Our People

Simon Knight Chief Executive Officer

Simon joined Maverick as Chief Executive Officer in October 2015.

Previously Simon was Creative Director at Warner Bros Television Production UK indie’s Ricochet where he was responsible for growing the company’s output which included launching and nurturing Channel 4’s ratings success Food Unwrapped, Superfoods: The Real Story, BBC 2’s The Hairy Bikers and Lorraine Pascale Cooking The Nation’s Favourite Foods, and More 4’s Simon Hopkinson Cooks.

Beforehand, Simon was Executive Producer at BBC Bristol where he developed and grew BBC ONE’s huge success DIY SOS: The Big Build, launched Nigel Slater’s Simple Suppers on BBC1, Simon Hopkinson’s The Good Cook, and developed BBC daytime’s hit Wanted Down Under.

Simon has also produced I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, Celebrity Love Island, and Poor Little Rich Girls for ITV.

John Hesling President, USA

Hesling is a BAFTA and Rose D’Or nominated Producer who was most recently the Senior Vice President of Programming at Shed Media where he had creative oversight of the company’s output.  Prior to his time at Shed, Hesling spent 14 years at the BBC in London, New York and Los Angeles, where he developed, produced and directed award winning documentaries and factual entertainment formats filmed in a dozen countries, as well as the first 2 seasons of the long running BBC2 hit Dragons’ Den. In the US, he has developed and produced shows for ABC, NBC, Lifetime, Oxygen, E!, TLC, History, GSN and others and successfully introduced Top Gear – one of the BBC’s top brands – into the US market. Hesling’s additional credits include Executive Producing ‘First Dates’ for NBC, the upcoming ‘Genius Junior’ for NBC, ‘Long Lost Family’ for TLC, and ‘Criminal Confessions’ for Oxygen. 

Maria French Head of Production

Maria first joined Maverick TV as Production Executive in 2010 and is now our Head of Production.

Maria previously worked for several other production companies as Production Manager and Production Executive, where she oversaw a variety of documentaries, factual, features and childrens programmes, both in studios and on location.

She is responsible for programme production management and supervising all projects from development to delivery.

Susannah Price SVP of Premium Documentary and Specials

Before joining Maverick in October 2018, Susannah ran development at Lightbox, and sold a range of series and specials including the Emmy winning documentary LA92 (National Geographic); Captive (Netflix); Diagnosis (Netflix); Murder Mountain (Fusion, Netflix); Atari Game Over (Xbox Studios); War Child (Channel 4) and Fantastic Lies (ESPN). Her producing credits include the BAFTA award-winning The Government Inspector for Channel 4; Michael Moore’s Sicko; Oil Storm for FX; The Boarding School Bomber starring Adam Deacon for the BBC; and One Strange Rock for National Geographic hosted by Will Smith and directed by Darren Aronofsky.

Liz Kerrigan VP of Current 

Liz is responsible for overseeing current programming for Maverick TV. She came to Maverick after many years as a much sought after Executive Producer, and before that, oversaw current programming for Magnetic Productions. She has a track record for developing and producing pilots that are greenlit to series including HGTV’s “Hidden Potential,” “Five Day Flip,” “Stone House Revival,” and the “American Rehab” franchise. Liz has also produced shows for Food Network, Animal Planet, Travel Channel, MTV, Bravo, A&E, Lifetime, and Syfy.

Tabitha Lentle VP of Development

Tabitha is an Emmy nominated producer with over 20 years experience spanning the UK, US and Australian markets. Prior to joining the Maverick team, Tabitha worked as a showrunner and director on multiple development projects and series’ including Top Gear, Mythbusters, Ax Men, Lost in Transmission, Car Matchmaker, 90 Day Fiance, You Can’t Turn That Into a House and Big Brother Australia.​

Ian Ayres Chief Financial Officer

Looks after accounting, and ultimately the money.

Natalie Dowling Personal Assistant

Personal Assistant to Simon Knight, CEO of Maverick Television.

Emily Guarino Head of Legal and Business Affairs

As part of the senior management team Emily is responsible for the legal and business affairs function at Maverick. She provides legal and commercial advice and negotiates and drafts agreements across the business on matters relating to development, financing, talent, partnerships, co-productions, production, compliance, distribution and brand exploitation.

Emily joined Maverick in 2015 having held previous senior legal and business affairs roles at RDF now Banijay Media, NBCUniversal and A+E Networks. She has extensive experience in programming and formats across multiple genres for the UK, US and international territories.

She has enjoyed leading Maverick as one of the first production companies to make use of the children’s tax credit. She is also very proud to have worked on multi Emmy, BAFTA, Golden Globe, Rose D’Or and Broadcast award winning programmes throughout my career including Wife Swap, Faking It, Secret Millionaire, Being Human, Made in Chelsea, Downton Abbey and Operation Ouch!.

Sukh Sahota Producer, Development

Llinos Griffiths Assistant Producer, Development

Part of the development team coming up with programme ideas, writing and cutting taster tapes to pitch to broadcasters.

