Australia’s ABC hires Nutopia’s Phil Craig as head of factual

Australian public broadcaster ABC has poached former Nutopia exec Phil Craig to become head of factual.

Craig, who was executive producer at the British production company, run by former Discovery and BBC exec Jane Root, will join the broadcaster at the end of October.

He previously worked on documentaries including Nazi Gospels and Rogue Sharks.

Nutopia CEO Root said: “I’d like to thank Phil, he’s one of the world’s great creative talents, and an amazing guy to work with. We’ll all be sorry to see him go, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I know he’ll be a great success at ABC TV.”

Craig added: “My three years at Nutopia have been thrilling. It has been a privilege to help Jane Root and her fantastic team create exciting new styles of factual TV. I also owe Jane huge thanks for helping me make a range films and series at Nutopia, all of which I’m truly proud of: Desert War, Nazi Gospels, Rogue Sharks, Adrift, 911 State of Emergency and Bin Laden: Shoot to Kill. I’m leaving Nutopia on a high and I wish the company every success.”

Nutopia is currently in production for three big budget documentaries including Sky Atlantic’s The British, History’s Mankind The Story of All of Us and Discovery Networks International’s How We Invented The World.