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.
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.
Rebecca Richardson - Production Coordinator
Rebecca studied film and television production at the Northern Film School and Leeds Beckett University.
After she graduated in 2018, she started working in scripted and drama productions, working her way up to 3rdAssistant Director. Rebeccathen decided to make the switch to production management and began working for Wise Owl Films in June 2022.
She loves planning, organising and working with people. In her spare time, she enjoys photography and shooting with her 35mm camera.
Kate Siney - Head of Development
Kate has worked in factual television for over 20 years, establishing herself as a highly regarded and award-winning series director and producer. Experienced in both retrospective and observational filmmaking, she specialises in sensitive access, human interest stories and content that tells us about the world we live in.
Kate has produced and directed a range of factual series and singles around the world for major broadcasters and streamers including Educating Greater Manchester, Freeze, Race Across the World, Expedition Killer Whale and 24 Hours in A&E. Her work in the ob doc space has taken her to Antarctica, the Himalayas and the Amazon, as well as being embedded with teams from busy A&E departments through to police forces and the RNLI.
Kate has previously worked with Wise Owl on the When X Came to Britain strand for BBC Two, including When Blondie Came to Britain and When Motown Came to Britain. She's now bringing her wealth of ideas, storytelling expertise and premium documentary sensibilities to their development department.
Anita Phillips - Senior Legal & Business Affairs Executive
Anita is Lime’s Senior Legal & Business Affairs Executive, looking after Wise Owl Films as well as Lime Pictures scripted content. Over the years, Anita has worked on a wide range of content including long-running drama, children’s animation, scripted drama, music, reality, entertainment and lifestyle programming.
