Talesmith’s Streib ascends to Tin Roof

Tin Roof Media, the investment group launched by DHX co-founder Neil Court, has appointed former Talesmith and Lightbox executive Ulla Streib to head its operations.

Ulla Streib

Streib becomes director of operations and will work alongside Tin Roof-backed producer Blink Films, and its co-founders Dan Chambers and Justine Kershaw, as well as Outline Productions co-founders Laura Mansfield and Helen Veale.

Streib will be tasked with building both companies’ growth prospects by developing commissions from new platforms and broadcasters, along with with increasing international coproductions.

She will also oversee distribution activity for both formats and finished programming and exploit synergies provided through the two companies being co-sited.

Court launched production investment firm Tin Roof in 2016 with Two Four founder Charles Wace and Charles Ogilvie, former chief financial officer at Entertainment One UK.

It first took a stake in Blink before expanding its interests to include Outline in 2017.

Blink and Outline jointly have around 60 hours in production for broadcasters including the BBC, Channel 4, National Geographic, UKTV, PBS/NOVA, Channel 5, Travel Channel and Smithsonian.

Outline commissions include Outline’s Sarah Beeny’s Renovate Don’t Relocate (20×60’) for UKTV, while recent Blink orders include Shut Ins for Channel 4 and a second season of We’ll Meet Again (6×60’) for PBS in the US.

Blink’s series The Creative Brain, Joy of Techs and Monty Don’s Italian Gardens have also been picked up by Netflix, while Outline’s Health Freaks format is being produced as Medicine or Myth for a second season by SBS Australia.

Streib joins from natural history producer Talesmith, which was behind BBC2’s The Real T Rex with Chris Packham. She has also recently worked as supervising producer on Caravan Media and Quicksilver Media’s first Netflix Original series, Killer Ratings.

She was previously director of operations at Lightbox and worked on its Netflix original Captive, and before that worked for Darlow Smithson Productions.

Streib said: “It was a hard decision to leave Martin Williams and the team at Talesmith as they grow the business with some really exciting new projects, but the opportunity to work with two such fantastic, creative teams at Blink and Outline was too good to pass up. I’m really excited about helping both companies to develop their businesses and take them to the next level.”

In a joint statement, Chambers and Kershaw at Blink said: “We’re thrilled about having Ulla join as we build on recent new commissions and secure further recommissions of our series. We’re particularly looking to draw on her expertise and experience securing and overseeing content for new platforms to help us add to our existing client base.”

Mansfield and Veale added: “Ulla’s track record of achieving strategic growth and helping deliver high-profile, high-quality content for some of the UK’s leading indies makes her an ideal fit for Outline.”