ITV Studios staffs up for comedy push

ITV Studios has created the new role of creative director, comedy entertainment and has installed a new comedy development team as it seeks to create new finished shows and formats in the genre.

Laura Gibson has taken the creative director role at the production arm of the UK commercial broadcaster. She will join this autumn and report to ITV Studios’ new director of entertainment, Shu Greene.

Gibson’s previous experience includes a stint as head of development at Princess Productions. She will head up a new comedy development team including ITV Studios producer Jack Kennedy as development executive and new assistant producer Susannah Hayley.

Laura joined ITV Studios in 2011 as an entertainment development executive and was most recently involved with the ITV1 commission Fool Britannia – a hidden camera show with Dom Joly.

“Given the increasing industry demand for quality comedy entertainment programming, we’ve identified the opportunity for a dedicated comedy development team to develop and produce new content and build relationships with comedy talent,” said Denise O’Donoghue, MD of ITV Studios UK. “Laura has already demonstrated her remarkable ability to devise talked-about comedy TV and I can’t wait to see the projects that will come from this new team.”