Element Pictures, the Oscar, Bafta and Golden Globe award-winning production company behind Normal People, The Favourite, Lobster and Room, has appointed Michael Dawson and Lucas Ochoa as Executive Producers working primarily in television drama.
The Dublin, Belfast and London based production company was founded by Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe in 2001.
Taking up their new roles from early October, Dawson and Ochoa will be based in the London office and will develop new projects as well as work across the existing slate. Dawson will also oversee Element’s Belfast office with a particular focus on growing the company’s profile and projects in Northern Ireland. Both will report directly into Guiney, as the lead on development and production, while Lowe will remain across all key decisions from a business affairs and commercial standpoint.
Element currently has the adaptation of Sally Rooney’s best-selling novel, Conversations with Friends in pre-production.
Lucas Ochoa joins the team from Pulse Films where he was the Chief Creative Officer of the scripted Division. He most recently exec produced, alongside Thomas Benski, gritty British crime drama Gangs of London for Sky Atlantic and AMC, which became the channel’s biggest original drama of the last five years. He also produced Andrea Arnold’s indie drama, American Honey, winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2016, and the Emmy nominated documentary XY Chelsea for Showtime, and executive produced the Emmy Award winning Trophy for CNN Films and Rob Eggers’ horror/thriller The Witch; winner of best director at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival .
Michael Dawson joins from Silverprint Pictures having previously been the Script Executive and Executive Producer on four series of ratings smash hit Verastarring Brenda Blethyn, and Chris Lang’s Dark Heart; both for ITV as well as working on a raft of development projects for various brpadcasters. Michael started his career in Belfast working in factual entertainment for BBC NI, ITV and Ch5. From there he spent eight years in BBC Drama where he worked as Producer, Story Producer and Series Editor on over two hundred hours of television including Bafta winning periods for Holby City and Eastenders.
Ed Guiney, Co-founder of Element Pictures said: “Both Lucas and Michael are terrific producers with incredible taste and experience and we feel very lucky indeed to be welcoming them to join the amazing team at Element. We look forward to building on our track record, working with the best film-makers, writers and creators as we continue to grow our capacity in television drama.”
Lucas Ochoa said: “I am delighted to be joining Element at such an exciting time in the company’s journey. I’ve long admired their incredible track record in film and television and am very much looking forward to being part of the company’s future.”
Michael Dawson added: “Joining Ed and Andrew at Element is an undeniable opportunity to be part of an innovative and world class creative team as they expand their TV output. I am also very excited to be growing their footprint in Northern Ireland. I cannot wait to get started.”
Jon Creamer
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