SPEAKERS

Foz has a strong history of delivering record-breaking high end drama and children’s series for the major networks; his productions have won a total of 18 BAFTAs and 2 RTS awards. He has recently Executive Produced the new Sky Kids Tween Drama The Athena. He was Series Producer for Riveria – Sky Atlantic’s most downloaded original commission. He led the production process for ITV’s Jekyll & Hyde and is currently Consulting Producer on the Chinese adaptation of the series by Huace, due to air in 2019. Foz co-created Robin Hood – BBC Worldwide’s best-selling drama from 2008 to 2010 – with Dominic Minghella for BBC1, as well as creating the BAFTA-winning Belonging which ran for 10 series for the BBC in Wales. He has extensive experience in Children’s Drama, as the originating producer behind BAFTA-winning series: Wolfblood, The Dumping Ground, Hetty Feather and Harriet’s Army.

Alison Bakunowich is responsible for the entire kids business at Viacom International Media Networks. She is the SVP General Manager for Nickelodeon UK and Ireland, is in charge of Channel 5 Milkshake! and has brand oversight for Nickelodeon Nordics, CEE, Russia and Israel.

Alison’s remit covers all channels (PSB, Pay TV, SVOD, AVOD), digital, social, consumer products, partnerships and sponsorship. She is also responsible for all events and real-life experiences for the Nickelodeon and Milkshake! brands including Slimefest, the Milkshake! Live Tour and recently announced Nickelodeon Big Base Camp.

Alison joined Nickelodeon UK & Ireland in 2011 as Vice President, Creative, Marketing and Communications.

Dan is a BAFTA-winning writer, director and producer. Past credits include Thunderbirds Are Go (ITV), The Sparticle Mystery series 3 (Sparticle Productions/CBBC), Shaun the Sheep (Aardman/CBBC), and Hollyoaks (Lime/C4), as well as being the head writer, producer and director of all four series of the BAFTA and C21 drama award-winning interactive drama Dixi (Kindle Entertainment/CBBC).

Most recently Dan has been co-head-writing, The A List, the new teen mystery series he co-created with Nina Metivier for Kindle Entertainment / BBC, and he is also the director of the two-part season finale.

Anne’s career started at the BBC, where she produced the multi-award winning programmes Nice Girls Don’t Swear and Shakespeare Shorts. As Executive Producer, she looked after an exceptionally diverse and mind-stretching range of programmes which included Teletubbies and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. She moved to Granada Kids as Head of Drama and then became Controller in 2004 leading a thriving production department with a broad slate of programming, spanning pre-school, animation, entertainment and drama. The drama portfolio included over 100 episodes of the award winning My Parents Are Aliens which was frequently voted favourite kids’ show in the UK; Girls in Love, one of Granada International’s best-selling teen series, and the phenomenally successful single family drama from Jacqueline Wilson’s The Illustrated Mum, starring Michelle Collins, which won two BAFTAs as well as an International Emmy.

In 2007, Anne founded Kindle Entertainment together with Melanie Stokes. In just over eleven years, Kindle Entertainment has established a reputation in the market place for fresh, innovative content with a twist of comedy. Three times BAFTA-winning, Kindle Entertainment’s portfolio has a wide range of drama and comedy, spanning family, kids, primetime and young adult. Past shows include Treasure Island an action-adventure mini-series for Sky One and Syfy, starring Eddie Izzard, Donald Sutherland and Elijah Wood; Jacqueline Wilson’s Dustbin Baby, for BBC1, which won both an International Emmy and a BAFTA; and Hank Zipzer, starring Henry ‘The Fonz’ Winkler, CBBC’s top rating comedy drama which also won an International Emmy . While Jamillah & Aladdin, a magical action adventure series, the first ever CBeebies/CBBC co-commission, continues to captivate audiences around the world.

2018 promises to be an exciting year with drama series The A List, a psychological thriller and one of the BBC’s first teen commissions due to air in the Autumn, and the feature film Four Kids and It based on Jacqueline Wilson’s best selling book, with Michael Caine, Russell Brand, Paula Patton and Matthew Goode, currently filming in Ireland.

