Darren Bender – Managing Director

Darren was an award-winning documentary filmmaker (Coconut Revolution, A Sarajevo Diary) before becoming a Commissioning Editor and Executive Producer.

At Channel 4 he established Coming Up which has been breaking in new writing and directing talent for 9 years running.  Responsible for 4Later, he also commissioned many other programmes including new documentary talent series The Other Side, Late Night Poker and Bullfight.

Darren left C4 to explore drama and the first project he developed was The Hamburg Cell, produced by Finola Dwyer and David Aukin for C4 and HBO. He then took on the newly created role of Head of Production at Screen East, investing lottery funds into low budget features and developing scripts with over 40 writers.

In 2005 Darren was chosen as one of Screen International’s Stars of Tomorrow.  He has completed the International Producers’ Programme EAVE, the UK Film Council’s Executive Development Programme, Inside Pictures, and is an active member of the ACE European Producers Network.

Ashok Shah – Head of Finance

From 1998-2003 Ashok was the company secretary of television production company Brook Lapping and oversaw their £2 million sale to Ten Alps. For the last five years he was finance director of the digital television channel Teachers TV.