Janine Thomas has been appointed as Commissioning Editor at Channel 4 and will directly report to Head of Documentaries Alisa Pomeroy.

She will support Rita Daniels by taking on the day-to-day running of the First Cut strand, freeing up Daniels to focus on new blue-chip documentary series.  Thomas’s other responsibilities will include working with on and off screen talent.

She joins from Sky UK where she delivered a string of shows across its Documentaries, Crime and Nature channels including Arrow Pictures’ Grierson and Edinburgh nominated Positive: 30 Years Of HIV In Britain, Minnow’s Mother Teresa, Top Hat’s Look Away, Lion TV’s Arctic From Above With Liz Bonnin and Blast!’s Italia ’90 series.

Thomas also nurtured off-screen talent with her launch of the Doc Shorts Initiative. The scheme offered emerging film-makers with disabilities and those from ethnic minority backgrounds access to a £500,000 fund to direct cinematic short films.  Previously at Channel 4, Thomas was Documentaries Assistant Editor and worked across a diverse slate including, Damilola:  The Boy Next Door, Secret Life of the Zoo and 24 Hours in A&E.  Additionally she commissioned into the digital Factual strand True Stories and E4.  She also championed Black History Month programming, such as Gal-dem presents;  Black British History, comedian Mo Gilligan’s Black British & Funny and the film series Take Your Knee off my Neck, a response to the killing of George Floyd.

Janine Thomas, Commissioning Editor said:  “I am thrilled to be joining the award-winning Documentaries team. Without doubt this is an exciting opportunity to continue the storytelling legacy of First Cut.  I will look forward to working with Rita Daniels on this strand and aim to develop distinctive and uniquely Channel 4 programmes with new on and off-screen talent.”

Alisa Pomeroy,  Head of Documentaries added: “Janine is a rising star and I’m delighted that she will be joining the Documentaries team and working across one of our most cherished strands.  She has a great reputation for working with new talent on and off screen which I am sure  will lead to First Cut delivering some incredible programming from the next generation of directors.”