Primal Media ups Neil Kirby to head of development ahead of Ben Riley exit

STV Studios-owned Primal Media has promoted Neil Kirby to head of development ahead of Ben Riley’s departure next month.

Neil Kirby

Kirby takes the place of Riley, who is leaving Primal in February after six years for a new, as-yet-unannounced role elsewhere.

Kirby is currently development executive at Primal, a role he’s held for the past two years. Prior to this he worked in development roles at companies including Fulwell 73, BBC, Whizz Kid and ITV Studios.

His credits include Plastic Surgery Rewind (E!), The One That Got Away (Amazon’s Prime Video), Sex Unzipped (Netflix) and Encanto: Live at the Hollywood Bowl (Disney+).

In recent years, Primal has moved firmly into ambitious reality entertainment, most recently with The Underdog: Josh Must Win for E4.

Riley joined Primal in 2019 having previously served as head of entertainment formats at Lime Pictures.

Primal said it will soon announce a “major” new global reality competition and added it is currently on the shortlist for the next BBC/NBC tender, as well as being in funded development for entertainment and reality formats for both US networks and streamers.

Joint managing directors Mat Steiner and Adam Wood said: “Neil is an exceptional format developer, who not only creates original ideas from scratch but then brings them to life in spectacular fashion.

“His knowledge of TV is borderline disturbing. We’re delighted that he now steps up to spearhead our development as we continue our search for the next generation of stand-out entertainment shows.”

“It has been a joy working with Ben. We’ll miss him hugely and wish him the very best in his development adventures to come.”