CV

Feb 2011 – Present

REDBACK PRODUCTIONS LTD - Shanghai, China
Chief Executive / Executive Producer / Freelance Consultant

Along with Executive Producing my own Redback Documentary projects, I am also freelance Exec Producing on Documentary and Drama-Doc projects - for UK and US Broadcasters.

Current projects include:

• Ladyboys , 6 x 60” Drama Documentary series - Redback Productions for SKY LIVING (UK). Observational Documentary series following the diverse and entertaining world of Thailand's ’Ladyboys’

• I Shouldn’t Be Alive (series 5), 16 x 60” Drama Documentary series – Discovery Channel - Animal Planet (USA) – Exec Producing all Drama Shoot Scripts / Casting (the series I was running in the UK - see more below)

• The 8-Limbed Boy / 600lb Mom – 2 x 60” Documentaries – Five (UK) / Discovery Channel TLC (USA) - (updates of earlier films, see below)

2009 – Feb 2011

DARLOW SMITHSON PRODUCTIONS (DSP) - London, UK
Executive Producer

(DSP is one of the UK’s leading independent TV production companies – co-producer of feature film ‘127 Hours’ - nominated for 6 Oscars).

Programmes include:

• I Shouldn’t Be Alive (series 3 & 4), 22 x 60” Drama Documentary series
  Executive Producer running two very successful series for Discovery Channel Animal Planet channel - the 4th highest rating show in the Channel's history
  
  
• My Kid Survived, a 1 x 60” Drama Documentary Pilot for Discovery Channel TLC (USA)

• 911 Kids, a 1 x 90” Documentary for Channel 4 (UK) on children who lost a parent in 911 – a 10th anniversary special

• The 8-Limbed Boy / The Boy Who Cries Blood / 600lb Mum / My Skin’s Killing Me / the 40 Year old Toddler etc - a 6 x 60” Documentary series for Discovery Channel TLC, on people with extraordinary medical conditions

2006 – 2009 (click here to view Gecko website)

GECKO PRODUCTIONS LTD – London, UK
Chief Executive / Executive Producer  

Films include:

• The Girls Who Were Found Alive, for Channel 4’s prestigious documentary strand Cutting Edge - an exclusive access documentary on two young girls who were abducted by a paedophile and miraculously rescued 5 days later.  
  
  
• Cheetah Man – a 1 x 60” Natural History documentary featuring Olivier Houalet, a modern day Tarzan with an extraordinary affinity with wild Cheetahs - for Channel Five (UK).

• Ben: Diary of a Heroin Addict  –  a 1 x 60” Exclusive Access film shot by heroin addict Ben Rogers during the last two years of his life and just hours before his death.  A raw and unflinching portrait of one man’s descent into addiction and the impact it had on his middle class family, for SKY ONE (UK).
  
  
• The Girl in the Box–  a 1 x 60” Exclusive Access Documentary, for Five, on Colleen Stan who, as a 17-year-old hitchhiker, was kidnapped by a sadistic sexual torturer and held in a box under his bed for 7 years. 

• Arthur Shawcross: Interview with a Serial Killer – a 1 x 60” Exclusive Access Documentary for Five.  The final interview with notorious serial killer Arthur Shawcross in prison - just weeks before his death.
  
  
• Ex Forces & Homeless - a 1 x 40” Documentary for BBC ONE – authored by ex-SAS Ken Hames who goes on a journey to find out why so many of UK’s homeless are ex forces and ends up confronting his own demons along the way. 

2004 – 2006

REDBACK FILMS LTD – London, UK

Prior to Gecko Productions I was Managing Director of Redback Films, owned by The Television Corporation - which made the successful returnable series  ‘Conspiracies…’ and Documentary Series such as ‘Killing Mum & Dad’; ‘Surviving … (Serial Killers)’ and Documentaries for SKY ONE: ‘Stoned in Suburbia’.  For Channel 4: ‘Generation 7/7’; ‘Artshock’; ‘A Swinging Murder’ and BODYSHOCK: ‘The Eighty-Year-Old Children’and ‘Kill Me to Cure Me’. 

2000 – 2004

MENTORN – London, UK
Executive Producer

At Mentorn I created and Executive Produced ‘Twins: the Identity Test’ for BBC ONE - a 1 x 90” Popular Factual Programme in search of the most identical, identical twins in Britain. This went on to become the global hit format ‘…. Most Identical’ - sold to around 20 countries.  

At Mentorn, I was most known for some of the most high profile and highest rating Channel 4 Body Shock and Five's Extraordinary People documentaries such as:

The Boy Who Gave Birth to his Twin; The Man Who Slept for 19 years; and Archie: the Six Stone Baby

Other programmes include:  

• The 3-week fast turnaround documentary ‘Tsunami: the Day the Wave Struck’ – a 1 x 60” Documentary for Five and National Geographic in the U.S.  
  
  
• ‘Mao’s Children’ – a 1 x 60” Documentary authored by Marcel Theroux, for Channel 4’s China Season on China’s Generation X.
  
  
• ‘Living Pulse’ – a 52 x 30” Factual Magazine Series on cutting edge medicine, shot globally, for Discovery Channel.
  
  
• ‘EVISION’ – Series Producer / Producer Director – a Factual Magazine Series, based on The Economist magazine, working in conjunction with the magazine’s Editor and key journalists.

1993 – 1999

FOX NEWS / NEWSASIA – Hong Kong

Before coming to the UK in 1999, I was Senior Producer, running the Asia Bureau in Hong Kong for FOX NEWS - covering such global stories as President Bill Clinton’s tours to China, Japan & Korea; the fall of President Suharto in Indonesia; and the NATO bombings of Kosovo. 
 

In Hong Kong – both before and during my time with Fox News, I also ran my own independent news bureau (& corporate video production company), Newsasia - which represented broadcasters across the world, including during the HK handover to China.

Through Newsasia (prior to Fox News) I was a Foreign Correspondent for Channel Seven Australia for 6 years, covering such stories as the British handover of HK to China; the Kobe earthquake in Japan; and the Pope’s visit to Manila, Philippines.

1989 – 1993

AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION – Sydney, Australia
Producer / Reporter

In Australia I was a Producer/Reporter on prime time ABC flagship shows ‘The Investigators’ - an investigative consumer programme; and ‘The 7.30 Report’, a nightly live current affairs programme.

PUBLIC SPEAKING / GUEST TEACHING

I have been a Speaker / Panelist / Guest Teacher at various Documentary Film Festivals including:

• The ‘World Science Producers Congress’ – various locations around the world
• The ‘Norwegian Media Festival’ - Bergen, Norway
• The ‘Danish Documentary Festival’ - Copenhagen, Denmark
• The ‘Sheffield Documentary Film Festival’  - Sheffield, UK
• Documentary Filmmakers’ Group – London, England
• The National Film & Television School - London, England