Stuart Murphy, Sky’s Director, Entertainment Channels, has decided to step down from his role in order to pursue other creative opportunities.

In his six and a half years with Sky, Murphy has overseen the expansion of the portfolio of Sky entertainment channels including Sky 1, Sky Atlantic. Sky Arts and Sky Living.  He developed the team responsible for multi-award winning content from A League Of Their Own, An Idiot Abroad, David Attenborough’s Natural History Museum Alive and Fortitude to the upcoming Fungus The Bogeyman.

Gary Davey, Managing Director, Content, Sky, commented: “Stuart has played an important part in the growth of Sky’s content over the past six years. I’d like to thank him for his creative leadership and everything he has done to build Sky’s entertainment channels. He’s been responsible for brilliant dramas from The Enfield Haunting to You, Me and the Apocalypse and stand out comedies including Moone Boy and Stella. He has developed compelling channel brands which our customers value and commissioned content they love. He leaves behind a strong and well-respected commissioning team who will take our content to even greater heights and we look forward to working with him in the future.”

Stuart Murphy added: “My sadness at leaving a company I love is tempered by my immense pride in what we have achieved together. Sky is a company in rude health, bursting with ideas, creativity, and sheer fun and I leave the department in the hands of colleagues I love and admire. For 14 of the past 17 years I have been running TV channels, including a fantastic six and a half years with Sky.  TV has been a huge part of my life but with our entertainment in great shape now feels the ideal time to have a think about what else I want to do. I’m delighted to have signed a production commitment with Sky Vision to write and develop comedy and drama projects, as this has been a private passion of mine for years, but I’m also very excited about exploring opportunities outside of TV.

Murphy joined Sky as Director of Programmes, Sky 1, in 2009. In 2012, he was appointed Director, Entertainment Channels. Previous roles include Creative Director at Twofour Productions; Creative Director at RDF and the first controller of BBC Three.