV writer-producers.

Springborn is president of UCP and Universal International Studios, divisions of Universal Studio Group. She reports to Pearlena Igbokwe, Chairman, Universal Studio Group. Springborn oversees all aspects of UCP and Universal International Studios’ award-winning slate with a primary focus on growing the studios’ global production output. UCP is responsible for critically acclaimed scripted and unscripted docuseries programming, including The Act, Chucky, Dr. Death, Homecoming, Mr. Robot, The Umbrella Academy, and limited series Gaslit, starring Julia Roberts and Sean Penn. Universal International Studios’ productions include hit series Everything I Know About Love, The Undeclared War, Clickbait, acclaimed music comedy We Are Lady Parts, BAFTA-winning reality show Made in Chelsea, Emmy Award-nominated series Hanna, the worldwide TV phenomenon Downton Abbey and Dodger for the BBC.

Stein has worked in the entertainment industry for over 25 years in all phases of the business, including feature film, television development, and production. Stein’s specialty over the last 15 years has been developing and packaging scripted series for the global market, including co-productions, pre- sales and original production in local markets. Stein is one of a handful of executives who is able to navigate the US, UK, Canadian and European markets both creatively and commercially. Stein is currently heading up the Global film and TV business for AfterShock Media, charging with expanding their comic book slate globally. Prior to this, Stein was EVP of global scripted content for eOne where she was responsible for expanding the company both corporately and commercially in the global space, forging strategic alliances with global producers as well as packaging and overseeing production for international co-productions.

As head of yes Studios, Stern oversees sales, distribution and development of premium content for international platforms. Earlier this year she was selected as one of the top 500 global media leaders by Variety magazine.

Among yes Studios recent successes are global phenomenon Fauda and Shtisel; the adaptation of the Israeli series Your Honor (Kvodo) which has become one the bestselling scripted global formats of recent years; the multiple award winning series On the Spectrum; and the new epic series The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem.

Stern is an international television veteran, having managed all aspects of programming, content acquisitions, channel creation and branding in her previous role at yesTV.

In addition, she serves as a commissioning editor of documentary and factual programming, supervising the selection and production of internationally acclaimed titles.

Szentgyörgyi was born in Budapest, in 1992. A lifelong passion for filmmaking has led him to originate “The Informant”, a show as much about coming of age as a chapter of Central-European History. Prior to “The Informant”, Bálint has written and directed “The Courage of Éva Koller” and “Unfinished Business”, two short films featuring the creme of Hungarian talent. His first major motion picture “We started together” is also in production for the Hungarian National Film Fund. Bálint is fluent in English, Hungarian and French and was recently recognised in Forbes Hungary 30 under 30. The Informant was born of three years of research and development.

Söderlund has been in the television business for over 30 years. Starting as a producer and director of rock videos, he worked his way up and became a producer at groundbreaking production house Strix Television. In 1996 he started his own production company, Think Big Television with one of the most famous TV-presenters in Sweden. Think Big TV was an immediate success and was soon sold to Nordisk Film where Nicola became the MD and was behind several iconic TV-series in the Nordics.

He stayed for seven years but had always the wish to explore the international side of the TV-business so his next project was Sparks Network, an exclusive association for the leading independent TV-production companies in the world that he founded with Fredrik af Malmborg. Söderlund was the president at Sparks Network for 10 years. Sparks gradually moved over to distribution under a new brand – Eccho Rights. At present Söderlund is owner and managing partner of Eccho Rights, a global independent rights management and distribution company with five international offices that specializes in packaging, financing and distribution of TV-drama from all over the world. Since December 2018 Eccho Rights is majority owned by CJ E&M.

Taganov joined the BBC in the autumn of 2021 as BBC Children’s head of content and programming strategy.

She is responsible for managing content and programming strategies for video output across CBeebies, CBBC and BBC iPlayer working alongside the commissioning and acquisitions leads.

Taganov oversees the teams responsible for planning and scheduling all Children’s and Education video content on CBeebies, CBBC and BBC iPlayer as well as the department’s YouTube channels and CBeebies House and CBBC HQ presentation.

Previously, Taganov headed up Content & Programming Strategies for Disney channels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. She led Programme Planning, Media Planning and Scheduling for 16 Disney Junior and Disney XD channels and worked on the content transition strategy from linear to on demand ahead of the launch of Disney+.

During her 13 years there, she worked on the pan-regional Disney Junior channel launch and helped to grow a multitude of Disney, Marvel and Lucasfilm franchises, deploying children’s TV content across Disney Branded Channels multiplex and video-on-demand services.

