THE TEAM
Mark Robinson - Creative Director
Before starting Wise Owl Films, Mark worked at ITV Studios in Leeds and Newcastle for over 25 years, creating over 200 different series and prime-time specials for ITV, the BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky, including May The Best House Win, Super Tiny Animals, David Jason: My Life On Screen, Last Laugh In Vegas and The Nation’s Favourite music documentary series, telling the stories behind the songs of icons such as ABBA and The Beatles.
Mark created Shiver in 2007 - ITV Studios’ first label – and has worked closely with many of Britain’s best-loved television stars including Peter Kay and Sir Trevor McDonald as well as with some of Britain’s biggest institutions and brands, from record companies including Sony, Universal, Warner Music to the casts of series like Coronation Street and Emmerdale, and the families and estates of comedy legends including Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson and Morecambe & Wise. As well as executive producing the majority of Wise Owl’s output, Mark oversaw a number of ITV’s celebrations of the life of the Queen, documentaries which aired in September 2022.
Lucy Smith - Development Executive, Formats & Features
From marijuana-smoking nuns to dogs saving Britain, Lucy’s development career has revolved around Fact Ent formats that raise the nation’s eyebrows. Prior to joining Wise Owl Films, she has thrived in teams at BBC Creative Label, betty, Firecracker Films and MultiStory Media, with credits including Gone to Pot (ITV), You Are What You Wear (BBC1), 10k Holiday Home (ITV) and The Big Flower Fight (Netflix). She was named a One to Watch at the Edinburgh TV Festival 2019. A passionate Northerner now finally back in her home county after a TV career in London exile, Lucy arrives at Wise Owl with a huge supply of Yorkshire Tea.
James Knight - Development Executive & Series Producer
Specialist Factual
With a background in science, extreme environment and history-based programming spanning over 15 years, James is an award-winning series producer who has worked for a host of broadcasters including Discovery, The History Channel, CBBC, ITV, Nat Geo and Channel Four.
He received two BAFTA nominations, for the CBBC series Absolute Genius: Monster Builds and The Dengineers, and his CV also includes international commissions such as The World’s Biggest Cave (Nat Geo), Hidden China (CICC) and Exodus Earth (Discovery Science).
James joins Wise Owl fresh from series producing the engineering format, Scrapyard Supercar, for Nat Geo.
Kay Beaumont - Production Executive
Kay works as Production Executive at Lime Pictures looking after Wise Owl Films in Leeds as well as Lime’s Liverpool-based Press and Digital department.
Kay worked at ITV for 15 years where she production managed shows including I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!, Saturday Night Takeaway, Loose Women, Judge Rinder & It'll be Alright on the Night.
Since then she worked as production executive at Shiver (ITV Studios) across a range of shows for C4, ITV, BBC & UKTV and also at Workerbee (Endemol) on commissions for Discovery, National Geographic, Quibi, Netflix, C4 & C5.
Charlotte Topliss - Production Manager
Charlotte has been working for production companies in the North of England since 2006 on a variety of reality, factual and entertainment programmes including The Valleys, Snog Marry Avoid?, Most Haunted and Coach Trip.
A University of Sunderland graduate now back in her native home city of Leeds Charlotte joined Wise Owl Films from Shiver’s Salford office where she worked on titles including Eat Shop Save, Ade In Britain, Manchester: 100 Days After The Attack, Real Stories with Ranvir Singh and ITV’s flagship current affairs programme Tonight.
Nathalie Mayer - Assistant Producer
Nathalie is an assistant producer working across development and production with a passion for innovative approaches to storytelling.
From developing formats to working on documentaries, she loves seeing programmes through from inception to production. Some of her recent credits include Yorkshire Firefighters, When Nirvana Came to Britain and digital series Box Fresh.
She is one of Edinburgh TV Festival's Ones to Watch 2022 and is keen to find fresh ways of communicating untold experiences, challenging stigma and expanding expectations of regional TV production.
Kariim Case - Trainee Researcher
Kariim is a Leeds-born filmmaker who has written, directed and produced films that explore black masculinity and the black British experience. He has a keen interest in telling stories that reflect the lives of ‘real people’.
In 2021 the Manchester School of Art graduate gained a place on Channel 4's Production Training Scheme. At Wise Owl Films he hopes to continue his aim of creating compelling work that amplifies the voices of marginalised and often overlooked people in the media.
Yuko Crawford - Production Secretary
Scarborough born and bred, Yuko graduated from the University of Leeds in 2020, prides herself on her Northern roots and even competitively represented her county at the Yorkshire Swimming County Championships when she was younger. She is passionate about making sure that there are opportunities in television for talented people in the North and strongly values the diversity this brings. In 2021 Yuko took part in Creative Access’ Mentoring Programme where she received six months of mentoring from experienced industry experts.
