Fremantle docs chief Mandy Chang steps down to focus on prodco, BBCS alum takes interim charge

Mandy Chang (Source: Fremantle)

Fremantle’s global documentary chief Mandy Chang is stepping down after less than three years in the role, with former BBC Studios (BBCS) exec Mark Reynolds taking interim charge.

Chang will remain at her Fremantle-backed prodco Undeniable after she steps down, with Reynolds taking up the global docs remit from 8 January.

Mark Reynolds

The arrival of Chang from BBC strand Storyville in May 2021 came as Fremantle ramped up its investments in docs, which saw the creation of a newly minted factual division.

Fremantle had already revealed a raft of shows from its global teams including Naked’s Planet Sex for Hulu in the US and the UK’s BBC Three, a series from Richard Brown’s Passenger about the Basketball Africa League and Italian special Veleno: The Town of Lost Children for Amazon Prime Video.

The RTL Group-owned division also unveiled a new German documentary arm for its production house UFA, which is behind docuseries Expedition Arktis, joining water scarcity doc Day Zero and Samuel L. Jackson-fronted series Enslaved.

Chang had been at Australia’s ABC until 2017, joining the BBC following the exit of Storyville’s former chief Nick Fraser, who launched SVOD Yaddo (now owned by Lightning International), and Netflix-bound Kate Townsend.

Reynolds, meanwhile, is a former Granada exec who had been with BBC Worldwide (now BBCS) for more than a decade, most recently leading its unscripted output. He left in 2021 and has since been in various consultancy roles.