Indie Nutopia has expanded its creative team with Simon Willgoss upped to exec producer and exec VP of development, Matt Edmonds hired for the new role of VP of Unscripted Formats and Sam Fernandes promoted to Deputy Head of Development.
Current Head of Development and Emmy-nominated producer Simon Willgoss’s new role will see him drive the company’s creative strategy and manage relationships with key partners including Westbrook, who Nutopia recently collaborated with on National Geographic’s One Strange Rock. Willgoss will continue to oversee the company’s development slate, where he helped conceive and launch global hits including Babies and The Last Czars for Netflix, One Strange Rock and Limitless for National Geographic and The World According to Jeff Goldblum for Disney+. His previous production credits include How We Got to Now for PBS and Mankind for History.
Matt Edmonds has been hired for the newly-created role of VP of Unscripted Formats. Edmonds has originated, sold and executive produced numerous shows for multiple networks. He will be charged with helping drive and expand the company’s slate of popular factual series and formats. Edmonds joins Nutopia from Sacha Baron Cohen and Andrew Newman’s indie Spelthorne Community TV where he was Head of Factual Entertainment. At Spelthorne Community TV, Edmonds credits include the award-winning Who Is America for Showtime and the internationally sold hit show, Let’s Talk About Sex. He was previously Head of Development at Rumpus Media, pioneering their ‘funny factual’ slate, co-creating the BAFTA-nominated Asian Provocateur with Romesh Ranganathan (BBC/Netflix) and Joel and Nish vs The World (Comedy Central/Netflix).
“It’s an honor to join Jane Root and the incredible team at Nutopia. Their track record of creating spectacular programming that breaks new ground is second to none. Together we’ll deliver premium factual storytelling with a good dollop of mischief. I can’t wait.” says Matt Edmonds.
Sam Fernandes has been promoted to Deputy Head of Development where she’ll help oversee the day-to-day running of the development slate across all genres. Fernandes joined Nutopia as a development researcher in 2015 and has worked across key projects including Babies, The World According to Jeff Goldblum, and The ‘80s Greatest and The ‘90s Greatest for National Geographic. She was also a producer on the feature documentary Detroit: Comeback City for History Channel and helped develop upcoming National Geographic series Limitless and One Strange Rock 2. Prior to working at Nutopia, Fernandes was a broadcast writer at Canada’s CTV News Channel, a 24-hour national news channel airing nationwide.
Nutopia CEO and founder Jane Root says “Both Simon and Sam have been crucial to Nutopia’s success over the past few years. Simon is an outstanding executive and Sam has become a key part of our development team. We are delighted to have them and our talented new hire Matt to continue our push into popular factual.”
Pictured L to R: Simon Willgloss, Sam Fernandes, Matt Edmonds
Jon Creamer
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