Teper is managing director of Omens Studios’ growing London office, which he helped set up in 2020. Under his remit, Teper manages the day-to-day running of the company’s UK base, which has a specific remit of creating global brands for the company’s IP through distribution, co-production, marketing and digital activity. The London office also acts as Omens Studios’ pre-production hub with all new IP development. Recent projects include preschool series 123 Number Squad and Eddy and the Ecosaurs, as well as new titles targeted at the 13+ demographic Amy & the Afterlife and Dragon Lizzardo.

Prior to joining Omens Studios in 2020, Teper was SVP content development, digital & programming kids at Blue Ant Media. Within this role he developed, acquired, co-produced and commissioned content for ZooMoo as well as executive producing a number of series and launching several broadcast channels across EMEA, LATAM, Asia Pacific and Australia. Teper has held additional senior positions at Screen Rebels, Fox International Channels (Taiwan), MGM Movie Channel Asia and as a Content Communication Consultant.

Thomas is an Emmy award-winning and BAFTA nominated actor, comedian, writer, producer and director best known for starring in a wealth of hit British comedy shows like The Fast Show, Star Stories, Sirens, Down The Line, Nathan Barley, the critically acclaimed BBC spoof music documentary series Brian Pern and The Kemps: All True, which he wrote, created, starred in, produced and directed.

As a documentary director/producer he won an Emmy award and Rose d’Or for Best Arts Documentary for his feature length film, Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender. He was also nominated for the BAFTA Breakthrough Talent award in 2013.

He is currently working on family drama Dodger for the BBC and NBCUniversal International Studios, which he created, wrote, directed and also stars in as PC Duff.

Thomopoulos recently joined as a partner in Legendary Global, Legendary Entertainment’s international television venture.

A former senior vice president at HBO, Thomopoulos created and oversaw the network’s dramatic series department. Kicking off with Oz, she first established HBO’s miniseries division with projects including From the Earth to the Moon, Band of Brothers and The Corner, before going on to exec produce Rome and Generation Kill.

She subsequently served as exec producer on Camelot for Starz, where she had a first-look producing deal. She also worked on international projects including Borgia and Versailles for Canal+, The Collection for France 3 and Amazon, Britannia for Sky, French-language rom-com The Hook Up Plan for Netflix as well as The Black Box for ABC.

Prior to joining Legendary, she was a key part of CAA’s Global Television department.

Thomopoulos is a dual national of the U.S. and France and lives between Paris and Los Angeles.

Since Van Huyck  joined De Mensen in 2014 as head of scripted, the production company – one of Belgium’s biggest – has developed and produced 24 drama series and four feature films, including award-winning drama series like Hotel Beau Séjour, Undercover, Team Chocolate, Salamander and Professor T.

Other noteworthy successes include Lisa, Belgium’s first telenovela commissioned in 10 years, which has just been re-ordered for a second season; and Undercover/Ferry, Belgium’s first streaming franchise. Van Huyck and his team have recently delivered the crime series Sophie Cross for France Télévision and ARD; and are now filming the prestigious 8-part crime drama Diamonds, a co-production with Keshet International for Netflix and VRT. 

Van Huyck started his career as a freelance journalist and documentary maker, both for Belgian’s national broadcast station and several production companies. As a creative director and showrunner, he worked on the production of a range of factual and entertainment programs for Flemish and Dutch television stations, including Zodiak Belgium, where he was head of content and founder of the scripted department prior to joining De Mensen. 

As Fremantle’s president of global drama, a role he was promoted to in 2020, Vesper oversees the company’s efforts to grow the slate of prestige and mainstream dramas further cementing Fremantle’s emerging position as the home for high-end international drama.

He joined the company 2016 as part of Fremantle’s ongoing expansion plan to carry out the company’s ambitions in becoming a global leader in the scripted arena.

Vesper was previously drama chief at Sundance TV where he oversaw critically-acclaimed international productions including Jane Campion’s Top Of The Lake and Hugo Blick’s The Honourable Woman, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal , Deutschland 83, and domestic series Hap And Leonard, created by novelist Joe R. Lansdale, and Ray MacKinnon’s Rectify, a huge critical success made with Breaking Bad producer Gran Via and ran for four seasons.

Vesper also held roles at HBO, entertainment industry start-up iFilm, October Films and USA Film.

Vyshnevska is responsible for international development and co-productions at Ukrainian largest TV and film studio, FILM.UA Group. She evaluates, develops and executive produces scripted drama projects (ranging from original content to local adaptations of successful scripted formats), feature films and animation series and oversees international development and coproduction partnerships.

