From secretary to senior director: Sky Sports' Sara Chenery on her meteoric rise through the ranks By Heather McLean, Editor
Thursday, March 3, 2022 - 08:41
Print This Story
Sara Chenery, senior director and team lead at Sky Sports, directing the Anthony Joshua fight against Andy Ruiz Jr in New York in June 2019, in which AJ lost
I'm super proud to say I'm a complete product of Sky, says Sara Chenery, senior director and team lead at Sky Sports.
At 17 I was secretary to the head of business development and director of marketing for a year or so, before I offered to look after guests at an outside broadcast in my own time. As soon as I saw a gallery I knew I wanted to direct. I loved the energy and passion that live telly brings.
I absolutely love directing, she goes on. It's just a privilege. Being part of the process that brings a story to life on screen is second to none. I really enjoy being a team lead; we have a great team of talented people who work hard to support each other and deliver high-class output. It's always a good feeling when you know you have made someone's work life better, by taking the time to listen or to offer guidance.
Fast-forward from school to Sky
On how Chenery first got into broadcasting, she began just days after leaving school. I decided to take a year out off the back of my A Levels. My Dad was a chauffeur for Sky at the time. It was back in 1992 and Sky was a very different place to what it is now. They had two new executives who had no secretary. Dad knew I had done shorthand and typing and put my name forward fast-forward a few days and I had my last college exam on the Tuesday and started work on at Sky two days later.
I was petrified when I first came into Sky. One day I was taking my exams and a couple of days later I was answering the phone to household names and taking shorthand minutes in a high-powered meeting!
You absolutely have to thrive on chaos organised chaos of course! I still get butterflies when I hear the 10 second countdown to air; I don't ever want to lose that!
Chenery has always been focused and that has helped her push her career at Sky forwards over the years that she has been there. She explains her trajectory: I moved over as a production secretary (only girls did that role at the time!) and worked to upskill at every opportunity.
The next step was editorial assistant on Soccer Saturday (first covering for someone who was ill and then stepping into the roll permanently), coordinating the live football reports. Then I was promoted to assistant producer creating all features, short documentaries and promos. Soccer Saturday was a great show, because we always had a different live sport featuring, so we had experience of so many different sports - synchronised swimming, table football, beach volleyball, cricket, rugby, tennis we had so much variety!
Then while on a shoot I had the opportunity to link together a couple of cameras on-site with a vision mixing desk and that was my first introduction to directing, she goes on. I moved over to boxing as an associate producer in 1996, and whilst helping out on Naseem Hamed's fight in Dublin I realised how brilliant OBs were! I love multitasking and it was wonderful to see how everyone came together for that live broadcast. I was absolutely mesmerised.
Sky Sports' Sara Chenery says, In 2000 I started to direct undercard fights and then moved on to directing the live shows. Since then, no two shows have been the same and I absolutely love directing
Passion for directing boxing
Chenery moved onto VT directing by chance, when then assistant producer Adam Smith now head of boxing development was caught up backstage and could not get back to the trucks. This opened up a new world for her.
She says: VT directing replays was the best job I could have imagined; watching the fight from different angles and coordinating all the content was an absolute adrenaline rush. I continued to work on boxing as well as other sports to get more experience. Again, in my own time I had a go at a variety of crafts to understand how tricky they were: camera operating, floor managing, vision mixing and attempting to fade up the right microphones as the boxers moved around the ring!
Directing has remained Chenery's passion. In 2000 I started to direct undercard fights and then moved on to directing the live shows. Since then, no two shows have been the same and I absolutely love directing. I've worked on some challenging events and some emotional ones, but they have all been equally rewarding.
Chenery was almost where she wanted to be; she applied for the role of senior director in 2017 and was successful. She comments: I really enjoyed the new challenge of having direct reports as well as still directing myself. A year later the opportunity to become one of two team leads in the department came up and I was really pleased to get the role.
I've now directed most sports over the years at Sky and from OBs including athletics, ping pong, greyhound racing, badminton and netball, but boxing is always my favourite for the sheer unpredictability of it.
She has worked on so many boxing events that she has a lot of favourite moments: I've directed boxing OBs in Monaco, New York, Las Vegas, Saudi Arabia, Gibraltar and Germany and each of those events have had their own challenges and rewards.
There have been so many boxing moments; I've directed every AJ [Anthony Joshua] fight, with the exception of his loss in New York, and that makes me very proud. Froch versus Groves at Wembley was the most challenging; we had to rig overnight off the back of a football event. We'd done an overnight dry run, transforming the pitch, but it had never been done before and it was pretty nerve racking. George Groves insisting
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
28/11/2025
Nadia Fall attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Brides at the Egyptian Theatre on January 24, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Donyale West/...
28/11/2025
It's easy to ignore those little red update available badges. But when it ...
28/11/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for the December Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, December 18, 2025 ...
28/11/2025
The Professional Fighters League is looking to super-serve fans of mixed martial...
28/11/2025
Fubo has released in beta on select Roku devices a new feature that lets users display up to four simultaneous streams at once....
28/11/2025
The WNBA playoffs and Week 4 of the NFL regular season highlight the list of live sports events airing on television this weekend....
28/11/2025
The 32nd class of honorees to the B+C Hall of Fame took to the stage at New York's Ziegfeld Ballroom on September 26 for a gala induction event. Click below...
