BBC Studios Taps Channel 4 Alum for New Global Creative Unit

BBC Studios has tapped Channel 4 alum Karl Warner as executive VP of U.K. entertainment and digital development to establish and lead a new creative unit within its recently formed global entertainment business.

Warner’s new team will be tasked with creating new IP and formats for the BBC and other U.K. and global platforms. His unit will partner with BBC Studios’ global entertainment teams around the world, particularly in the U.S., to reimagine international ideas for the U.K. market.

Those adaptations will be produced by the new entertainment production business led by Suzy Lamb, managing director for U.K. entertainment.

Warner will also oversee the creation of new labels and creatively supporting existing labels, such as the recently launched Rebel Pictures, to support their growth and establish and expand BBC Studios’ content portfolio.

He will report to Matt Forde, global entertainment managing director.

Warner has over 15 years of senior industry leadership experience. He has held commissioning roles at the BBC and Channel 4 and founded his own production company, Electric Ray, in partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment. He joined Channel 4 in 2018 as the new controller of E4 and oversaw Channel 4’s entertainment department, brokering deals for hits such as Taskmaster and I Literally Just Told You. He was behind the successful brand strategy of Married at First Sight UK, making it E4’s highest rated show in the history of the channel and Channel 4’s number one streaming brand of all time. He also extended the global hit franchise First Dates with four seasons of Teen First Dates.

Previously, Warner held roles at NBC’s Monkey Kingdom and at Endemol, where he was a senior producer on Big Brother. He was also part of the BBC in-hour team that helped develop Strictly Come Dancing’s first season. He was the BBC’s youngest ever commissioning editor at 26 and helped to create brands like Russell Howard’s Good News and Junior Doctors for BBC Three, as well as Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow and John Bishop’s Britain for BBC One.

“I’m delighted that someone of Karl’s experience and inventiveness has joined BBC Studios to help us supercharge our ambitions,” Forde said. “Establishing a flexible hub of creative talent to develop UK hit shows across multiple platforms with an innovative, global, and future-looking approach for audiences has been a priority since setting up [the] global entertainment [unit]. I can’t wait to see what he and the new team working across the U.K. and world create.”

“After over a decade, I’m thrilled to be back at the BBC with a new global perspective and joining BBC Studios in a creative leadership role at such an exciting time,” Warner said. “With its huge scale, rich catalog of IP and second-to-none talent relationships, I can’t think of a better place to be, creating new ideas that speak to the next generation of audiences, alongside Suzy and the amazing teams in the group.”