Our Board
Natasha Carlish
Having worked as a producer and director in theatre, Natasha began her producing career in television in documentaries. She has produced several programmes for broadcast and international distribution. Her credits include ABBA:BJORN AGAIN for Channel 5 which was nominated for a Golden Rose of Montreux, RTS nominated PSYCHO for Channel 4 and RTS award winning THE MAN WHO WOULDN'T PAINT HITLER which has been distributed in many territories.
Returning to Birmingham in 2000, Natasha describes herself as a "born again Brummie" and she has become passionate advocate for the filmmaking community in the region.
She began her screen drama producing career by producing short films, the second of which, BOUNCER, starring Ray Winstone, was nominated for a BAFTA. Having graduated from EAVE, an international post graduate producing programme, Natasha set up her own company, Dreamfinder Productions and with the first project, a short film called BROWN PAPER BAG, she won the BAFTA and 3rd prize in the Turner Classics Movies competition. Since then she has gone onto produce over 50 short films, a number of which have been part of the Brummiewood Project which Natasha created together with the Birmingham School of Acting.
Dreamfinder is developing a number of feature, television drama and factual projects with regional writers and directors.
Natasha is a founding member of the Producers' Forum, an organisation committed to the continuing professional development of Producers from the region and together with her colleague, Tom Norton, she runs the forum producing events, apprenticeships, a website and business school. She is also a member of PACT and BAFTA.
Johannah Dyer
Johannah Dyer formed Hotbed Media with Venture Capital investment in March 2000, after 10 years in the broadcast industry. In just 4 years of trading she has led the company's growth to a turnover of £3.5 million and 65 employees. Johannah has extensive editorial experience of network production and is also well-versed in the financial and business affairs of the broadcast industry. As well as managing the company, she also executive-produces Hotbed's range of award-winning programming. Johannah is passionate about proving that great programmes can be made from outside London and for a number of years was Chair of Pact's influential 'Nations & Regions' committee. She is involved in several industry bodies where she was instrumental in securing £3 million of Broadcast Development Funding for the region.
Ray Johnson
Ray is Professor of Film Heritage and Documentary at Staffordshire University and has given conference papers on pre- and early cinema. He is also an independent film-maker, actor and writer. His documentaries have been broadcast on most television channels and put out as videos and DVDs. He is a Fellow of the Film & Video Institute and Vice President of the Arnold Bennett Society along with Roy Hattersley and Margaret Drabble.
He founded and runs the Staffordshire Film Archive and has produced over 70 documentaries and compilations of archive films. A Movie Maker Ten Best winner many years ago and IAC competition judge on several occasions. Six video titles on the Titanic disaster released since 1991, 4 DVD titles released in USA and Canada since 1998, Titanic; the Story DVD released 1999 and on the Discovery Channel, The Making of ‘A Night to Remember’ – BBC2 1997, Carlton DVD 1999.
Theatre includes: own plays produced at Oxford Playhouse, New Victoria Theatre, Theatre Royal Hanley, Edinburgh Fringe Festival and UK tours; principal parts in plays at the Piccadilly Theatre, Leicester Haymarket, Manchester Library Theatre, Oldham Coliseum, Crewe Lyceum etc. and UK tours of 3 two-handers and 8 one-man plays. Television appearances include The Royal Variety Performance, Titanic, The Making of 'A Night to Remember', Flog It, Made for the Masses and many appearances on BBC Midlands Today.
Mary Matthews
Mary Matthews is part of the senior management team for one of Europe's largest independent video games developers, Blitz Games, based in Leamington Spa. She has particular responsibility for strategy and business development in the emerging field of Serious Games, where the techniques and tools used for entertainment games are used for serious purposes like training and visualisation.
Mary joined the company after leading stratgey for the development of the digital media and music sectors in the West Midlands for the regional development agency, Advantage West Midlands. She secured a three year public/private investment plan of more than £15m and was instrumental in raising the profile of the creative industries as an important sector for the regional economy.
