Loud Minds adds execs to gear up for growth
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Editor
| 25 April 2023
As it continues on its growth path, indie high-end factual and drama cross-platform content producer Loud Minds has hired Will Aslett and Emma Parkin to fill pivotal development roles.
Loud Mnds 25 April 2023
Loud Minds believes that at its helm is a team with the experience and creative skills needed to support the most ambitious breakthrough projects, including Director Mark Popkiewicz and COO Sheryl Trinh. The indie’s creative director and founder Tim Haines is behind the multi-BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning series Walking with Dinosaurs (BBC/Discovery), sequel Walking with Beasts and major drama series Primeval (ITV).

The company’sfirst major series, Surviving Earth, is currently in production with Universal Television Alternative Studio. The 8 x 60’, multi-million-dollar series for NBC and Peacock tells the story of eight mass extinction moments throughout the Earth’s history, to see what the planet’s past can tell us about its future. It will feature global locations and high-end CGI.

Specialist factual executive Aslett is an experienced, award-winning writer, executive producer and senior development executive, and will take the lead as head of development for unscripted content and will be tasked with growing and managing its cross-genre programming slate. Aslett has held senior roles at Nutopia, Pioneer Productions, Impossible Pictures and the BBC. He joined Loud Minds from Wall to Wall where he was show runner on its four-partNetflix series Earthstorm. Before that he was SVP development at Cineflix Media, working across its specialist factual output in the UK, US and Canada, including Patrick Aryee’s Wild World for Sky.

Aslett was also part of the team that developed the BAFTA-winning series Coast (BBC Two), he won an Emmy Award for Perfect Disaster (Channel 5/Channel 5/Discovery/ProSieben/M6), an Emmy and Banff Rockie Award for Richard Hammond’s Journey to the Centre of the Planet (BBC One/Discovery) and a Broadcast Award for BBC Four’s Afterlife. Other credits include Pompeii: The Mystery of Bodies Frozen in Time (BBC One/Discovery), Naked Science (National Geographic) and Cutting Edge(Channel 4).

Emma Parkin will become development executive at Loud Minds, reporting directly into Aslett. She joins from Pioneer Productions, where she was AP on a yet to be announced feature documentary. Prior to that, her previous experience includes AP on Dinosaurs with Stephen Fry (Channel 5) at Mentorn Media, senior researcher on Our Living World (Netflix) at Wild Space Productions, and AP on Limitless with Chris Hemsworth (National Geographic) while working for Nutopia.

Commenting on his new role, Aslett remarked: “In Loud Minds, Tim Haines has created a vibrant and exciting new business and I am thrilled to be part of the team – and indeed to have the chance to work with him for the second time in my career. Tim is a visionary and his plans for the business now provide me with an incredible opportunity. Not only do I get to work in areas I already know well, but I also get the chance to explore and develop different genres and types of content that will drive a range of audiences and be successful across various platforms in the international marketplace.”

Haines added: “We are delighted to welcome Will and Emma to our expanding team. Will is a world class senior development executive and supremely skilled at helping to create and deliver the sort of epic, smart and engaging global factual content for which we are known. Emma, meanwhile, brings a valuable scientific background, a brilliantly inquiring and creative mind, plus a talent for managing large scale international shoots. Together, they make a formidable addition to our evolving business and are the perfect team to supercharge our slate, which in turn will ensure we can deliver on both our creative and growth ambitions.”