SPEAKERS

Allan has a strong history of delivering record-breaking high-end drama and children’s series for the major networks; his productions have won multiple awards. He is the executive producer on the BFI funded development ‘As Dead As It Gets’ and has recently executive produced the new Sky Kids Tween Drama The Athena, which has received BAFTA and Broadcast award nominations. He was series producer for Riveria – Sky Atlantic’s most downloaded original commission and led the production process for ITV’s Jekyll & Hyde. Allan co-created Robin Hood – one of the BBC best-selling drama – with Dominic Minghella for BBC1, as well as creating the long running series Belonging 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.

Allen is a 19 year old from Croydon, South London. His acting career started at the age of 9 where he appeared as a Young Shenzi in the west ends Lion King. He later appeared in a number of tv shows and commercials. Aged 16 he wrote, produced, directed and starred in his own feature length film Clued Up, now available on Amazon Prime.

Allen wants to tell new, exciting, authentic stories about young people, written by young people. Bryncoed Productions’ gave Callan the opportunity to workshop some of his ideas with other new young writers. This workshop process resulted in As Dead As It Gets, a series about a group of 16 year old friends living in Croydon who have just completed their GCSEs.

Brogan’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 family drama from Jacqueline Wilson’s The Illustrated Mum, starring Michelle Collins, which won two BAFTAs as well as an International Emmy.
In 2007, Brogan founded Kindle Entertainment together with Melanie Stokes. In just over twelve 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. The A List, a 13 part, psychological thriller was one of the BBC’s first teen commissions and quickly gathered a cult following.
2019 promises to be an exciting year with Kindle Entertainment’s first feature film Four Kids and It based on Jacqueline Wilson’s best-selling book, with Michael Caine, Russell Brand, Paula Patton and Matthew Goode, due to be released in the coming months.

Bryans is an animation producer with over 10 years of experience in the animation industry. During this time, he has secured over £12 million of production finance for multiple international co-productions, working with partners such as CBBC, Channel 4, Nick Jnr, Milkshake, Disney and PBS Kids. He was a producer on the first ever animated series to be produced and financed entirely on the island of Ireland Lifeboat Luke and has a wealth of experience working on award winnings children’s animated shows, with talent such as Sir Billy Connolly, Seamus Heaney, Stephen Fry, Harry Hill and Dolly Parton.

Bryans is one of the co-founders of ALT Animation, a production studio based in Belfast, with a focus on developing original animated Intellectual Properties. One of the first projects that the studio has developed is The Hearios – a stop motion and live action series aimed at a pre-school audience, which has received development assistance from the Young Audience Content Fund. The project was pitched at Cartoon Forum in 2019 and is currently in on-going discussions with a number of broadcasters in the UK and beyond.

Chojnacka has 20 years of experience in the media and entertainment industries, having held senior executive roles in content, creative and strategy at MTV Networks, Viacom and Pearson. She has a strong track record of launching channels & brands, building winning teams and products across the globe. Today, as a chief content & creative officer at Hopster, the UK’s leading entertainment and learning app for pre-school kids, she is responsible for the creative direction and content strategy of the platform.

Clarke joined Aardman as head of consumer products in 1998, after several years as UK licensing director for Disney Consumer Products. In 2008, he became head of rights and brand development, responsible for global brand development and distribution of Aardman and third-party rights across all platforms: film, TV, DVD & digital, merchandising and licensing, and themed attractions and live events. He was instrumental in developing Aardman’s rights and marketing team, which now includes 30 people and works across 170 territories worldwide; the launch of the studio’s YouTube channels, which currently exceed 1.2 billion views annually; and the studio diversifying into new areas of immersive storytelling, including its first Shaun the Sheep Land which opened in Sweden in 2015. In 2018, when Aardman became an employee owned organisation, Clarke was appointed a member of the newly formed Aardman executive board.

