‍Alison leads North East Screen, the region’s screen industries development agency, driving economic growth and supporting the sustainable expansion of film and television production across the North East.

Alison has over 25 years’ experience in the cultural and creative industries, from providing marketing leadership at the Centre for Life to being instrumental in the planning and development of Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Books. Her passion is to support the sustainable growth of the creative industry in North East England.

Recent achievements include securing investment of £58 million through a BBC partnership and establishing the North East Screen Industry Partnership (NESIP), involving 3 Combined and 12 Local Authorities. NESIP aims to double the region’s share of UK film and TV production, generating an economic impact of £88m annually. Alison received a Royal Television Society award for Outstanding Contribution to the Screen industry in 2022. 

Andrea Arnold began her career with notable short films like Milk, Dog, and Wasp, the latter earning her an Academy Award in 2005. Her debut feature film Red Road won the BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut in 2006 as well as five BAFTAs at the BAFTA Scotland Awards ceremony, including Best Director and Best Screenplay. In 2010, her critically acclaimed film Fish Tank won a BAFTA for Outstanding British Film. Red Road, Fish Tank and American Honey all competed at Cannes Film Festival and subsequently won the Jury Prize in 2006, 2009 and 2016. In 2022, her documentary Cow was nominated for a BAFTA and received several awards, including the Green Warsaw Award for Best Ecology Themed Documentary. She has also directed episodes for television series Transparent, I Love Dick, and the second season of Big Little Lies. In 2024 Bird was nominated for a Palme d'Or and a BAFTA for Outstanding British Film. The same year Andrea was awarded the Carrosse d’Or award at Cannes.

Angelo Abela is Joint Head of Scripted, Kids & Family at Lime Pictures. He executive produced last year's award-winning Netflix animation Wolf King and directed CBBC’s Girl Troop vs Aliens, which dropped in Spring.

In 2026, he has expanded into vertical drama, executive producing and directing two upcoming micro-dramas, as Lime enters the genre.

He joined Lime in 2011 as Lead Director and showrunner on BAFTA-nominated House of Anubis for Nickelodeon later developing and produced Free Rein, winning an Emmy, and was Emmy-nominated for directing both Free Rein and Zero Chill. He has also co-executive produced Hollyoaks.

Angelo began as an actor and comedy performer before building a writing and directing career across comedy, drama, entertainment, and children’s television.

Asif Kapadia, director of KENNY DALGLISH, is an Academy Award-winning director, screenwriter, and producer, also recognised with four BAFTA Awards, a Grammy Award, and a European Film Award. He is considered one of the most influential filmmakers of his generation, best known for his acclaimed trilogy AMY, SENNA, and DIEGO MARADONA. Kapadia’s most recent film, 2073, had its world premiere at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, starring Samantha Morton. 2073 is a hard hitting, epic, science-true-fiction thriller which pushed the documentary boundaries by mixing archive, nonfiction and drama, set in a dystopian near-future. The film uses fragments of the past to tell a story of what may be to come in the future, or what may already be our present. 2073 had been the No 1 feature film on HBO MAX in the US.

As Chief Executive of Screen Yorkshire, Caroline champions the film, TV and wider screen industries in Yorkshire and the Humber and provides leadership to a talented team of industry experts who deliver skills and talent development, production support and content investment.

Caroline’s 25-year career within the screen industries has evolved from running her first production company with acclaimed music video director Dawn Shadforth to her previous role as Head of Creative at Screen Yorkshire. Along this journey she has spent time as Talent Development Executive for Scottish Film Talent Network, Head of Film at Creative England, Head of Creative Development at Warp X, managed the UK Film Council’s nationwide short film programme through her company Lifesize Pictures and spent a year as Director of the Sheffield International Documentary Festival.

Claire McColgan CBE is a highly respected cultural leader with over 30 years’ experience delivering transformational culture-led regeneration across local and national government. As Director of Culture, Visitor Economy and Major Events for Liverpool and the wider region, she has produced world-class, award-winning events including Liverpool 2008, Eurovision 2023, and the UK COVID-19 reopening programme, while also leading the bids for and delivering, amongst others  UNESCO City of Music and the UN Accelerator City Programme.

She is an expert in community engagement and invented the groundbreaking creative communities programme, cited as the reason for Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture win. This approach has been emulated internationally.

A sought-after international advisor and speaker, Claire currently serves as Deputy Chair of the UK City of Culture programme, a Non-Executive Director at Carnegie UK and Visit Isle of Man, and has been recognised with an MBE, CBE, and honorary awards from LJMU and Edge Hill University for her outstanding service to culture and the City of Liverpool.

Award winning actor, Dylan Thomas Smith is best known for his portrayal of Reece Duffy in ITV’s G’WED. The role has earned him outstanding reviews, with Russell T Davies calling him, ‘An absolute star...,” a BAFTA nomination and the award for ‘Best Breakthrough Performance in a Comedy’ at The Edinburgh TV Awards. The show was also nominated for a BAFTA. Dylan recently finished filming season 3 which will be out in June and can also be seen in Keyside’s upcoming music video Lemon and Lime. Dylan currently has two projects in development.

