HOLLYOAKS
Bryan KirkwoodHead of Continuing Drama
BAFTA winning producer Bryan Kirkwood returned to the helm of Hollyoaks in 2012, stepping up to the role of Executive Producer and Head of Continuing drama.
Bryan’s return set in motion a renaissance for the show culminating in Hollyoaks winning Best Soap at the British Soap Awards 2014. Hollyoaks currently has a coveted BAFTA nomination in the Soap and Continuing Drama category – the first nomination for the show since 2003.
Under his leadership Hollyoaks has won plaudits and numerous awards for the issue-based storylines that underpin the narrative in the continuing drama, including domestic abuse, male rape and Motor Neurone Disease. This year the show will embark on raising awareness of child sexual abuse.
Hollyoaks has in Bryan’s tenure become synonymous with big storylines, epic twists and heart-wrenching gothic love stories – packaged up with those plots that would ‘only happen in Hollyoaks’.
Bryan embarked on his career in television at ITV, joining the network’s flagship show ‘Coronation Street’. Over the course of six years with ITV he progressed through the ranks occupying the roles of Researcher, Story Liner, Script Editor and ultimately Story Editor.
In early 2006 Bryan began his first stint as Producer of ‘Hollyoaks’. He refocused the show and introduced popular families such as the McQueens. 2009 saw Bryan join the BBC taking the role of Executive Producer on ‘EastEnders’ which saw the programme win a BAFTA award for Best Continuing Drama and Best Soap Award at the British Soap Awards for both years of his tenure.
Colette ChardHead of Production (Hollyoaks)
Colette Chard is the Head of Production for Hollyoaks at Lime Pictures.
Colette began her career in the art department in 1989 working on Water Front Beat for the BBC, she then moved on to the channel 4 soap opera Brookside. After 4 years, she moved to Los Angeles and during her time there she worked for Catholic Production Company, Paulist Productions. Returning to the UK in 1995, Colette began work on the new channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, and over a period of nearly a decade, she worked her way up to become the show's senior Production Manager.
She then moved on to become a Line Producer and Production Executive overseeing all Lime's in-house children’s drama Programmes including Grange Hill, Ingenious, Proper Messy, The Well, Shelfstakers, Combat Kids, House of Anubis, Rockets Island and The Evermore Chronicles. Being nominated for several BAFTA’s and winning awards including Banff, Kids Choice and an RTS for Grange Hill.
In 2015, Colette returned to Hollyoaks to become Head of Production and during her current tenure Hollyoaks been nominated for 3 BAFTA’s, won the 2018 Broadcast award for Best Continuing Drama and the 2019 RTS award for Best Soap and Continuing Drama as well as Best Soap at the British Soap Awards and Inside Soap Awards 2019 as voted for by the viewers.
Peter HuntCasting Director – Hollyoaks
Peter joined Lime Pictures in October 2015 taking up the position of Head of Casting & Casting Director of Hollyoaks. In his position as Head of Casting Peter oversees the casting needs for all Lime Drama and Children’s output.
Peter initially trained as an Actor at The Arts Education School, London and worked professionally as an Actor across various TV, Film & Theatre projects before moving behind the camera to work in production and casting.
Over the years Peter has worked on many popular and well-known productions such as ‘Where the Heart is’, ‘Coronation Street’, ‘Shameless’, ‘Blue Murder’ & ‘Cold Blood’ to name but a few. In recent years his career has led him to cast an array of productions both for the UK and international markets ranging from Music Videos to TV Commercials, TV Comedy, TV Drama, Feature films and Theatre.
In 2018 Peter was awarded Casting Director of the year by The Mandy Networks.