Cox is responsible for the development slate of new content aimed at kids and family audiences. She currently is overseeing the latest Shaun the Sheep series 6 directed by Tom Parkinson.
Prior to joining Aardman, Cox was the co-owner of ArthurCox, an award-winning film and animation production company, which she launched in 2002 alongside Sally Arthur. During this time, she established a close working relationship with Aardman, collaborating with the studio as a commercials director. She directed the award winning film The Itch of the Golden Nit in 2011, which was created under the ground-breaking and BAFTA-award winning Tate Movie Project, with the participation of 34,000 children across the UK. She also co-directed the road safety mini-series The Peculiar Adventures of Hector, which won her a second British Animation Award in 2008, her first was for her Animate! Short 3 Ways to Go. Her first stop motion film Don’t Let it All Unravel, was made in conjunction with Aardman Animations as one of the 60 environmental films commissioned for the Live Earth concerts and has since won 11 international film awards and has been screened at numerous festivals including the Grand Prize at Tricky Women in Vienna 2008. Cox created and directed the BAFTA-nominated animation pre-school series Nina Needs to Go! for Disney Junior, and the educational BAFTA-nominated online series Search It Up for Azoomee. Her short film Heavy Pockets was also nominated for BAFTA’s Best Short Animation Award in 2004.

Edwards is head of the Young Audiences Content Fund at the BFI, and is responsible for the successful implementation of this game changing UK Government initiative to stimulate the provision of public service content for audiences of 0-18.

Edwards joined the BFI from BBC Children’s where she had been the head of acquisitions and independent animation, responsible for pre-buying and acquiring live-action and animated programming for CBeebies, CBBC and iPlayer. She joined the BBC in 2008 as content manager and executive producer. Prior to the BBC, Jackie was a producer in the independent sector. A passionate advocate for public service content, Edwards is living her dream job!

Elen is a writer and producer and develops drama for Cwmni Da television company in Caernarfon, north Wales. She is creator and producer of Deian a Loli (79×15′) a Welsh language live-action preschool series for S4C about twins who have superpowers. She was associate producer on William McGregor’s feature, Gwen(Endor/BFI) and was translator and Welsh language advisor on episode 306 of The Crown (Left Bank/Netflix). Her projects have won her Bafta Cymru awards, Celtic Media awards and most recently, a Broadcast Award. She is the executive producer on the live-action multi-platform drama, Person/a which was recently awarded funding from BFI’s YACF and will commence shooting in spring 2020.

As a senior reporter, Franks writes daily news, features and perspective pieces for C21 Media, the UK-based provider of breaking news and industry analysis to the international entertainment community. He has been editor of C21Kids magazine since 2016 and is also part of the team that organises C21 Media’s award-winning conference Content London, including oversight of Kids Content Futures. He joined C21 Media in 2012 following stints writing for the BBC online and music magazine Clash.

Gadney, has been working at the intersection of media and technology for over 20 years, initially as the first Head of Digital for Penguin Books UK, then at the BBC, Fox and the Guardian, before setting up his first games company developing massively multiplayer games. More recently, he produced the official mobile games for Sherlock, Home & Away and other TV series around the world. He is CEO of To Play For, the media technology platform behind Charisma.ai which is producing new forms of immersive stories powered by artificial intelligence. The company is working with broadcasters and studios around the world to extend TV series and films into narrative games, and is currently adapting John Wyndham’s sci-fi classic The Kraken Wakes with Charisma.ai. He is Chair of Trustees of The Old Fire Station in Oxford, and a Fellow of the University of Bath, Bristol, Plymouth, Falmouth and Exeter researching the automation of creativity.

Hurford-Jones is responsible for managing the children’s original programming portfolio for BBC Studios globally. Hurford-Jones joined BBC Studios in July 2010 as part of the company’s on-going strategy to work with the UK and international production community to source, develop and executive produce global and locally relevant content for the global CBeebies branded services and the wider commercial and brand businesses.

Hurford-Jones works closely with all of the company’s operating divisions. In addition to having editorial oversight of all new productions she also leads commercial negotiations and works to extract maximum value from BBC Studios children’s intellectual property. Hurford-Jones actively seeks returnable global content which can run in all markets. Original productions for BBC Studios so far include Bluey, Hey Duggee, Sarah & Duck, Go Jetters, Andy’s Adventures and Dinopaws.

With a focus on pre-school programming Hurford-Jones is also tasked with strengthening the overall Children’s catalogue for the business covering older children, tween and teen groups.

Before joining BBC Studios, Hurford-Jones worked in programming and sales for RDF Kids and Family, as director of programming Europe and Latin America at Disney and Fox Kids. Prior to that she was Head of Sales at HIT Entertainment plc.

