Icon’s McQuillan joins Humble Bee

UK prodco Humble Bee Films has hired Icon Films’ Stephen McQuillan to fill the newly created position of creative director.

Stephen McQuillan

McQuillan takes up the role immediately to oversee the growth of the Bristol-based company’s factual arm, developing science, history and specialist factual programming.

He will also build on Humble Bee Films’ core slate of blue-chip factual productions, which includes natural history series Attenborough’s Life in Colour, coproduced by BBC1, Netflix and Australia’s Nine Network.

McQuillan joins from rival Bristol-based factual indie Icon Films, where he was creative director and worked on projects including Unknown Amazon With Pedro Andrade for Vice Media Group, Malawi Wildlife Rescue for Blue Ant Media, Mysteries of the Deep for Science Channel and the Secrets of the Mega… strand for Channel 5.

Prior to that, McQuillan worked in several senior producer roles including at Twofour Group and the BBC.

McQuillan said: “Humble Bee Films has an incredible reputation for producing brilliant high-end factual programmes and its fantastic company ethos is renowned across the UK television community. I’m really excited to join this ambitious and talented team and help broaden and grow their already stunning line-up of factual content.”