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talent spotting
Focusing on tomorrow’s generation of movers and shakers compiled by Jane Crowther.
ITfe Okwudili
elevision producer Ife Okwudili puts her start in TV and radio down to “a happy accident”. While studying at the University of Kent, she joined the student radio station and when reviewing her career options in the final year, applied for a BBC trainee scheme.
Out of thousands of hopefuls she gained a place on the year- long scheme and from there went onto produce radio shows for BBC Scotland.
Enjoying radio but wanting to get into TV, she moved to London to research for Esther and do ‘bits and pieces’ around the BBC in the Factual and Entertainment department as well as develop- ing new shows.
From there she went on to pro- ducing Woman’s Hour, LK Today on GMTV and The Lorraine Kelly Show on Sky 1. “Lorraine is the Queen,” Okwudili says of Kelly, “She’s generous, gracious and knows her onions. It was a big learning curve on a show like that.”
The learning curve paid off because after a stint producing Kilroy, Okwudili was asked to pro- duce new launch Loose Lips, an entertainment talk show with Richard Arnold and Melinda Messenger on Living TV.
“When you join GMTV, Kilroy, Esther or whatever it’s all about learning it their way. With Loose Lips nothing is set. That’s the greatest thing and the worst thing about starting on a brand new programme. You have a blank
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page and the creativity that allows you is immense. We’re still learning on it!”
She must be doing something right: the award-nominated show has been a huge success, increasing its audience week by week, gaining sponsorship by Hello! magazine and moving from the early afternoon slot into a prime 6pm slot. Okwudili is enjoying her time on the show but has plenty of plans for her future including possibly heading her own production company.
‘I’m only 28 now. Who knows what I’ll want to do in a couple of years? But I’ve got lots of ideas and lots of interests.” No doubt a happy accident will ensure she gets exactly what she wants.
Nicky Waltham & MNaggie Kelly
icky Waltham, 24, describes her and her partner Maggie Kelly, 27, as “sort
of saplings” in the production business. The duo have just set up their own company called Roxy Productions.
“We had a conversation about setting up a production company and the next thing we know we’ve come up with a name, we’ve got it registered and we’re looking at business cards!’ laughs Waltham, who met Kelly when the two were working as producer directors on Channel Four’s breakfast show, RI:SE.
Both were frustrated in their jobs so decided to have a crack at forming their own company –
although they haven’t yet given up the day jobs to pursue their dream full-time. Waltham current produces on Faking It while Kelly is working on Sky’s music channel, The Amp.
So far though, taking the plunge has gone well. Due to what Waltham describes as “a slight touch of nepotism” (Kelly’s boyfriend is the lead singer of pop band The Bluetones), Roxy has produced a video for the band and is currently producing their DVD.
This, they hope, is just the start for Roxy with a dream project being an on-the-road documen- tary of an up-and-coming band.
“It’s very early days but we’ve got lots of ideas in the pipeline – mainly music and documentary stuff,” says Waltham. “I think we’ve got the right attitude at the moment because we’re not about to launch a massive assault on the industry – we’re try- ing to creep up on it.”
CAhris Barfoot
ll the women currently swooning over Shane Richie’s current incarnation of Alfie in EastEnders can thank thirty-six-year-old Chris Barfoot.
The writer/director cast Richie as a gangster in his self-penned short Dead Clean and the result- ing performance convinced the Beeb bosses that Richie could character act.
A graduate from Highbury College in Portsmouth, Barfoot originally wanted to go into radio
but began shooting shorts on video and hasn’t put the camera down since.
He swapped to super16 for his short time-travelling film, Phoenix, starring Prunella Scales and has since made high profile sci-fi short, The Reckoning, which is currently part of Sky Movies Sky Shorts selection.
A winner of several film prizes, The Reckoning provided Barfoot with a calling card on his annual trip to Cannes and he has since completed an impressive trailer for a film he intends to make called Hellion, about the theft of Christ’s soul.
He’s also nearly completed Blood And Black Lace, a fea- ture-length script that was writ- ten with Ray Winstone in mind after Barfoot met him in Cannes. It’s this script he’s taken to Cannes looking for funding of around £4million.
His goals now are to move into features and start making “lots of money. When you’re making shorts you’re pretty poor and you’re suffering for your art,” he reasons.
The irrepressible Barfoot has recently started his own compa- ny Anglo-American Pictures and is looking forward to getting some features under his belt. Until then he has his role model – “Ridley Scott was thirty-eight before he shot his first feature, so things like that give me hope!”