Katherine Butler and Adrian Sturges join Sky Studios Drama team

Sky Studios, Sky's original programming arm across Europe, today announces two new appointments to its drama team as the Studio targets a significant increase in the investment and scale of Sky Original drama.

Making her first appointments since joining Sky Studios earlier this year, Meghan Lyvers, Sky Studios' Director of Original Drama, UK&I, has announced Katherine Butler as the new Director of Commissioning, Drama, and Adrian Sturges as Executive Producer, Drama.

Most recently Creative Director at award-winning global producer, The Ink Factory, Butler will be responsible for overseeing Sky Studios' slate of commissioned drama projects in the UK & Ireland, with her team including Sky Studios commissioning editors, Manpreet Dosanjh, Paul Gilbert and Head of Development Tilly Coulson. During her time at The Ink Factory, Butler was responsible for the creative strategy of the business across the US and UK, working with the team to build scripted slates in London, LA and Asia and executive producing across TV and film projects. Prior to this, she served as Head of Film and TV Drama at Raw where she produced the award-winning feature films American Animals and Dream Horse. Butler previously worked at Film4 for 9 years where she was Deputy Head of Film, and as Head of Development at Ruby Films.

Until joining Sky Studios, Adrian Sturges worked as an independent freelance producer and has recently produced the Netflix series The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself adapted by Joe Barton for Andy Serkis's company The Imaginarium. In 2017 Sturges produced Chimerica for Channel 4 before going on to produce psychological thriller The Third Day starring Jude Law and Naomie Harris for HBO/Sky Studios in 2019. In his new role as Executive Producer at Sky Studios, Sturges will work directly with indie-commissioned projects and projects developed and produced in-house overseeing the production, execution and delivery of Sky Original dramas. He will work alongside current Executive Producers Sam Hoyle, Serena Thompson and Kara Manley.

As the original programming arm for Sky across Europe, Sky Studios is responsible for both commissioning Sky Original dramas from third-party indies, and for developing and producing projects in house. As a studio of significant scale, Sky Studios is also able to fully fund projects for international distribution beyond Sky's six European territories, meaning it can move quickly and be agile in how it partners with indies and talent.

Sturges will commence his new role at Sky Studios this month, with Butler expected to join in the new year, both will report into Lyvers. They join Sky Studios at a time when it is deepening its investment in UK, European and global scripted projects of scale including Gangs of London, M: Son of the Century, The Lazarus Project and the recently announced The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Mary and George and The Day of the Jackal.

Katherine Butler, Director of Drama, Commissioning, Sky Studios said: I'm absolutely thrilled to be joining Meghan and her amazing team at such an exciting time of expanding vision and growth for drama at Sky Studios. From Chernobyl to Gangs of London, I Hate Suzie to Save Me and Patrick Melrose, I have long admired the big, bold, risk-taking range and ambition of Sky's dramatic output. I can't wait to start building upon this great legacy in partnership with the extraordinary talent and producers across the UK industry - what a privilege!

Adrian Sturges, Executive Producer Drama, Sky Studios said: I'm really excited to be joining Sky Studios, having previously had some of my best experiences producing drama for the company. Joining Meghan Lyvers' wonderful team is an incredible opportunity for me to work with the very best of British talent, both established and new, and to support bold, ambitious work that will surprise and delight audiences.

Meghan Lyvers, Director of Original Drama, UK&I at Sky Studios, added: We are excited to welcome Katherine Butler and Adrian Sturges to Sky Studios as we accelerate on our commitment to build an increasingly ambitious and provocative slate of premium dramas. Katherine and Adrian are each respected and seasoned executives in the creative community and, together with our wider team, we cannot wait to bring audiences even more premium Sky Originals of scale and prominence.

Notes to Editors

Media Contact: Harrison.Kelly@sky.uk / +44 (0) 7817476365

About Sky Studios

Sky Studios is Sky's original programming arm across Europe.

We develop, produce, commission and fund original drama and scripted comedy for Sky's 23m customers and beyond. Building on the success of critically acclaimed Sky Originals including Emmy-winning Chernobyl, Bafta-winning Save Me Too and international hits Das Boot, A Discovery of Witches and Gangs of London, Sky Studios is the new creative home of must-see Sky Originals, such as The Lazarus Project, l Hate Suzie and Souls

We're an agile Studio, seeking out the best untold stories from new voices while working in creative partnership with today's best writers, producers, and on-screen talent to bring viewers stories they wouldn't find anywhere else.

With commissioning talent and production capability across the UK, Germany, and Italy, we understand local tastes across Europe better than anyone else and have plans to more than double our investment in original content by 2024, fully supported and backed by Comcast NBCUniversal.

We're also developing a new TV and film studio, Sky Studios Elstree, which is expected to lead to the creation of over 2,000 new jobs and generate an additional £3 billion of production investment in the UK creative sector in the first five years alone.

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