Robert is an experienced writer and executive producer for television drama, comedy and young-adult/ children’s series. Robert is currently in production on the second season of his original horror-anthology drama series Creeped Out (with co-creator Bede Blake) for CBBC and DHX, which Robert is also Executive Producing. This comes off the back of the hit 13-part first season which launched in 2017 and Netflix have recently picked up the worldwide streaming rights. Robert is also currently developing an original drama series based on the book series The Red Harlequin by author Roberto Ricci, which Robert is attached to show-run.

Robert wrote the BBC3 docu-drama Is This Rape? Sex on Trial which was nominated for Best Original Programme at the Broadcast Awards 2017. Rob also writes regular episodes for BBC1’s Eastenders. Previously, Robert was a core-member of the writing team for Channel 4’s Hollyoaks from 2010-2014, clocking up a whopping 75 episodes over a five-year-period, as well as a 60-minute episode for the E4 spin-off series Hollyoaks Later.

Melissa Cobb is vice president, Kids and Family at Netflix, the world’s leading internet entertainment service. Cobb leads the content team responsible for bringing kids and family titles, both live-action and animated, to Netflix members in 190 countries around the world.  Prior to Netflix, Cobb was chief creative officer for Oriental DreamWorks, where she oversaw development and production, business strategy, production strategy and more for a slate of high-quality animated feature films targeted to a global audience. She also served as a producer at DreamWorks Animation, responsible for animated feature films, including the Academy Award-nominated Kung Fu Panda trilogy. Before joining DreamWorks, Cobb was at 20th Century Fox Feature Animation (Titan A.E. and Ever After)and Walt Disney Pictures, where she was responsible for discovering and developing live-action titles. Cobb earned an M.B.A. from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA and a Bachelor of Science from Stanford University.

Dominic is the chief executive officer (CEO) of kids and family content distribution company Jetpack Distribution Ltd. He founded the company in 2014 with studio production partner Samka Productions and it has gone on to become a leading distributor of global kids shows including Dennis & Gnasher Unleashed, The Cul de Sac, Wolf, Pip Ahoy! Talking Tom and Friends, Yoko and Kitty is Not a Cat.

The company prides itself on working in partnership with kids’ content producers. As well as finding the best homes for their shows, it consults on a range of areas from financing to marketing, helping producers build the profile of their work. Jetpack offers a bespoke and flexible service tailored for the individual needs of each producer.

Prior to that Dominic held various senior level roles in London and Tokyo at global TV and entertainment companies including: The Walt Disney Company (director of acquisitions) and Turner where he was the channel manager of Cartoon Network. Dominic’s areas of expertise within the media industry include: acquisitions, programming, scheduling, creative, production, operations, marketing, digital and business development. Dominic lives in London.

Jon Gisby, managing director, WildBrain, has spent twenty years leading, building and advising major companies that create and distribute premium digital content. He was one of the many architects of the BBC’s strategy for online and on-demand services. As managing director of Freeserve, he built and monetized one of the UK’s largest online audiences via a portfolio of hundreds of partnerships in media, technology and ecommerce. He became managing director of Yahoo! UK and later ran their media and communications products across Europe. As a director at Channel 4, he transformed the broadcaster’s digital services and culture by building 4oD into the UK’s leading VOD business. He has subsequently helped launch several OTT video ventures including Rightster in the UK and Magine TV in Sweden and Germany. He was head of europe at Vevo, the joint venture between Sony Music and Universal Music Group which delivers 25 billion video views a month via OTT services and major partnerships. He also chairs the British Screen Advisory Council (BSAC), the UK’s leading forum for senior commercial and policy executives in TV, Film, Games and Digital Media, whose members include the major broadcasters, studios, platforms and producers. He started his career in strategy consulting having graduated from Oxford, Johns Hopkins and Harvard Business School.