28/11/2025
We hold in our hands the very last Next Text for Next TV, the weekly back-and-fo...
28/11/2025
DirecTV said it made a deal with EchoStar to buy EchoStar's video businesses, including satellite-TV provider Dish TV and virtual MVPD Sling TV, for $1 plus...
28/11/2025
The Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame, the premier industry event paying tribute to the influencers, innovators and shining lights of broadcast, cable and streami...
28/11/2025
Friday 28 November 2025
Sky Sports x Slawn drop limited-edition football jersey...
28/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz shows resilience in a challenging environment, revenue exceeds t...
28/11/2025
Unwrapped: The Toy Show Appeal - airing this Sunday on RT One and RT Player- s...
27/11/2025
LONDON Vizrt has added several AI-driven advanced features offering improved speed, intelligence and accuracy in the newest version of its media asset managemen...
27/11/2025
Prime Video has launched AI-powered video season recaps in a beta version for select English-language Prime Original series in the U.S., a move Amazon is callin...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders Marks a Grand...
27/11/2025
27 Nov 2025
GSMA brings M360 Eurasia 2026 to Samarkand in partnership with VEON...
27/11/2025
Tahar Rahim and Izuka Hoyle star in the gripping six-part Sky Original from Acad...
27/11/2025
Thursday 27 November 2025
Sky Arts Reveals the Nation's Greatest Basslines - and Queen Reign Supreme
The UK's most iconic basslines have been revealed...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things 5': Prepare for One Last Adventure With O...
27/11/2025
The media industry has a paradox at its core. It's an industry built on light, color and imagination, yet behind the scenes, it's powered by one of the ...
27/11/2025
Rating reflects rating progress across areas including policies, diversity & inclusion, health & safety and Net Zero leadership
Winchester, UK, 27 November 202...
27/11/2025
What are the industry standards for Retail Media? Kathryn explains that certification is based on the IAB Europe Retail Media Measurement Standards and the IAB ...
27/11/2025
World champion boxer and Irish sporting icon Katie Taylor will be in studio this...
27/11/2025
Roblox, one of the world's most popular online gaming platforms for primary ...
27/11/2025
Black Friday is leveling up. Get ready to score one of the biggest deals of the season - 50% off the first three months of a new GeForce NOW Ultimate membership...
26/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Prime Video EP Mike Muriano Previews Massive Black Friday Slate Fe...
26/11/2025
A cinematic snow sculpture at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Randall Michelson...
26/11/2025
Book podcasts are booming. On Spotify, you'll find everything from celebrity book clubs to deep dives with bestselling authors. And in markets where audiobo...
26/11/2025
Mumbai, November 24, 2025: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, JioStar, in collab...
26/11/2025
LONDON Factual content producer ITN Productions has launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins....
26/11/2025
MIAMI TelevisaUnivision said it struck a new multiyear distribution agreement with YouTube TV that includes distribution of TelevisaUnivision's U.S. network...
26/11/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leader in software-defined data storage and data services, today announced the launch of the Atlas Corporate Creative Solution. This new Atl...
26/11/2025
Disguise, the industry-leading company powering the world's biggest live performances, is partnering with pioneering LED wall manufacturer DVS to give atten...
26/11/2025
HighField AI, the pioneer in agentic and multimodal automation for broadcast and media production, today announced the expansion of its global channel partner n...
26/11/2025
As high-stakes Premier League fixtures approach and additional premium content launches, with MONO positioning themselves to dominate Thailand's sports stre...
26/11/2025
Hosting a wide variety of events from high-intensity NHL games to complex live music concerts and major entertainment productions, Montreal's 21,000 capacit...
26/11/2025
Vizrt, the leader in live production technology revolutionizing viewer engagement and experience, releases AI-driven advances focusing on speed, intelligence, a...
26/11/2025
ITN Productions, an award-winning factual content producer, today launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins. Responsible for delivering a leading...
26/11/2025
Ikegami reports ongoing advances throughout 2025 in developing and delivering coordinated television production solutions that maximize quality, versatility and...
26/11/2025
Following the Nov. 21 blackout of NBCUniversal channels on Fubo, the two sides have traded barbs about their inability to reach a new carriage deal....
26/11/2025
LONDON As TV sports rights become increasingly important for both broadcasters and streamers, Ampere Analysis predicts global investment in the genre will surpa...
26/11/2025
LOS ANGELES Vubiquity said it has achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Media & Entertainment Competency as part of the AWS Partner Network (APN). This designa...
26/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau said it has entered into a consent decree with Comcast calling for the cable company t...
26/11/2025
Berklee Named to the Hollywood Reporters Top Music Schools List The publication highlights the college's screen scoring program, industry partnerships, and ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
Animated Series Love Through a Prism' Casts New Light on ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
NALIP Unveils Fifth Cohort of Director Incubator
Social Impact
26 November 2025
United States
Link copied to clipboard
The National Assoc...
26/11/2025
YouView Achieves Greenly Gold Certification for SustainabilityNov 26, 2025
YouView is proud to announce a Gold Certification award from Greenly for our perform...
From secretary to senior director: Sky Sports' Sara Chenery on her meteoric rise through the ranks By Heather McLean, Editor 
