Described by Variety as “an industry stalwart”, Kate is a BBC-trained, award-winning Producer and Director. She is Managing Director of The f Word Media Company, which was established in January 2019 to develop a slate of female-led film and TV projects. Currently, The f Word is producing a series of short films for the childrens’ mental health charity, Nip in The Bud and partnering with Andrea Calderwood’s Potboiler Productions on a development deal with Netflix, commissioning scripts from the young Nigerian novelist, Chibundu Onuzo.
Previously, Kate was CEO of Women in Film (UK) from November 2007- December 2018.
WFTV is the premier membership organisation for women working in creative media in the UK. Kate developed the annual Women in Film Awards Lunch into a major event in the UK awards calendar, with tickets selling out online in less than 2 minutes. In addition to running a year-round programme of events and networking for the UK members, Kate regularly ran industry events at film festivals, particularly Cannes, but also London, Edinburgh and Berlin, and travelled to Dortmund, Odessa, Zurich, Brussels and Tunisia as a guest or keynote speaker. She has frequently been a judge at film competitions in the UK and is often called upon to chair industry panels, interview prominent filmmakers, speak at conferences or universities and comment on media issues for UK media outlets, including print, radio and television. She has given evidence to UK Parliamentary Select Committees; the UK Home Office has involved her in round table discussions and she has been invited to address the women working at the government’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport on equality issues.
Kate is a member of BAFTA, the Royal Television Society, Women in Journalism and Directors UK. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and was twice named a ‘Woman of the Year’. She is on the Advisory Board of the European Women’s Audiovisual Network, co-chair of the Advisory Board of Women in Film & Television International, and one of the founder members of Time’s Up in the UK.
In 2014 she was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours List for services to women in the film and television industry and, with Ralph Fiennes and Richard Linklater, was made an Honorary Associate of the London Film School. Kate received The Bumble Female Empowerment Award 2018 from Naomi Campbell at her annual Charity Fundraiser event at Cannes Film Festival in May 2018. She is a Visiting Professor at the University of Hertfordshire and in 2017 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts by Bournemouth University, returning there in 2018 to deliver their Commencement Speech to overseas students.