Jeff Goldman serves as The Head of Business Development for Premiere Digital (in which Clarion Capital recently invested into), one of the largest servicing vendors and aggregation partners in the world.  Jeff oversees business development and sales, working with rights-holders of film and television content of all sizes  (Disney, Universal, Lionsgate, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures) and 1000s of independent providers (mini-majors, distribution companies, broadcasters, sales agents, individual filmmakers, etc.), assisting them in global servicing and/or aggregation to exploit their content rights online as well as service their content to all End Points worldwide. Outside of general servicing of content, Jeff works with high level content and content owners/distributors (especially those with “Kids Content” since it performs so well) to strategically exploit their content through Premiere’s 30+ Aggregation deals, both non-exclusively and exclusively, depending on the strategy and platform – giving them the ability to earn revenue in territories outside of traditional linear distribution to earn revenue and/or up until such time that those rights are required by a larger distributor or linear broadcaster.

Prior to Premiere, Jeff served as the Managing Director of Eyeworks Distribution where he curated and managed international and domestic team members while overseeing all Intellectual Property, Rights, Distribution, Deals, Marketing and Branding for all 16 of Eyeworks International Territories, until the entity was acquired by Warner Brothers at which point Goldman moved over to Eyeworks US entity (3 Ball) as the Chief Business Officer and Board Member where he oversaw all business development; including: branding, merchandising, international acquisitions and distribution, new business opportunities and new media collaborations.

Before working with Eyeworks/3 Ball, Goldman practiced law and worked at The William Morris Agency.

Brian Hamilton has executive produced more than 60 television projects in both scripted and non-scripted genres, representing over 350 hours of broadcast programming since he joined Omnifilm Entertainment in 1994. Brian is responsible for Omnifilm’s kids, family and primetime scripted programming slate. In the kids & family genre, Brian is currently an Executive Producer on Season 1 of Gabby Duran & the Unsittables as well as Season 1 of Fast Layne, both for Disney Channel, as well as Season 2 of Mech-X4 for Disney XD. Recent primetime scripted series which Brian executive produced include: The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco for Britbox, ITV, CITY-TV and Netflix, Primeval: New World for Space, ProSeiben and UKTV; CBC’s Arctic Air; Defying Gravity, for CTV, BBC, ProSeiben, and ABC, Robson Arms for CTV and Make Some Noise for CBC, which won the Gemini for Best Youth Non-Fiction series, as well as the Shaw Rocket Prize and the Japan Prize for Youth Programming. Brian is the founding Chair of the Pacific Screenwriting Program, and a past Chair of the BC Branch of the Canadian Media Production Association. He serves on the Executive Committee of CMPA’s National Board. Brian holds a First Class Honours Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo, and received his television training from the Banff Centre for the Arts.

Patricia Hidalgo is Chief Content Officer EMEA and International Kids Strategy for Turner. In this role, she acts as Turner’s editorial head for its strong portfolio of kids’ content and channel brands across EMEA including Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Boing and Cartoonito – as well as representing Turner International with the kids’ production teams in the U.S.

Hidalgo oversees all owned, co-funded and acquired content as well as the programming and digital strategies, branding and franchise management for Turner kids platforms and IPs. She is also responsible for the production of Cartoon Network’s global hit series, The Amazing World of Gumball.

Hidalgo joined Turner in London following a 15-year career at The Walt Disney Company, most recently as Vice President, Content & Programming Strategy, EMEA, with responsibility for directing content, programming and acquisitions strategies for Disney across EMEA.

Jonas Kryger Hansen is the commissioning editor at Danish tween channel DR Ultra. Responsible for the development and production of all fictional TV-series we produce for the Danish market, on all platforms. Strictly focused on On-Demand success. His goal is to capture the attention of picky Danish tweens with popular, clickable fictional formats, to serve grains of perspective on everyday life to them, with the goal to make it more interesting for Danish tweens to tackle and talk about dilemmas that fill their minds.

David Levine is vice president, programming, production and strategic development, Disney Channels EMEA, and general manager, Disney Channels UK & Ireland, Nordics. As vice president, he is responsible for all strategic and operational aspects of programming across Disney Channels EMEA, including the development of the linear and multi-platform programming strategy. David is responsible for the direction of original production and overseeing the development and production slates of originally produced content, acquisitions and co-productions. His team is responsible for developing and commissioning innovative and tailored content that listens to what kids want. Recent successes include Disney Channel’s ratings hit The Lodge, and upcoming 101 Dalmatian Street, a new animated series inspired by the classic novel and animated film.

