- There’s no better example of my tenacity than the six years I relentlessly knocked on the door of the TV industry, whilst working in television subtitling. The first person who hired me as a Researcher speculated that I had developed my editorial instinct by subtitling television for a living.
- I’ve brought my BAFTA-nominated producer and storytelling skills to over 50 projects in 13 years - complex history like the British Empire, sensitive subjects such as the Holocaust, live/events television like the BBC Proms, a CGI-heavy programme on dinosaurs, access-led ob doc, and many presenter-led documentaries.
- The urgency of capturing testimony before it’s too late drives me above all else. The extroverts of the world are natural contributors – but I ‘see’ and want to make a safe space for the less loud to have their stories heard. An expert at casting, I celebrate the quirks that make each person unique.
- I regard strong communication and good management as the most important (yet least discussed) skill of a director. I build cohesive teams and nurture junior staff.
- It brings me joy to bring my life’s experiences into my work – my 5-year trustee at an interfaith charity, my orchestral music, my love of gardening, and a deep awareness of how history has forged my own identity.
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Key skills: Shaping narratives, designing sequences, scripting, writing beat sheets, conducting interviews, edit producing, casting, producing, rigorous and well-footnoted research, gaining trust of diverse communities, sustaining co-operation in access-based documentaries, working with fixers, scheduling, sourcing and clearing cost-effective archive, developing ideas and writing treatments, producing talent and expert contributors.
Working with Talent: Zaha Hadid, Alexei Sayle, Tom Dyckhoff, Peter Doig, Kirsty Wark, David Olusoga, Tristram Hunt, Ian Hislop, Katie Derham, Michael Portillo, Bobby Friction, Simon Schama, Nicola Benedetti.
International Filming:
Filmed in Ghana, South Africa, Botswana, India, Canada, USA, Uruguay, Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania, Hong Kong. Have set up filming in Greece and Croatia.
Development & Commissions: Two original documentaries that I developed in my spare time were commissioned by the BBC, which I went on to work on - 'British Jews, German Passports' (BBC One); Pump Up The Bhangra (BBC Four).
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