Most recently, she produced gangster comedy Koza Nostra in coproduction with Pepito Produzioni (Italy) for Rai Cinema. She has also co-produced Ukraine’s first noir drama, Hide & Seek, which was picked up by numerous festivals and is now distributed internationally by ZDF Enterprises. She has been instrumental in the global success of The Sniffer, the first Ukrainian drama acquired by Netflix and Amazon Prime and adapted abroad, and in bringing successful international drama formats like Step Dave (All3Media International) and The Red Band Society (Filmax) to Ukraine and Russia.

Vyshnevska currently has projects in active co-development and co-production with partners in France, Estonia, Canada, Iceland, etc.

Wallestam was appointed chief content officer at NENT Group on 1 October 2019. Prior to that, Wallestam served as CEO of NENT Group Sweden. Wallestam joined the company in June 2014 as head of strategy for MTG’s free-TV and radio businesses in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. She previously worked as a strategy consultant at Boston Consulting Group in London and New York, and at Daily Mail General Trust. Wallestam holds an MSc in Economics and Business Administration from the Stockholm School of Economics.

Welsh was born in Edinburgh. He is the author of twelve novels including the international million bestseller Trainspotting and its sequel Porno, both adapted into iconic films by Danny Boyle. His most recent novel Dead Men’s Trousers continues the Trainspotting story. Welsh enjoys a dedicated global readership, tweets prolifically and serves as an Official Ambassador of the Homeless World Cup. His novel, Crime, was published in 2008 and he has adapted it for a TV series for BritBox UK airing in November 2021.

Ward is president, VICE Studios, VICE Media Group’s international production and distribution arm. The business encompasses the development, production, financing and distribution of quality English and local language scripted, entertainment and factual content. Its broad body of work includes theatrical releases such as The Report and Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner Flee; documentary and scripted titles for SVOD platforms ranging from Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened to 1994; as well as documentary one-offs and limited series for terrestrial broadcasters like The Brexit Storm: Laura Kuenssberg’s Inside Story and The Murder of Charlene Downes.

Prior to joining VICE Media Group, Ward was president, International of Refinery29, the leading media and entertainment company focused on women, where she oversaw the company’s growth and expansion across both programming and commercial, including the launch of Refinery29’s first international edition, headquartered in London.

Before joining Refinery29 Ward spent 8 years at the Endemol Shine Group in a variety of roles from associate director of business development to head of commercial and strategy at Shine TV.

Weber has worked in the media business for more than 25 years. She joined Telepool in 2008 and is currently responsible for all aspects of feature film and series at Global Screen, from co-development to co-productions, acquisitions to pre-sales.  She also leads an experienced sales team in selling worldwide rights of third party content to multiple platforms, broadcasters and distributors.

Telepool has been owned by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s LA based WESTBROOK Inc and partners since 2018.

Weber previously worked for Wolfgang Petersen’s Radiant Productions based in Los Angeles, in script-development and in hands-on production.

She began her career at Grey advertising in Dusseldorf, before studying for a Master’s Degree in Production and Media Economics at Filmschool Munich, where she produced a feature film and documentary entitled Bernd Eichinger – Wenn das Leben zum Kino wird on the life of the legendary German producer.

Wenger was appointed BBC director of drama in September 2020 and has been controller of BBC drama since late 2016. Prior to this he was head of drama at Channel 4, and head of drama at BBC Wales. During his time as head of drama at BBC Wales, Wenger was an executive producer on Doctor Who  alongside Steven Moffat, where he cast Matt Smith into the lead role.

Wenger is responsible for overseeing more than 450 hours of drama across the year. His recent BBC drama commissions include Dolly Alderton adapting her much-loved autobiography Everything I Know About Love, Candice Carty-Williams’ first TV project Champion, Shane Meadows first ever period drama The Gallows Pole, Theresa Ikoko’s adaptation of Wahala, Cash Carraway’s adaptation of his darkly funny debut memoir and award winning comedy writer-director Stefan Golaszewski’s first television drama Marriage.

These titles follow previous commissions Including BAFTA and Emmy award winning I May Destroy You written by and starring Michaela Coel, A Suitable Boy adapted by Andrew Davies and directed by Mira Nair, factual drama The Salisbury Poisonings, award-winning Normal People, Nicole Taylor’s thriller The Nest, Talking Heads by Alan Bennett and Dracula written by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss.

