BBC Studios Productions’ Head of Comedy Josh Cole, has made three new appointments to his development team. Laurie Farrugia, Ben Hough and Natasha Heliotis have been hired as Development Producers.
Farrugia will focus on comedy drama series. Before joining BBC Studios, she spent five years at Benedict Cumberbatch’s SunnyMarch where she helped build the TV slate from the ground up and developed a wide range of comedy drama and drama series. She is a graduate of USC’s Peter Stark Producing Program and worked in the TV industry in Los Angeles before moving to London in 2013. Farrugia will work on an as yet unannounced comedy drama production which shoots later this year.
Hough will develop new projects in addition to working on the upcoming production of a new BBC TWO comedy, shooting this autumn. Before joining the team, he was script editor at Sister Pictures on This is Going to Hurt. He previously worked for several years in development at Tiger Aspect Drama, including a stint in Sri Lanka script editing Good Karma Hospital (ITV).
Heliotis joins BBC Studios Comedy Productions having worked most recently on Sister Pictures’ The Power. Amongst other projects, she is working as script editor on the upcoming third season of Trying for Apple TV+. Her background is in comedy and drama with previous credits including War of the Worlds (Fox/Canal+), The One (Netflix), The Power (Amazon), and Trying (Apple TV+).
On announcing the appointments, Josh Cole, Head of Comedy said: “Laurie, Ben and Tash are super smart with impeccable taste. They will be working on a range of upcoming productions for multiple broadcasters and developing a new generation of era-defining comedies and comedy dramas.”
Jon Creamer
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