In this role, Levine is responsible for all strategic and operational aspects of kids programming including the development of the linear and multi-platform programming strategy. Additionally, he is responsible for determining the direction of original production and commissions all originally produced content, acquisitions and co-productions for Disney kids platforms. He has developed and commissioned Emmy-nominated Evermoor, First Class Chefs, The Lodge and 101 Dalmatian Street. Levine oversees programming strategy for pan-regional Disney Junior and Disney XD, reaching over 110 countries and 70 million households.

Levine has operational responsibility for UK & Ireland kids programming, and regional responsibility for kids channel performance across the region. Levine also serves as an executive sponsor of the Pride UK&I business resource group for Disney’s LGBT+ employees.

A 15+ year Disney veteran, Levine has served in a variety of roles, including GM UK/Nordics Disney Channels; VP/GM, Disney XD Worldwide; VP, worldwide programming strategy, qcquisitions and co-productions. Levine has been an OUTStanding/Financial Times Top 100 LGBT+ Executive for the past three years and serves as a Trustee for anti-bullying charity ‘Ditch the Label.’

Margrie is the commissioning editor for 6-16 non-scripted content in the BBC children’s department. She has been committed to working with young people through the arts for over 30 years. She is responsible for some of the BBC’s most successful factual brands for young people including the multi award-winning My Life documentary series and the BAFTA-winning Operation Ouch! More recently she has commissioned iPlayer and podcast content for 12-15s, including Mimi on A Mission: Sex Ed.

Norrington is a best-selling novelist, playwright and journalist, and a PhD researcher with a masters in creative writing and new media. She is conference chair for StoryWorld Conference LA, EPr of virtual reality sessions for CMC and a two-time TEDx speaker. She is a BAFTA Guru and member of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, The Writers Guild of Great Britain and Women in Film & TV.

She is founder and chief creative director of storycentral, a London-based entertainment studio that incubates and develops ground-breaking transmedia properties with global partners in film, television, animation, publishing, advertising, branding, theme parks, Virtual Reality and gaming.

As CEO/CCO of storycentral, Norrington has worked on a range of intellectual properties that are founded on robust story worlds with strong core themes and have genuine and relevant touch points across a host of media channels. She specialises in storytelling that amplifies fan incubation and engagement, experience design, extending IP and franchises, community build through story and storyworld strategy, incubation and development – all centred around a strong robust core of story architecture, theme, awareness of audience and experience design.

Rezaei started Big Bad Boo Studios to make inclusive, innovative cartoons for kids. Her latest show The Bravest Knight, about a pumpkin farmer who marries a Prince, is a first Hulu Kids Original and won Mip’s 2019 DiversifyTV Excellence Awards. Big Bad Boo shows include 16 Hudson (TVO Kids), 1001 Nights (Teletoon), Lili & Lola (ICI TV), and Mixed Nutz (Amazon Prime). 1001 Nights, nominated for 15 LEOs with 4 wins, airs in 80 countries on Cartoon Network, Disney, DiscoveryKids, ORF, RTP, Gloob among others. Based in New York and Vancouver, the company has launched Oznoz.com, an ad-free, kids-only, SVOD platform with “Cartoons in 10 languages”. Exclusive libraries include Babar, Musti and others in Chinese, French, Korean and others. With a BS in Computer Science, a BA in German Literature from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from NYU, Rezaei spent 10 years working on Wall Street at EXIS, Deloitte and Misys. She was born in Iran, grew up in Austria and speaks English, German, Persian, French, and Spanish. Rezaei is raising her two girls trilingual. They love to watch Elmo’s World in Persian and Thomas & Friends in German on Oznoz.

Robinson is an international media exec with extensive radio, television and digital experience, having successfully held senior exec positions at the BBC, The Walt Disney Company, and NBC Universal. Robinson was appointed EVP at Toonz Media Group in July 2019 responsible for branded platforms, channels, on demand and strategic partnerships across the group.

Robinson founded KidsCo in 2005 as a joint venture with NBCUniversal and, as CEO, built it into a global children’s linear and VOD network in 98 countries and in 18 languages worldwide before a 51% controlling sale.

Prior to KidsCo, Robinson was managing director/senior vice president of Walt Disney Television International where he created new global channel brands Playhouse Disney (now Disney Junior) and Toon Disney and was responsible for global Disney kid’s strategy for TV content production and broadcast based in London and then Burbank, Los Angeles.
Robinson was managing editor of BBC Radio 1, Head of Strategy, BBC and CEO of national commercial station Talk Radio.

