The Edinburgh TV Festival has named Adam Hawkins as the Festival’s Advisory Chair for 2026.
Director of Documentary Series at Netflix, Hawkins will work with the Festival team to oversee the development of the programme and creative direction of this year’s Festival. Hawkins follows a list of industry figures who have taken on the role in recent years that includes Patrick Holland, Georgia Brown, Afua Hirsch, Kiran Natajara, Harjeet Chhokar and last year’s incumbent, Jane Tranter.
Hawkins joined Netflix in January 2022 to lead Documentary Series in the UK. At Netflix he has commissioned programmes including American Nightmare, Victoria Beckham, Amy Bradley Is Missing, Robbie Williams, MH370, Attack On London: Hunting the 7/7 Bombers, WWII: From The Frontlines, Fred & Rose West: A British Horror Story, and the forthcoming Kylie Minogue, Being Gordon Ramsay and The Rest Is Football.
Prior to joining, Hawkins was Creative Director at Raw, where he created, developed and sold a wide variety of factual programmes such as The Tinder Swindler (Netflix) and The Kennedys (CNN). Whilst at Raw, Hawkins also Executive Produced the acclaimed feature documentary Three Identical Strangers and multiple Netflix series including Don’t F**k With Cats and Fear City. He also won two Emmys, a Critics Choice Award and a PGA Award for his work as Executive Producer on Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy.
Hawkins has also previously worked at Endemol, RDF, Talkback, and Zig Zag and has developed programmes for the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, Channel 5, TNT, ESPN, A&E, Discovery, TLC, History, National Geographic, Showtime, and Disney+.
Hawkins said: “Edinburgh TV Festival has always been the best place for the TV industry to celebrate successes and take stock of challenges. This year’s Festival comes at a moment of real and fundamental change in the landscape and it’s at precisely at this point when the most exciting opportunities present themselves.
“Viewers still love television (in all its ever-increasing forms) and the UK industry is still world-beating. I hope this year’s Festival will provoke debate, inspire renewal and provide some guiding lights through this time of change.”
Fatima Salaria , Chair of the TV Festival Board commented: “I’m thrilled to have Adam Hawkins joining us as Advisory Chair for 2026. He thinks deeply about television, cares about craft, and has a strong sense of the pressures and possibilities shaping the industry right now.
“The TV Festival has always been a place for open conversation, fresh thinking and shared purpose. Adam has a track record of backing filmmakers and stories which reflect life across the world, and that’s the spirit we want to run through the Festival this year. We’re really looking forward to working with him.”
Jon Creamer
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