Reese Witherspoon’s indie, Hello Sunshine, has launched an unscripted division based in the UK and hired Channel 4’s former Head of Features and Formats, Sarah Lazenby, to run it .
Lazenby will oversee operations as Executive Vice President, Unscripted UK. She will report to Hello Sunshine’s Head of Unscripted, Sara Rea. The announcement was made by Hello Sunshine CEO, Sarah Harden.
Hello Sunshine is part of Candle Media.
As part of the expansion, Hello Sunshine Unscripted UK is currently developing its first production with Channel 4.
“We are thrilled to expand our global mission of innovative, unscripted, female-led storytelling to the UK,” said Hello Sunshine Head of Unscripted, Sara Rea. “Sarah Lazenby is perfectly poised to lead the charge, as her talent, passion, and sensibility for great storytelling, couldn’t be more in sync with our mission. This is a strategic and exciting moment for us as a company as we continue building upon our trusted relationship with talent and viewers around the world.”
“Hello Sunshine’s unique global brand and inspirational mission to change the way women walk through the world through storytelling is one I have admired for quite some time.” said Sarah Lazenby “It’s a dream come true to join the talented team and I look forward to bringing the sunshine to the UK by creating the next generation of joyous and entertaining formats.
At Channel 4, Lazenby was responsible for overseeing a large unscripted slate and commissioning popular lifestyle award winning shows such as The Great British Bake Off and Jamie Oliver programming (as well as global formats such as Flirting Dancing and Netflix co-pro Crazy Delicious.) More recently she produced the Emmy nominated Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special for HBO.
In 2020, Hello Sunshine acquired award-winning showrunner Sara Rea’s SKR Productions, the production company behind Making the Cut (Amazon Prime Video) with Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn. They are also behind Get Organized on Netflix and currently producing the competition series My Kind of Country for Apple TV+ as well as To Paris For Love, an unscripted romantic comedy feature for Roku.
Jon Creamer
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