He has a BSc Hons and MBA from Cambridge, Manchester and Bradford Universities and has won multiple awards include Baftas and Sonys and is a regular contributor to conferences, podcasts and TV and radio. He is chair of the board of East London Radio.

Moonbug is a global entertainment company that develops and distributes safe and fun content for children. Robson brings more than two decades of experience in entertainment, digital media and marketing having worked with most major content owners, distribution platforms and device manufacturers internationally.

His knowledge and expertise of the digital space draws from his career at Paramount Pictures, HTC, Wildbrain and Brave Bison, building some of the largest global fan-based networks, as well as staying at the forefront of digital distribution and consumption. John holds a bachelor’s degree (Honours) in marketing and business from Manchester Metropolitan University

Savage is responsible for working across the creative sector to help drive and derisk its innovation with advanced digital technologies – with a specific focus on immersive (virtual reality and augmented reality) innovation. Digital Catapult have been supporting the adoption and growth of the use of immersive and interactive technologies across the creative industries. Working with museums, galleries, media and advertising organisations as they experiment and innovate with advanced digital technology to add new consumer experiences and to create additional revenue streams.

Additionally Digital Catapult run the UK’s largest immersive content accelerator with Arts Council England – supporting the creation of original immersive content from the UK’s growing ecosystem of talented digital creators and storytellers.

Tim Searle has worked in animation for over 25 years, joined Beano Studios from CBBC where he served as Executive Producer of Animation, and Executive Producer of Danger Mouse. Previous roles include Series Director of Mr Bean at Tiger Aspect where he also developed a number of projects as Creative Director for Kids & Animation. Searle has produced animation and graphics for a wide range of comedy shows including Have I Got News For You and worked alongside Steve Coogan and Henry Normal at Baby Cow Animation where I Am Not An Animal was one of the highlights. From 2001 to 2004, Searle directed 5 series of 2DTV, ITV’s hit quick-turnaround, topical animated sketch show. Currently he is Executive Producer on series 2 of Dennis and Gnasher Unleashed! (CBBC).

Wells has a long and distinguished track record of building brands and operations throughout the world. Wells served as EVP and head of international for WWE, Inc., where he was responsible for the global strategic development of WWE’s brand and businesses, including the launch of the direct-to-consumer subscription service, WWE Network. Prior to that, he worked across the Viacom International Media Networks brands based in New York, Singapore and Japan, where he served as vice president and general manager of Nickelodeon. He has a deep experience in international media, consumer products and live events.

Wells comes with great passion for kids, education, Sesame Workshop and the work we do. Wells is also actively involved in philanthropic institutions outside of the workplace and is a board member of the Ali Forney Center, an organization supporting homeless LGBTQ teens. Wells received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan and later earned Master of Arts degrees in International Studies from both American University and Ritsumeikan University.

Wheeler leads a team responsible for producing, commissioning and acquiring kids and family content for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Prior to joining Netflix, Wheeler was vice president for Animation Production and Development at Viacom International. In his almost two decades in children’s entertainment, Wheeler has produced content aimed at pre-schoolers, and 6-12-year olds both in live-action and animation. His credits include a number of international hits and family favourites such as Peppa Pig, Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom, Fireman Sam and Nella the Princess Night.

Whiteley’s career in the entertainment industry spans television, film, theatre, video, and publishing. As creative director of Novel Entertainment, the company she co-founded in 2001, she writes and produces across a range of media. Novel specialises in the creation and development of successful children’s character brands; core programming includes Horrid Henry, Cinemaniacs and Fimbles and the company has produced over 850 programmes for television, radio and the digital space, with expertise extending into interactive online content, computer games and brand licensing and merchandising.

Whiteley’s early career took her to The Children’s Channel, ITV, Universal Pictures and Channel Four. She has been a vice chair of the World Summit on Children’s Television, a board member of BAFTA and a founding member of Children’s BAFTA and is currently a board member of the Oxford Technology and Media Network and a member of the Rose D’Or Awards jury.

As planning and brand strategy manager at Dubit, Whitley oversees the initial stages of the digital entertainment and education apps and games that Dubit create. Whitley often 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.