Katie Taylor appointed Head of Entertainment & Events for BBC Productions

Pat Younge, Chief Creative Officer, Vision Productions, today announces Katie Taylor as the new Head of Entertainment & Events.

She is the first woman to run the in-house entertainment department at the BBC and will be responsible for some of the UK’s most watched and loved entertainment, factual entertainment and events formats including Strictly Come Dancing, Eurovision, Top Gear, Dragons’ Den and events such as Children in Need and Sport Relief.

Katie is currently Executive Editor, Comedy Entertainment.

In her role as Executive Editor, Comedy Entertainment, Katie is involved in the strategy, inception and production of new formats for all four BBC channels.

She also commissions and executive produces over 100 studios a year involving multi-award-winning chat shows, panel shows, archive shows and events.

She executive produces and manages shows including Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow, Live At The Apollo, The Graham Norton Show, Would I Lie To You, Walk On The Wildside and QI for BBC One; The Bubble, Genius, Never Mind The Buzzcocks and Shooting Stars for BBC Two; The Noughties, Almost Famous for BBC Three; and It’s Only A Theory for BBC Four.

Prior to her current role in Entertainment Commissioning at the BBC, Katie was a Commissioning Editor in Entertainment at Channel 4 where she commissioned and executive produced many award-winning shows including So Graham Norton, V Graham Norton, 8 Out Of 10 Cats, That Peter Kay Thing, Brass Eye, Street Mate and Heroes Of Comedy.

Before this, in her role as Deputy Commissioning Editor at Channel 4, she oversaw shows including Father Ted, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Countdown, Channel Izzard and Comedy Labs.

Previously Katie worked as a researcher/associate producer and producer on shows ranging from Comic Relief, Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush, Challenge Anneka, Bafta Awards, Noel’s House Party, Going For Gold, to name but a few.

Pat Younge said: “I’m absolutely delighted that Katie is taking on this role – she is hugely talented and absolutely the right person to build on Jon Beazley’s legacy and take BBC Entertainment on to the next level of success.”

Katie Taylor said: “I am very excited to be working with so many talented BBC faces, both on and behind the screen, and look forward to both bringing on the next generation of artists and to creating brand defining and distinctive entertainment shows and events.”

Katie will take up her role later in the spring.
Notes to Editors

BBC in-house Entertainment & Events is responsible for some of the UK’s most watched and loved entertainment and factual entertainment formats, most notably Strictly Come Dancing, Top Gear, Dragons’ Den, Eurovision Song Contest, Weakest Link, The Restaurant and Mastermind, to name but a few.

The department is also responsible for the coverage of events such as Trooping The Colour, the Dimbleby Lecture, Festival Of Remembrance, Gary Barlow’s Children in Need Concert and Children in Need itself, and Sport Relief.