Mary's background is in broadcast journalism having reported and presented for BBC Radio and TV, Sky News Channel 4 News and LWT. She has also run her own media training company has been executive director at a Midlands PR agency before supporting the Independent Television Commission's early work on media literacy. She is also a member of the Coventry Solihull and Warwickshire Partnership Innovation and Enterprise Board and served as a school governor for 8 years.
Tommy Nagra
Tommy Nagra is Senior Executive Producer for Specialist Factual programming for Maverick Television in January 2006
Before joining Maverick in January 2006, Tommy carved himself a distinguished career at the BBC working as a Channel Development Executive as part of Jane Root’s team at BBC Two and more recently as the Head of Asian Programmes.
With several awards under his belt, his achievements in television production are notable. He won the Carlton TV award for achievements in Broadcasting at the Multi-cultural Achievement Awards televised on ITV. As a programme maker his credits range from the nation’s first multicultural youth talk show Café 21; Cell Block Hate, a documentary that won a Gold Camera Award at the US International Film and TV Festival; and the highly acclaimed landmark Sikhs series.
Tommy revitalised the Asian Programmes Unit with a slate of new programming across all the BBC Channels including Conflicts, Desi DNA, The Joy of Curry, Malai Monologues, Nuclear Paradise, Booty Queens, India’s Ladyboys, Pakistani Actually and Marrying my Cousin. The APU won the regions Royal Television Society Awards for 3 consecutive years for Best Lifestyle, Best Current Affairs and Best Specialist Factual Programmes under Tommy’s leadership, and he is credited with unearthing new on and off screen talent including Sanjeev Bhaskar (Kumars at No 42); Rajesh Mirchandani and Adil Ray.
Rod Pilling
Professor Rod Pilling joined Southampton Solent University as Dean of the Faculty of Media, Arts and Society in September 2005.
He began his working life in newspaper journalism before going into teaching. He developed the first media degree at Birmingham Polytechnic before founding its Department of Media and Communication. He led the teams there that developed postgraduate Broadcast Journalism, Media and Communication and Media Production. He was academic staff governor during its change to the University of Central England.
In collaboration with external bodies, he has gained considerable recent experience in developing knowledge transfer projects. He led several major developments in the West Midlands, which have culminated in the successful Screen Media Lab development in one of Birmingham's creative quarters. He also chairs the regional development agency's Digital Central initiative.
Rod has written on various aspects of journalism and is on the editorial board of Journalism Studies. He was a long-serving member of the executive of the National Association of Media Production Educators.
He enjoys playing and watching sport and most of the less strenuous outdoor activities - such as walking, swimming, boating, and canoeing.
Andrew Tomlinson
Andrew Tomlinson was made Series Producer of BBC1's Heaven and Earth Show in November 2006 after running BBC Birmingham's Features and Current Affairs Department for five years. His department in Birmingham produced ten series of Inside Out, winning an RTS Midlands award for the past four years, either as Regional Programme of the Year or Best Documentary. Midway through his term as Features Editor, Andrew had a fourteen month spell running the long-standing BBC1 favourite Countryfile. To mark the imposition of the ban on hunting, he produced the programme's first hour-long live OB. Since 2001, Andrew has worked with the independent sector in the West Midlands, commissioning and acting as executive producer on ten programmes, ranging from The Birmingham Bombings (BFM, 2004)and Working the Sea (Maverick, 2006) to The Exhibitionists (Hotbed Media, 2006). A former BBC health correspondent, Andrew has also been a network radio newsroom producer in London and a press agency journalist in Leicester.
Paul Webster
Paul has produced or executive produced over 29 films to date and has been associated with films that have won over 100 awards including 3 winners of the BAFTA for Best British Film and 6 Oscar nominated pictures. In 2004 he produced the hit film “Pride & Prejudice” for Working Title Films starring Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFadyen. He recently formed Kudos Pictures with Stephen Garrett and Jane Featherstone; their first picture will be David Cronenberg’s next film, starring Naomi Watts and Viggo Mortensen, which will be shot in London at the end of 2006. He is currently shooting Working Title Film’s “Atonement”, directed by Joe Wright and once again starring Keira Knightley.
