Playground Bolsters Team

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Drama specialist Playground has bolstered its U.K. executive team, elevating Sophie Gardiner to head of drama and executive creative director.

Gardiner will oversee Playground’s U.K. television production and development slate, which includes, most recently, Kenneth Lonergan’s adaptation of Howards End for the BBC and Starz; King Lear, starring Anthony Hopkins for the BBC; and the recently announced adaptation of Little Women by Heidi Thomas for the BBC and Masterpiece on PBS. She has been serving as creative director at Playground, and before that was commissioning editor for drama at Channel 4.

Melissa Gallant, formerly the head of development at Fifty Fathoms, has been tapped to take over the role of creative director. Previously, Gallant was at Tiger Aspect working in both development and production on a number of series, including Peaky Blinders, Robin Hood and the re-launch of Murphy’s Law.

Katie Draper, formerly a senior development executive at Playground, has been promoted to creative director alongside Gallant. Prior to working at Playground, Draper worked as a development executive at Kudos and in development and production at Tiger Aspect.

“Good storytelling has never felt more important and I’m thrilled to have such a strong team with Melissa and Katie spearheading our upcoming development slate,” said Gardiner. “By expanding our creative team we hope to continue to deliver on our ambition to make Playground a home for the best writing talent, both established and new, from television, theater and film.”