Emma Loach is the BBC's Interim Head of Documentary Commissioning, responsible for all  documentary output across the BBC's channels. 

Recent credits include The Mother of All Cons; Atomic People; Backlash: The Murder of  George Floyd; Forensics; Sarah Everard: The Search for Justice; The Search for Nicola Bulley;  Rose Ayling-Ellis: Old Hands, New Tricks; The Real Mo Farah; Parole; The Met; Christine  McGuinness: Unmasking My Autism; Louis Theroux's Forbidden America; Gods of Snooker; and Black Power. 

Before joining the BBC, Emma worked as an executive producer across a diverse range of  series and singles. She was instrumental in originating and delivering the Ambulance brand  for BBC One and The Trial for Channel 4.

Gemma stars as Mia Louise in ITV comedy G’WED, for which she was nominated for Best Performance in a Comedy at the Northwest RTS Awards in 2025. Gemma recently reprised her role for the second series of BBC drama This City Is Ours and completed filming The Cage for BBC1.

Harjeet Chhokar is a Sr. Unscripted Creative Executive at Amazon MGM Studios, where he works across the factual slate and on shows such as Clarkson's Farm, The Grand Tour, Kaleb Down Under and the award winning sports documentaries and true crime slate. Prior to joining Amazon MGM Studios, Harjeet was a Commissioning Editor in the Channel 4 Factual department, and commissioned a number of factual shows, including Murder Island, Sex Actually with Alice Levine and 999: On the Frontline. Before entering the world of commissioning, Harjeet worked in unscripted production for over 17 years; starting his career as a BBC Production Trainee and working his way up to Series Producer.

Harjeet is a passionate advocate for the powerful impact television can have on viewers' lives and the cultural fabric of the country; he is committed to mentoring and supporting junior members of the industry. He is currently a Trustee at the Grierson Trust and The TV Foundation, and was the Advisory Chair of the 2024 Edinburgh TV Festival.

Helen Nightingale is Head of Factual and Factual Entertainment Commissioning at UKTV, where she has played a key role in shaping the unscripted strategy across U&Dave, U&W, U&Yesterday and U&Gold. Since joining in 2015, her commissions have included titles such as Emma Willis: Delivering Babies, Gemma and Gorka: Life Behind The Lens, and more recently, Guy Martin Proper Jobs and the award-winning Pete Wicks for Dogs’ Sake. Helen previously held senior roles at Gogglebox Entertainment and IWC Media.

Hilary Rosen is Director of Commissioning at UKTV, where she leads a team responsible for a growing slate of original scripted and unscripted programming. Her recent commissions include new drama series Bergerac, Bookish and The Marlow Murder Club, alongside unscripted titles such as Pete Wicks: For Dogs’ Sake, Will & Ralf Should Know Better and Guy Martin: Proper Jobs. She was also the original commissioner of Dave’s BAFTA‑winning Taskmaster.

Hilary began her career in BBC News & Current Affairs on Panorama, later moving into the independent sector with senior roles at Lion Television before becoming Creative Director at Silver River Productions.

She is deputy chair of the BAFTA Board of Trustees and will succeed the chair in autumn 2026. Hilary supports mental health and inclusion across the industry, serving on the working group for the Film and TV Charity’s Mentally Healthy Productions initiative, and is a mentor of mid-career women.

‍Holly Graham is Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer at Little Dot Studios, working to shape the company’s long-term growth strategy while overseeing the studio function and all client relationships across Entertainment, Sport and Consumer Brands. One of Little Dot Studios’ earliest employees, Holly joined the business in 2013 and has held several senior roles across audience growth, client services and international expansion. In 2018 she relocated to Los Angeles to launch and lead Little Dot Studios US as Managing Director, establishing the company’s American operations and securing key partnerships with Warner Bros., Disney and NBCUniversal while driving significant growth. Holly returned to the London headquarters in 2020 as Chief Business Officer, was promoted to Chief Commercial Officer in 2024, and now leads both commercial strategy and global partnerships across the group.

Jade Beason swapped her corporate marketing career for life as a full-time creator and multi-business entrepreneur - and hasn’t looked back. After eight years in marketing, she launched her YouTube channel and turned it into a six-figure business within months.

Today, Jade runs multiple ventures: The Creator Project, a digital community helping creators turn passion into profit, and Social People, a social media marketing agency blending cultural insight with data to make content that actually works.

Her work has attracted an audience of over 450,000 creators and entrepreneurs, and she’s hosted events for global giants like Google, Apple, and Meta. Whether she’s on stage, online, or strategising behind the scenes, Jade’s mission is simple: to show creators and brands how they can make social media their superpower & earn an income!

Liverpool-born Jimmy McGovern has a formidable reputation for writing powerful dramas for the stage and screen, often based on real events or social issues. Jimmy’s writing credits read like a list of classic television. Having honed his skills working on Brookside, his major breakthroughs came with Cracker, Hillsborough and Time. Jimmy received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Royal Television Society in March 2018.