Previous commissions also include The Long Song from writer Sarah Williams, A Very English Scandal by Russell T Davies, Black Earth Rising starring Michaela Coel and John Goodman from the Bafta-winning Hugo Blick, Mrs Wilson written by Anna Symon and developed with Ruth Wilson, The Cry written by Jacqueline Perske and starring Jenna Coleman, and The Capture written by Ben Chanan.

Further upcoming commissions include Adam Kay’s adaptation of This is Going To Hurt starring Ben Whishaw, factual drama Four Lives from award-winning team Jeff Pope and Neil McKay, Gentleman Jack (S2) starring Suranne Jones from writer Sally Wainwright, A Very British Scandal starting Claire Foy, Chloe by Alice Seabright, Superhoe written by and starring Nicôle Lecky, original horror series Red Rose from Michael and Paul Clarkson, The Tourist starring Jamie Dornan, SAS: Rogue Heroes by Steven Knight and an adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends.

Previously as a producer, Wengerclosely collaborated with Victoria Wood for over a decade on her dramatic projects. He produced her Bafta and RTS award-winning dramatisation of Nella Last’s diary Housewife, 49; collaborated with her on Loving Miss Hatto, Wood’s dramatisation of the life of classical pianist Joyce Hatto; and executive produced Eric And Ernie, Peter Bowker’s biopic of the young Morecambe and Wise, in which Wood also starred.

At Channel 4, Wenger helped launch of a slate of popular and award-winning drama series, including Humans, co-produced with AMC, Tony Grisoni’s Bafta-winning Southcliffe, Jack Thorne’s National Treasure starring Robbie Coltrane, Andrea Riseborough and Julie Walters, as well as Peter Kosminsky’s The State, which told the story of four radicalised Brits who travel to Syria to live as a part of Islamic state.

Wilder set up Adorable Media Ltd, a London-based independent production company in 2014 with Isibeal Ballance. Wilder’s background is in film, TV and animation devel-opment working closely with producers and writers, for US studios and broadcasters in UK and France. She has held key exec positions as head of development for Pathe working on An Ideal Husband and head of film development at Aardman, working on the movies Wallace and Gromit Wererabbit, Flushed Away and The Croods. She has also written episodes for kids animation series Taffy, Dennis and Gnasher, Dog Loves Books, The Happos Family.

Prior to co-founding Asacha Media Group, Williams was COO of international operations at Endemol Shine Group (2015-2019), overseeing the company’s growth across Central and Eastern Europe, India, the Middle East and Africa. Before the merger with Shine Group, Williams led Endemol’s operations in Central and Eastern Europe as regional CEO, while also overseeing the MENA region (2008-2013). She was previously executive vice president and a member of the management board of Central European Media Enterprises (CME). Before joining CME, Williams played leading roles in launching and overseeing businesses in Central and Eastern Europe for Fox International Channels, Fox Kids and Turner International Channels.

Wood is a veteran of over 5000 hours of television; a former head of continuing series for ITV Network, executive producer, BBC Drama, producer of Coronation Street and as creative director of All3’s Lime Pictures is the co-creator of The Only Way Is Essex.

He is co-CEO of Buccaneer Media, an internationally facing television and film production company known for strong talent relationships. Working with Hans Rosenfeldt (The Bridge), Gurinder Chadha (Blinded By The Light), Ingeborg Topsoe (Wildland), Sandhya Suri (The Field), Øystein Karlsen (Exit, Dag), Lars Lundstrom (Real Humans), Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting), Kevin Murphy (Desperate Housewives, Heathers, The Musical),James Strong (Broadchurch, Liar), Niels Arden Oplev (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Mr Robot) among many others, the company has established a reputation for authorship.

Previous productions include the Emmy-winning Marcella, the ground-breaking diverse Desi Rascals and the global hit, Ride. Buccaneer is currently in production on a second series of Acorn’s Whitstable Pearl and Irvine Welsh’s Crime.

Wright, president of EPIX, recently added the title of president, MGM Scripted Television. In this newly-expanded new role, Wright oversees MGM Scripted Television’s development and production of scripted programming, growing the television content slate MGM produces for worldwide distribution. In addition, he will continue to oversee all facets of the premium network EPIX, including expanding its slate of original programming, growing distribution and leading creative and marketing efforts.

At EPIX, Wright and his team dramatically expanded distribution, brought the network into the OTT space with the EPIX NOW app, tripled the amount of original programming, and more than doubled subscribers. Under his leadership, EPIX has launched several new original hit series, including the critically-acclaimed Godfather of Harlem and the Emmy-nominated Laurel Canyon.

