HOLLYOAKS
Bryan KirkwoodHead of Continuing Drama
BAFTA winning producer Bryan Kirkwood has been at the helm of Hollyoaks for eight years, stepping up to the role of Executive Producer and Head of Continuing Drama for Lime Pictures.
During his tenure Hollyoaks has received huge acclaim for dramatizing ground-breaking real-life ‘issues’ that matter hugely to a youthful audience, bringing them into people’s living rooms and starting vital conversations.
His vision of the show is delivering to the viewer huge gothic soapy plots where the audience think, ‘thank god that’s not me’, thrilling romances where the audience think ‘I wish that was me’ and serious issue-based stories where they say, ‘that’s me’.
Hollyoaks, which airs on C4 and E4, recently became the first continuing drama to tell stories about self-harm and sexual consent, winning 2018’s coveted industry Broadcast Award for Best Continuing Drama and four British Soap Awards.
A high-profile ongoing campaign #DontFilterFeelings, de-stigmatising mental health, has supported long-running stories about bulimia, anxiety and exploration of male suicide and depression, leading to the award of a MIND Media Award for the last two consecutive years for ‘accuracy and sensitivity’.
Bryan’s passion and commitment to diversity in casting and storylining led to Hollyoaks being named Stonewall’s Broadcaster of the Decade. This followed a succession of LGBTQ+ milestones including the decision in 2014 to make lead character Ste Hay the first gay male soap character to live with HIV. In 2016 he cast the first transgender actor in a trans role in 2015, Annie Wallace who remains at the heart of the show today as headmistress Sally St Claire.
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, Storyliner, Script Editor and ultimately Story Editor.
In early 2006 Bryan began his first stint as Producer of ‘Hollyoaks introducing popular families such as the McQueens. In 2009 Bryan joined 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 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.