As general manager of Disney Channels UK & Ireland, Nordics, David leads a team that utilises these key platforms to drive familiarity and awareness for the Disney brand and content, through key partnerships with Sky Broadcasting, Virgin Media and more. David also serves as the Executive Sponsor of Pride UK&I, the company’s resource group from LGBT+ and ally employees, and has been listed #29 on the Financial Times Outstanding list of LGBT+ Executives.

David joined Disney in March 2004, serving multiple roles in US Programming, Worldwide Programming and Channel GM. Prior to Disney, David worked for Ragdoll USA as Vice President Business Affairs and Development.

Nina is a BAFTA-winning writer, script editor and producer. Alongside co-creating and head writing BBC teen drama The A List, her most recent credits include working as script editor on Chris Chibnall’s new series of Doctor Who and producing and writing on four series of Dixi, CBBC’s first ever online drama and winner of the BAFTA for Best Original: Interactive, as well as the C21 International Award for Best Digital Drama.

Nina previously worked as Development Executive at Kindle Entertainment after script editing a range of shows, including The Life & Adventures of Nick Nickleby for BBC1 (the first modern retelling of a Dickens novel for television); two series of CBBC’s Leonardo (nominated for the Rose d’Or & Prix Jeunesse awards) and a series of CBeebies Big and Small (winner of the Kidscreen Best Writing award).

Sarah Muller is vice president of Children’s and Youth Programming (Western Europe International Networks) at Sony Pictures Television with responsibility for the Pop and Sony Music Channels. Prior to that, she was Head of Children’s at Channel 5 where she was responsible for the Milkshake! brand refresh, content portfolio overhaul and studio reorganisation. Sarah was Creative Director, Scripted, Animation and Co-Productions for CBBC In-House before that, a role that grew from her work as Head of CBBC Acquisitions, Animation and Drama Development. Passionate about all Kids’ content, but especially Drama and Animation, commissioned projects include Danger Mouse, Strange Hill High, Creeped Out, Harriet’s Army, Wolfblood, The Dumping Ground, The Worst Witch, Katie and Just William.

Prior to joining BBC Children’s, she was Managing Director of Elephant Productions. As a producer, credits include 6 series of the multi-award winning, ratings success Grizzly Tales For Gruesome Kids (CITV), Animal School (CBBC), Pop Skool (BBC1), 3 Brothers Diamond (C4), and New Willo The Wisp (Disney) as well as developing the BAFTA-winning drama series The War Diaries of Alastair Fury (BBC1).

Darren is responsible for leading negotiations on a range of Acquired Series, Films and Kids deals across the ITV portfolio (ITV1, ITV2, ITVBe, ITV3, ITV4, CITV and littleBe).

For CITV & littleBe, Darren has acquired a range of live action and animated comedies such as Sooty, Pip Ahoy, Massive Monster Mayhem, Mr Bean and Mr Magoo.

Darren’s previous role was at Channel 5, as an Acquisitions Executive for Channel 5, Five USA and Five Star.

Having worked with the key animation studios to establish Animation UK as part of the newly formed UK Screen Alliance representing VFX, post production and film studios, Kate was appointed as executive chair of Animation UK in 2017 and leads on all policy and strategy for the sector. Animation UK is the voice of the sector in the UK, representing production companies, studios, service providers and distributors. In 2013 Animation UK secured the Animation Tax Relief and continues to represent on all issues impacting on business as well as advocacy. Key current developments include the new Young Audiences Content Fund, a new Animated shorts fund programme and support for exports and profile raising at key markets.

Kate also runs a consultancy practice in the creative industries offering support for strategy & business development and research & policy development and has over twenty year’s experience of working across the creative industries at a senior level. Kate also chairs the BFI Research Funding Council is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of BAFTA and co-director of creative media labs an R&D programme to support immersive storytelling.

Rosina leads on Pact’s relationship with the UK’s nations and regions and the policy areas of children’s, animation and digital media; as well as EU policy issues including the Digital Dingle Market & copyright. She has played a leading role within a range of successful campaigns, including the introduction of a tax relief for children’s live action TV.