Tamara Durnford Talent Manager & Production Manager, Development

As Maverick’s Talent Manager Tamara is responsible for helping find off-screen talent. She oversees Maverick’s talent database and network, building and developing relationships with all levels of production and development staff from runners to series producers. She work closely with executive producers and production management to staff projects and help develop the skills of our talented staff. Alongside, Talent Managing Tamara is also the Production Manager for Maverick’s Development team; supporting them in the day to day running of the department.

Piera Cuttica Head of Post Production

Manor Production Services is Maverick Television’s internal post facility. We offer the complete post production experience, Avid Offline suites, Da Vinci Resolve Grading tool, Symphony Online, Voice booth and 5.1 surround sound Dubbing Suite and QC.

Being part of Maverick means we have the opportunity to be part of the pre- production workflow and offer our expertise in cameras; media backups services and of course the complete post production package.

I manage a fabulous team of ten people, based both in the London and Birmingham office. Together we bring, experience, continuity, calmness under pressure and offer every production the same quality of service as if they were at a commercial Post Facility.

Sharon Rowley Financial Controller

Sharon is the Financial Controller for Maverick Television, Operation Ouch and Manor Post Production.

Sue Hankinson Financial Accountant

Main responsibilities are payroll, production petty cash and bank reconciliations.

Karen Hill Purchase Ledger

Payments, payments, payments!

Romily Menzies Executive Producer

Executive Producer of the multi award winning ‘Operation Ouch’, overseeing the editorial from pre-production to series delivery.

Emily Kennedy Executive Producer

Emily’s most recent posts have been as Head of Popular Factual at DSP and Head of Factual at Primal. Prior to that she worked with Jamie Oliver, first as Series Producer, then as Executive Producer, looking after Jamie and Jimmy’s Friday Night Feast, Jamie’s Comfort Food, Jamie’s Money Saving Meals and various Christmas specials. She’s supervised The Art Show for Sky Arts, and Inside Out Homes, Cooks’ Questions and Secret Eaters for Channel 4. She was nominated for two awards for Collaboration Culture, an arts series she made for BBC World in 2012. Before that, she spent sixteen years in the BBC Arts department, where she worked on an array of shows about contemporary culture, including directing an Arena about The Archers, and was for nearly five years Series Producer of The Culture Show, where she looked after specials on art, design, books, music, architecture and comedy.

Taimmy Hango Receptionist

Front of House and Receptionist for all businesses at the Ray Street office.

Mark Delbridge Technical Manager

Maintaining the technical facilities at Manor Production Services.

John Coyne Deputy Technical Manager

Working with Mark to maintain the technical facilities at Manor Production Services.

Christina Beachy Vice President of Production, USA

Christina Beachy is the Vice President of Production for All3media America and currently oversees production for Maverick Tv USA. Prior to joining the All3media America team, Christina worked in casting and production management at Renegade 83, Tijuana Entertainment and Studio Lambert USA on multiple series and development projects. Previous and present show credits include “Miracle Workers” for ABC, “Obsessed” for A&E, “The Pitch” for AMC, “Shaunie’s Home Court” for VH1, “ Reunion Road Trip” for E! and Maverick TV’s hit show “Chrisley Knows Best” for USA.

Rea Menzies Series Producer

Series Producer of the multi award winning Operation Ouch.

Jon Mann Producer, Development

Jon has extensive experience of the television industry across both popular factual and specialist factual programming for both UK and US broadcasters. He began working in TV after being selected for the Channel 4 Production Trainee Scheme, and over his career has developed programmes including Fill Your House For Free, How to Get Rich Quick, Messages Home: Lost Films of the British Army, and A Very British Hotel. In his life before television, Jon spent five years working as an investment consultant for overseas properties. He’s currently a careers mentor for the University of Sheffield, and teaches for various television training schemes, including PACT and Channel 4.

Alex Rose Development Coordinator, USA

Alex is the development coordinator for Maverick TV USA. In his role he supports the SVP of Development. After graduating from the University of Southern California, Alex got his first taste of the TV world at Mark Burnett Productions working in casting on Shark Tank. Shortly after, he began working at William Morris Endeavor, supporting various agents in the TV business. He found he loved working closely with content creators to promote their visions. Alex now works closely with the development team at Maverick to identify the best storytellers.

Alan Kirk Producer, Development

Prior to joining the Maverick team, Alan spent the better part of a decade developing and producing a variety of network reality shows including NBC’s “Genius Jr” and multiple seasons of ABC’s “Shark Tank,” where he received an Emmy nomination. Additional credits include “Are You Smarter Than a 5^th Grader?” for FOX and “500 Questions” for ABC, among others.  ​

Tom Garland Executive Producer, Development

Before joining Maverick TV Tom previously worked at Studio Lambert as Executive Producer where he set up a number of new series, including The Great Interior Design Challenge (BBC2), Tattoo Fixers (Channel 4) and Top Of The Shop with Tom Kerridge (BBC2). He has also worked at Boundless where he Exec Produced the flagship BBC series The Apprentice.

Tom is an experienced programme maker and has been involved in a range of different series for the main broadcasters. Previous Executive Producer, Series Producer & Senior Producer credits include The Big Performance with Gareth Malone, MasterChef, Grand Designs Live and Vacation Vacation Vacation with Kirstie & Phil.