About Us

The

Team

Alison is responsible for identifying new sources of revenue and developing the organisation’s programming activity. She works to expand the organisation’s commercial operations and broaden its relationship with potential stakeholders, from local councils and regional businesses, to arts and other media organisations.

Our operations director Gayle is responsible for operational processes and day to day delivery of North East Screens production service, our North East Screen Academy, project monitoring, evaluation and reporting schedules. She has worked promoting the North East to film and TV productions at the agency for over 20 years working with projects such as Dungeons and Dragons, Harry Potter and Atonement.

Lisa is our Development Director. She leads the Development team in working with indies, supply chain companies and above the line talent to build scale, capacity, resilience and infrastructure to grow the regions screen industry.

Finance Director, James, is responsible for the financial business planning and budget management at North East Screen. Together with the Chief Executive and the other members of the Senior Management Team, he develops a programme of activities that align with funding requirements, required outputs and secured funding budgets.

Katie is the first point of contact for North East Screen’s Film Office. Responsible for promoting the region to film and TV companies encouraging them to film in the North East.

Katie also supports productions looking for regional crew, location and facilities and is responsible for maintaining a comprehensive database.

In her role as Skills Manager, Kat grows the existing crew database and leads on the creation of trainee and shadowing opportunities on productions through North East Screen’s Access initiative.

She identifies career pathways as well as considering skills shortages and gaps to help support the growing number of productions.

As Interim Talent and Business Development Manager, Emma manages the development initiatives for businesses and above-the-line talent within the North East.

Jo is responsible for planning and delivering all marketing and communication activity, promoting North East Screen to a wide range of audiences, partners and stakeholders.

Working closely with all lines of the business, Jo develops the marketing and communications strategy to promote all aspects of our programmes. She is the first point of contact for press enquiries.

Victoria is responsible for planning and delivering all large scale, special events in that feature in North East Screen’s calendar. She also looks after campaigns for our North East Production Fund projects.

Teresa works closely with funders to measure and report on the impact that North East Screen makes.

Having overall responsibility for monitoring and evaluation across North East Screen, Teresa manages the requirements of each fund, specifically the ERDF Tees Valley Screen Development project.

Finance Manager, Laura, is responsible for the day-to-day finance operation including financial reporting, budgeting, cashflow and payroll.

Holly is the Film Office Coordinator (Locations) and the first point of contact for all enquiries from TV and film production companies looking to film in the North East. She also supports visiting production companies by organising and attending familiarisation and recce trips to the region.

As Skills Coordinator, David organises and is responsible for the smooth running of all Crew Academy events. He monitors the career development of Crew Academy members, offering insights on work opportunities and tactical support such as refining CV’s and interview techniques.

Rebecca is the first point of contact for anyone wanting to speak to Chief Executive, Alison Gwynn. She coordinates Alison’s diary and organises all of our full team events, internal meetings and ensures our office has everything we need to function. She also provides HR administration to the organisation.

Kate supports the Monitoring Manager with the coordination of all operational responsibilities for monitoring and evaluation for our projects. She also supports the Operations Director by coordinating all aspects of the North East Production Fund.

Harvey is our Film Office Apprentice and supports the wider Film Office team with administrative tasks, content capture and database management.

David has worked as an independent film, TV and theatre producer for over 30 years.  His film credits include Henry V, Peter’s Friends, Much Ado About Nothing, The Madness of King George (BAFTA for Outstanding British Film), Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Twelfth Night, The Wings of the Dove, Shakespeare in Love (winner of Seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and four BAFTA Awards including Best Film), Gangs of New York, (Production Consultant), I Capture the Castle, Chasing Liberty and A Bunch of Amateurs.  In 2010 he produced the BAFTA nominated My Week with Marilyn followed in 2011 by Tom Stoppard’s award-winning adaptation of Parade’s End for BBC and HBO. David also produced The Wipers Times for BBC2 and two BBC4 documentaries: Glyndebourne: The Untold History and Birth of an Opera. Red Joan starring Judi Dench and Sophie Cookson was released in 2019 and most recently, David produced The Father starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman.  The Father was nominated for numerous awards, winning two Oscars and two BAFTAs.

David was Chairman of BAFTA 2008-10 and Chairman of Film London 2010-17 and currently serves as a Governor at Dulwich College, London.

Graeme is Pro Vice-Chancellor of External Relations at the University of Sunderland. His external engagement team at the university looks after media, communications, marketing, stakeholder management, alumni, development and cultural assets – such as the internationally renowned National Glass Centre. He is chair of the Royal Television Society Education Group and also chairs The Cultural Spring community arts project. He represents the North East on the national council for Creative UK and is a board member for The Customs House, the Yorkshire and North East Film and Television Archive and the North East Culture Partnership. He is a member of Arts Council England’s northern area council. His background is as a journalist and TV executive. Before joining the university a decade ago, Graeme was managing director of ITV Tyne Tees following a career as a programme maker, commissioner and BBC radio producer.

Experience and background in finance and management.

Lisa Chapman is a senior unscripted TV executive who has produced major TV events, live studio entertainment, reality entertainment, popular documentary, and factual entertainment with more than 25 years of experience in the industry.

Born and raised in Ashington, Northumberland, she left the region to attend the University of Kent and then pursued a media career working first as a production manager followed by researcher, producer and executive producer eventually becoming Managing Director of Whizz Kid Entertainment for 15 years followed by Senior Vice President of eOne UK Non-Scripted.

Lisa now runs Honeybird Studios an independent content creation, consultancy and production company she founded in partnership with Nest Productions with dual sites in Newcastle and London. A champion of socio-economic diversity, she is a member of BAFTA and the Royal Television Society and has been on several industry judging panels and committees over the years.

Commissioning Editor BBC Comedy and founder of North East Comedy Hot House. Learn more.