Butler, Sturges join Sky Studios drama team
December 7, 2022
Sky Studios, Sky’s original programming arm across Europe, has announced two new appointments to its drama team as the Studio targets a significant increase in the investment and scale of Sky Original drama.
Making her first appointments since joining Sky Studios earlier this year, Meghan Lyvers, Sky Studios’ Director of Original Drama, UK&I, has announced Katherine Butler as the new Director of Commissioning, Drama, and Adrian Sturges as Executive Producer, Drama.
Most recently Creative Director at award-winning global producer, The Ink Factory, Butler will be responsible for overseeing Sky Studios’ slate of commissioned drama projects in the UK & Ireland, with her team including Sky Studios commissioning editors, Manpreet Dosanjh, Paul Gilbert and Head of Development Tilly Coulson. During her time at The Ink Factory, Butler was responsible for the creative strategy of the business across the US and UK, working with the team to build scripted slates in London, LA and Asia and executive producing across TV and film projects. Prior to this, she served as Head of Film and TV Drama at Raw where she produced the award-winning feature films American Animals and Dream Horse. Butler previously worked at Film4 for 9 years where she was Deputy Head of Film, and as Head of Development at Ruby Films.
Until joining Sky Studios, Sturges worked as an independent freelance producer and has recently produced the Netflix series The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself adapted by Joe Barton for Andy Serkis’s company The Imaginarium. In 2017 Sturges produced Chimerica for Channel 4 before going on to produce psychological thriller The Third Day starring Jude Law and Naomie Harris for HBO/Sky Studios in 2019. In his new role as Executive Producer at Sky Studios, Sturges will work directly with indie-commissioned projects and projects developed and produced in-house overseeing the production, execution and delivery of Sky Original dramas. He will work alongside current Executive Producers Sam Hoyle, Serena Thompson and Kara Manley.
As the original programming arm for Sky across Europe, Sky Studios is responsible for both commissioning Sky Original dramas from third-party indies, and for developing and producing projects in house. As a studio of significant scale, Sky Studios is also able to fully fund projects for international distribution beyond Sky’s six European territories, meaning it can move quickly and be agile in how it partners with indies and talent.
Sturges will commence his new role at Sky Studios this month, with Butler expected to join in the new year, both will report into Lyvers. They join Sky Studios at a time when it is deepening its investment in UK, European and global scripted projects of scale including Gangs of London, M: Son of the Century, The Lazarus Project and the recently announced The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Mary and George and The Day of the Jackal.
Butler said: “I’m absolutely thrilled to be joining Meghan and her amazing team at such an exciting time of expanding vision and growth for drama at Sky Studios. From Chernobyl to Gangs of London, I Hate Suzie to Save Me and Patrick Melrose, I have long admired the big, bold, risk-taking range and ambition of Sky’s dramatic output. I can’t wait to start building upon this great legacy in partnership with the extraordinary talent and producers across the UK industry – what a privilege.”
Sturges said: “I’m really excited to be joining Sky Studios, having previously had some of my best experiences producing drama for the company. Joining Meghan Lyvers’ wonderful team is an incredible opportunity for me to work with the very best of British talent, both established and new, and to support bold, ambitious work that will surprise and delight audiences.”
Lyvers added: “We are excited to welcome Katherine Butler and Adrian Sturges to Sky Studios as we accelerate on our commitment to build an increasingly ambitious and provocative slate of premium dramas. Katherine and Adrian are each respected and seasoned executives in the creative community and, together with our wider team, we cannot wait to bring audiences even more premium Sky Originals of scale and prominence.”