Before joining Pact, Rosina was a senior policy adviser and project manager for the Federation of Small Business (FSB). She led on international trade policy and also managed the organisation’s research programme. Rosina started her career in the EU Directorate of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Stuart Rowson is the head of discovery at BBC Children’s and is responsible for ensuring the commissioned content is delivered to young audiences across the best suited BBC Children’s platforms. He oversees the digital platforms including our raft of digital products for under-16s from websites, apps and games as well as the scheduling across the CBeebies and CBBC Channels and iPlayer. He also oversees the TV presentation teams and the social media and YouTube strategies. Prior to joining Children’s, Stuart worked for BBC Sport for seven years, where he was the Digital Editor on the BBC Sport website overseeing the digital coverage of London 2012 and the Rio Olympics during a period of huge digital and social media growth.  Before joining Children’s, he spent a year as BBC Sport’s first Younger Audiences Editor, devising and implementing the strategy to target 16-34-year-olds.

Lindsay is an award-winning screenwriter and creator of the ground-breaking series Punky, recognized as the first mainstream animation series worldwide in which the central character has special needs (Down’s syndrome). Two series later, it is available in over 100 countries with circa 5 million hits on YouTube.

Crossing genre, searching out the best stories to tell, Lindsay has worked in live action and animation, written for kids and adult, film and TV, games and apps. As well as delivering masterclasses and courses throughout Ireland for two decades, she has worked with a wide range of production companies in Ireland and the UK as screenwriter, creator and creative consultant and is currently developing a number of children’s series and books that link her desire to celebrate difference and to entertain.

In April, Lindsay published Ireland’s first comprehensive guide to screenwriting, Write That Script. In 2012 she founded the Creatives in Animation Network to bring writers and animation creatives together with a view to fostering collaborations.

A graduate of Moonstone Screenwriting Labs (2002), Lindsay has an MA in Screenwriting for Film & TV from Leeds Metropolitan University (1999), during which time she interned at Granada in the children’s department.

Until November 2017 Cheryl was controller of CBBC but is now head of content for BBC Children’s and commissions content for both CBeebies and CBBC.

Both channels continue to be the most popular for their age group in the U.K and are proud of their stealth learning expertise. Cbeebies  “Lights Up Little Learners” and ignites a sense of tolerance and inclusivity in our youngest viewers. The public service baton is passed up to CBBC which also celebrates diversity and aims to reflect the lives of all UK children. Both Channels inspire, inform, and entertain with unique multi-genre slates

Cbeebies boasts world class pre-school content amongst its key brands such as Hey Duggee, Something Special, Biggleton, Pablo and Justin’s House:

Standout and award-winning brands on CBBC include Horrible Histories, Dangermouse, My Life Documentaries and Hetty Feather.

Previously Cheryl was Head of Comedy for the BBC and was responsible for Mrs Browns Boys, Cuckoo and Bad Education.  As Head of Comedy at Hat Trick Productions she co- created Drop Dead Gorgeous (BBC Three) and at Channel 4 commissioned Spaced, Black Books and The World of Derren Brown.

Cheryl was educated at the Quaker Mount School in York. She lives in West Yorkshire with her family and a characterful dog. 

As planning and brand strategy manager at Dubit, Steph develops strategies and oversees the initial stages of the digital entertainment and education apps and games that Dubit create. Steph works between the research and digital teams to help conceptualise the best digital experiences for clients and ensures that recent research findings and observations input into all of Dubit’s digital builds.

Since launching in 1999, Dubit has experience working with many leading children’s companies, including LEGO, Mattel, PBS Kids, Dreamworks and Discovery – as well as many start-ups, too.

Colin Williams is a creator and showrunner and the owner of Sixteen South Studios which he founded in 2007 to create and produce quality television for children. His work can be seen on all major networks across the globe. Colin has gained an international reputation for the highest quality work and has already created and produced over 400 episodes of award winning children’s television which have picked up 30 international awards including two EMMY® nominations, a British Animation Award, the coveted Prix Jeunesse and the BAFTA for the Best Independent Production Company. The studio’s latest shows include the mixed media animated series, Lily’s Driftwood Bay; WildWoods, a live action puppet sitcom for Hulu; Claude, for Disney Junior – based on the popular book series; and Pinkalicious and Peterrific for PBS Kids.  He has a busy slate of new ideas.