Prior to EPIX, Wright was the CEO of Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners. Before Amblin, Michael was President of TBS, TNT, and Turner Classic Movies (TCM). During Michael’s tenure there, he led TNT and TBS to the top of the cable charts for 10 straight years. Michael is part of the Television Academy Foundation, the Executive Board of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, and is on the Board of Governors for The Paley Center.

Young joined HBO Europe as an executive producer in 2014, and was responsible for Mamon in the Czech Republic and Pakt in Poland in 2015, and Pakt2 and Valea Muta in Romania in 2016. In January 2017 he became VP original production for Central Europe, overseeing the HBO Europe Original Production initiative in Central Europe, producing four shows a year across the region. Titles include Hackerville, Wataha, Umbre, Aranyelet and Tuff Money.

Prior to that, in 2014 he produced THE MILL for Channel 4, and before that he spent two years in the BBC Drama Department as Executive Producer, simultaneously overseeing their two long-running one-hour dramas, Casualty and Holy City – 170 episodes in all. Both shows received BAFTA nominations during this time.

Between 2005 to 2011 Young was head of drama at major independent Talkback Thames, part of the Fremantle group, where he oversaw 400 episodes of its long-running show The Bill, winning BAFTA and Royal Television Society awards. He was executive producer on Minder for Channel 5 and series producer on Golden Hour for ITV. He has also collaborated internationally with other Fremantle companies such as Teamworx in Germany on the miniseries The Sinking of the Laconia.

Zavorszky is a producer for HBO Europe for Hungarian Original Productions. She has been working in the Hungarian Film Industry for almost 20 years. Her passion has always been to create outstanding and engaging work with dedicated talents. Zavorsky’s career escalated when she joined HBO Europe Original Production department in 2013. She has produced various Hungarian TV Series, both formats and originals, discovered new talented actors and creative crew members. She has also contributed to many awarded documentaries like Ultra, Return to Epipo and Divas.

Zein’s role at Warner Bros as SVP creative, format development & sales has him responsible for creative oversight of the development and production of programming and the exploitation of all forms of content within the WB International Television Production division (22 production companies, across 14 different countries). He is also responsible for driving creative development within international production, steering the business to develop locally created properties into global formats and fostering co-developments across the group.

Prior to joining Warner Bros, he was managing director of Tiger Aspect Productions, one of the UK’s leading independent television producers, for 13 years.

Zein also has extensive involvement in a range of media organisations including PACT, Royal Television Society, BAFTA, Edinburgh Television Festival.

He started his film and television career in 1991 working as film production assistant on numerous UK and USA feature films.  In 1993, he moved into television working for a range of independent producers.

Zimmermann started his career in 1993 at the German company KirchGruppe as producer of film, television and international co-productions (Le comte de Monte Cristo, Les Misérables,…). In 2002, he joined GMT Productions as head of international development and worked on international projects (Napoléon, The Three Musketeers). In 2006, he co-founded Zen Productions where he developed, produced and co-produced a number of ambitious projects (Laconia, The Bible Code). Nominated five times for the award of ‘Best Producer’ in Germany for Die Patin (2008), Vulkan (2009), Die Grenze (2010), Laconia and Borgia (2012) Zimmermann returned to Lagardère Entertainment in 2009 to kick off as managing director and producer Atlantique Productions, one of the first European production companies specialized in international English speaking TV series (Borgia, Transporter, Death in Paradise, Jo). In 2014, Zimmermann co-founded Dynamic Television with offices in Los Angeles, Berlin and Paris, and continues the international production model with a focus on drama series. His latest projects include the series Trapped, Van Helsing and The Sommerdahl Murders.

Ziqubu is a multi-award-winning director, writer, producer and actor based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Ziqubu (pronouns: Them/They) is the brains behind the highly successful magical realism mini-series, Emoyeni. They co-created, head wrote, head directed and coproduced the series, which was commissioned by SABC 1 (the South African Broadcasting Corporation) for primetime viewing, and has recently been picked up by Netflix. Emoyeni won Best Scriptwriting, Best Cinematography and Best Editing in a TV Drama at the SAFTAs (South African Film & Television Awards) 2019.

In 2018, Ziqubu wrote, directed and produced the 48-minute urban fantasy The Girl from The Other Side which was an official selection at the Pan African Film Festival 2019 in Los Angeles, USA. They also head directed and directed the 10-part series MTV Shuga Down South which won Best Youth Programme at the 2020 SAFTAs.

As an actor, Ziqubu stars in the the international series’ Madiba, opposite Laurence Fishburne, Orlando Jones and David Harewood; as well as The Book of Negroes opposite Aunjanae Ellis and Cuba Gooding Jr.