Chris Stewart

Zodiak Rights, the international division of Zodiak Media, announced a key hire for the newly created role of Head of Scripted Acquisitions. Chris Stewart has been appointed from BBC Worldwide where he held the position of Head of Drama.

This appointment follows Caroline Torrance joining Zodiak Rights earlier this year in the new role of Head of Scripted, leading Zodiak Rights’ scripted sales and acquisitions strategy whilst working with in-house and external producers around the world to develop international drama and comedy co-productions such as the recently launched at MIPCOM Occupied for TV2 (Norway) and Arte (France).

Stewart will join Zodiak Rights in early December and report into Torrance.

Stewart has been at BBC Worldwide for the past three years overseeing key third-party acquisitions and in-house dramas such as Doctor Who, The Musketeers and Da Vinci’s Demons. Prior to this he was a commissioner at 2entertain Video Ltd responsible for negotiating distribution rights to BBC in-house fiction programming across drama and comedy on programming such as Luther and The

Thick of It.

This appointment marks a continued commitment from Zodiak Media and Zodiak Rights to increase their drama output in-line with the growing market demand for high-end drama and comedy productions. Zodiak has many key drama brands such as in-house programming Millennium, Wallander, Being Human, The Inbetweeners, Solsidan, Drifters, Siblings and the up-coming Versailles, Murder and Tatau. Zodiak Rights also represents dramas such as worldwide success stories Braquo, The Returned and the recently launched The Pinkertons.

Caroline Torrance, Head of Scripted, said, “I am delighted to be bringing Chris on board, with his previous experience in high-end international drama productions he will be an invaluable asset to us and producers we represent as we continue to bring quality scripted programming from around the world to the international marketplace.”

Chris Stewart, Head of Scripted Acquisitions, said, “I’m very excited to be joining Zodiak Rights at such an exciting time of growth for both the company and the marketplace, where premium scripted programming is enjoying global attention. I look forward to working with Caroline and Zodiak’s in house programming teams to develop their catalogue of exciting drama and comedy content.”