Our key team come from Scotland, the North East, Manchester and the South East and all share a passion for production and have worked on multi-million-pound budgets across the world.
Lisa founded Honeybird Studios in 2023, partnering with two of the nicest people she knows in the industry – Managing Directors Derek Drennan and Stew Batt. She wanted to create a studio that puts creativity, storytelling, production values and people first.
Prior to Honeybird Lisa was the Managing Director of successful independent production company Whizz Kid Entertainment and then Senior Vice President Non-Scripted Television at eOne UK.
She has worked on a huge range of programming from international awards shows such as ‘The BAFTA Film Awards’ (BBC1) and the ‘Global Citizen Prize’ (NBC) to live prime-time studio series like ‘Lip Sync Battle UK’ (Channel 5), and ‘Let’s Dance for Comic Relief’ (BBC1) to slick reality series such as the international hit format ‘Ex on the Beach’ (MTV International, MTV USA).
Output also covered factual entertainment, competition series, talent shows, branded content, documentaries, comedy and live events.
Derek is an experienced Managing Director and former Head of Production who brings his knowledge, enthusiasm and an extensive industry network to running a business – large or small.
Derek has worked across all genres in TV including scripted, factual, documentary, live events and entertainment. His credits include hit reality series such as ‘Made in Chelsea’ (Channel 4) and ‘Celebs Go Dating’ (C4), the Broadcast Award-winning ‘The World According to Grandpa’ for Channel 5, ‘Eggheads’ for BBC2, ‘Crime’ for Britbox and ‘Hillsong’ (BBC Storyville).
Derek brings a strategic and commercial direction to Honeybird and is very experienced in packaging deals, distribution, screen agency funding and finance. Derek also heads up Nest Productions which he founded in 2019 in response to the growing need for high-quality production support for new and established independent producers.
Stew and Lisa first met when working on a particularly complex reality project and there was a synergy from the start.
As a former production manager, line producer and production executive with over 20 years experience in fact ent, live events and entertainment there are very few production scenarios that Stew has not met with.
With a love of budgeting, team building, protocols and over delivering he is adept at marrying editorial structure, technical innovation and ambition with commercial and practical needs.
His credits include ‘TOWIE’ (ITV), ‘George Clark’s Amazing Spaces’ (Channel 4), ‘The National TV Awards’ (ITV), ‘Celebs Go Dating’ (ITV), ‘The BAFTA Film Awards 2021’ (BBC1), and ‘James May’s Toy Stories’ (BBC2).
Marisa is an experienced Head of Production who is loved by her teams, clients and broadcasters alike.
Her ability to cut through, problem solve and make things happen is exceptional and the harder the challenge the harder she thinks.
Marisa has over 20 years of experience delivering high-quality television production across reality and fact ent, specialist factual, ob docs, drama and drama reconstructions. Her credits include: ‘Love in the Flesh’ (BBC3), ‘Ashley Banjo: Britain in Black and White’ (ITV1), ‘Amy Winehouse and Me’ (MTV), ‘Inside the Vatican’ (BBC1/PBS/Netflix), ‘Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable’ (Netflix and Theatrical), ‘Diana: Our Mother’ (ITV/HBO/RTL) and ‘Putin: The New Tsar’ (BBC2/Arte).
Marisa loves innovation, operational strategies and complex workflows and she is always willing to take on the seemingly impossible task. She will support teams whatever their needs in development and production and will always deliver.
Kerri is well versed in factual entertainment, documentaries, and consumer affairs including ‘Crime Watch’ (BBC1) and ‘Watchdog’ (BBC1).
She has worked on complex science programming such as ‘Bang Goes the Theory’ (BBC1) which is not surprising for someone with a Masters in Social Anthropology and an MA in Film & TV Production. Other credits incldude ‘Selling Houses with Amanda Lamb’ (Channel 4), ‘Penelope Keith’s Hidden Villages’ (More 4) and ‘Getting The Builders In’ (BBC1). Her documentary credits include ‘Stacey Dooley in the USA’ (BBC3) and ‘Rock & Roll’ (Sky Arts).
Honeybird Studios welcomed Debbie as its non-exec director from initial start up advising on corporate matters and investment strategy.
Debbie’s previous roles include Director of Rights and Business Affairs at the BBC, Director of Rights for Flextech TV, Chair of PACT, Commercial Director at RDF, COO of Hat Trick, CEO of Keo Films and Senior Investment Director at Ingenious Media.
Debbie works in an advisory capacity in the TV and Film industry, including acting as a non-executive director for companies spanning production, distribution and production services. She is also a founding partner and executive producer for First Person Films with director Victoria Mapplebeck. Debbie was proud to be the Executive Producer on Victoria’s BAFTA-winning short film ‘Missed Call’ in 2019.
In addition to her more formal roles, Debbie is also involved in a number of projects and charities including launching a small restaurant group, HERE Cafe Ltd, and holding the role of Chair for the charity SafeHands.
We’re always on the lookout for new Honeybirds!
Please email your CV and covering letter to us.