Blast Films is pushing into popular factual and formats with the hire of Barnaby Coughlin as Creative Director, Popular Factual and Formats.
Coughlin, formerly Head of Popular Factual at Mindhouse, will work alongside Tanya Winston, Creative Director of Factual. Both will report to Danny Horan, Blast Films’ Chief Creative Officer.
Following the recent announcement of The Rooneys (10 part Disney+ series), the newly established role underscores Blast Films’ commitment to expanding its footprint in the popular factual and formats space and will see Coughlin lead Blast’s creative vision, overseeing the development and execution of original content across the company’s slate of UK and international projects.
While at Mindhouse, Coughlin executive produced and developed multiple projects including Prime Video biopic KSI: In Real Life; Channel 4’s Sex Actually with Alice Levine, and a returning podcast series BBCR4/Sound’s How To Be… with Rylan Clark, as well as many funded developments across all genres for the PSBs and streamers.
Claire Bosworth, CEO, Blast Films, said: “We’re entering a dynamic era for factual storytelling, and we’re delighted to bring in a creative leader with the experience, ambition, and originality to help shape the next generation of programming at Blast. Barnaby’s vision aligns perfectly with our values of authenticity, integrity, and boldness and I’m sure he’s going be a great asset to our team.”
Danny Horan, Chief Creative Officer, Blast Films, said: “Barnaby brings a wealth of experience in developing and producing engaging factual content and we’re delighted he’s joining our thriving team at such an exciting time.”
Barnaby Coughlin, new Creative Director, Popular Factual and Formats, Blast Films, said: “I couldn’t be more thrilled to be joining Claire, Danny and all the inspiring people who make Blast the success it richly deserves. I am a big fan of their past series and can’t wait to help build on their existing portfolio and get started in this new role.”
Blast’s previous credits include the Emmy award winning Tsunami: Race Against Time, Jade: The Reality Star Who Changed Britain, 7/7: Homegrown Terror, Missing: Dead or Alive?, the Sky Docs feature Hijacked: Flight 73, the returning series Forensics: The Real CSI for BBC, multi-part series Night Coppers for Channel 4 and returning franchise series Narcos for Sky Docs.
Jon Creamer
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