Our People

John joined Lime Pictures as Finance Director in 2016 and took over of the Finance function at Lion TV in September 2019. 

Prior to this he worked at NBC Universal for several years in a Senior Finance role across their Theatrical and Home Entertainment divisions internationally, working in Sydney, Stockholm and London.

John is responsible for all financial reporting, operations and information technology at Lime Pictures and Lion TV and is part of the Senior Management team, reporting into the Lime Managing Directors. John is a Chartered Accountant and a fellow of ICAEW.

Mirella Breda joined Lime Pictures in March 2023 as Chief Creative Officer, Unscripted.

Mirella is a creative leader with over 20 years’ experience in producing, developing and commissioning unscripted formats – from talent-led factual formats (Mary Queen of Shops, James May’s Man Lab, Raymond Blanc’s The Restaurant) to prime-time entertainment (Stars in Their Eyes, Total Wipeout, Comic Relief) and reality juggernauts (Big Brother, Castaway).

A former BBC Commissioning Editor, Mirella oversaw an extensive slate of shows including Masterchef, Dragons Den, 101 Ways to Leave a Gameshow and Room 101 before joining Initial (part of Endemol Shine) as Creative Director and latterly Managing Director where she won multiple network commissions for Tenable, Big Box Little Box, Give a Pet A Home, Harry Hill’s Stars in Their Eyes and Up Late with Rylan and oversaw the production of Big Brother UK and Soccer Aid. Mirella relocated to Glasgow in 2019 to join new indie Two Rivers Media as their Head of Entertainment.

Having started her career on Channel 4’s seminal Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush, her credits also include Sport Relief, Friends Like These, Lenny Henry Goes To Town, Russian Roulette and Find a Fortune.

Hannah Cheers is Executive Producer of Hollyoaks. Following a recent stint as Producer on Emmerdale, Hannah has returned to Hollyoaks where she began her career in the story office in 2009. She story-produced, produced and series-produced the show under Bryan Kirkwood across 2012-2021. During this period Hollyoaks was BAFTA nominated,  won two Best British Soap Awards, two Broadcast awards and two Royal Television Society Awards. Hannah also worked as Story Producer on Coronation Street under Kate Oates from 2015-2017.

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 of Lime Pictures’ in-house Children’s Crama 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 has been nominated for 3 BAFTAs and won the 2018 Broadcast Award for Best Continuing Drama, 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.

Angelo is joint Head of Kids & Family (alongside Tim Compton) at Lime Pictures.

Angelo has been both sides of the camera – first as an Actor and then as one-half of the award winning comedy double act – The Vicious Boys which had several TV series for Channel 4, Sky, MTV and ITV as well as touring around the world with their Live shows. Angelo then moved into writing and directing. As a Writer/Director, Angelo worked in most aspects of TV before coming to Lime Pictures including – Comedy (Get up Stand Up), Drama (Hard Knocks), Entertainment (Playing it Straight), and Kids & Family (My Parents are Aliens).

Angelo came to Lime Pictures in 2011 to be Lead Director and showrunner on Bafta nominated House of Anubis for Nickelodeon and has stayed ever since. Angelo developed and produced Free Rein for Netflix, for which he won an Emmy and was Emmy nominated as a Director. He then executive produced and was Emmy nominated as Director on Zero Chill also for Netflix.

Tim began his career at HIT Entertainment, developing, writing and producing animation. He was script editor for all indie dramas at CBBC, working across MI High and Grange Hill, and developing the multi-award-winning Roy with Jam Media. At Lime Pictures, Tim developed the Banff award winning The Well (BBC Switch) by Melvin Burgess and was story producer and core writer on the global hit House of Anubis (Nickelodeon). He piloted Rocket’s Island for CBBC, as well as the International Emmy-nominated Evermoor for the Disney Channel, the first UK live-action series commissioned by Disney Channel US. Tim has written for Evermoor and the Netflix Original Free Rein, and has just co-produced two standalone specials of Free Rein with Angelo Abela, as well as the show’s forthcoming third season. In early 2019 Compton was confirmed as Joint Head of Kids for Lime Pictures alongside Angelo Abela.

Sam has recently joined Lime Pictures as Director of Development, Unscripted, reporting directly to Mirella Breda, Chief Creative Officer, Unscripted.

Sam, an RTS award-winning creative, boasts an impressive portfolio, having previously served as Head of Development at Gogglebox and as Co-founder & Managing Director of Dr. Pluto Films. His noteworthy achievements include crafting award-winning shows such as the internationally acclaimed Release the Hounds, comedy panel show Hey Tracey!, the ITV-primetime satire BigHeads, and the 100+ episode short-form comedy sport series Man V Fly.

Polly has an in-depth knowledge of Press and Public Relations and the entertainment industry through her work with top talent at the BBC, within the independent sector and with all the major broadcasters.

Polly specialises in reputation management, crisis communications and response and is a trusted advisor to senior management and beyond. She is used to working in fast-paced environments and has a good track record of delivering change and innovation.

Having started her career at the BBC, Polly headed up the Radio 1 Press team during the Chris Evans and Zoe Ball breakfast show eras, moving on to become Head of Production Press at the BBC and launching BBC Talent.

Past experience since setting up PR Squared includes consultancy work for leading media companies including Syco, managing the UK TV side together with Simon Cowell. Consultancy for Lime Pictures, Fremantle Media, Love Productions and Antenna Group, working strategically with both B2C and B2B priorities. Running media courses for both talent and production staff, both in-house and in the independent sector. Management of key in-house press teams including EastEnders, Casualty and Holby City. Consultant lead for external PR teams, including The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent 2009/2010/2011.

Before starting Wise Owl Films, Mark worked at ITV Studios in Leeds and Newcastle for over 25 years, creating over 200 different series and prime-time specials for ITV, the BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky, including May The Best House Win, Super Tiny Animals, David Jason: My Life On Screen, Last Laugh In Vegas and The Nation’s Favourite music documentary series, telling the stories behind the songs of icons such as ABBA and The Beatles.

Mark created Shiver in 2007 – ITV Studios’ first label – and has worked closely with many of Britain’s best-loved television stars including Peter Kay and Sir Trevor McDonald as well as with some of Britain’s biggest institutions and brands, from record companies including Sony, Universal, Warner Music to the casts of series like Coronation Street and Emmerdale, and the families and estates of comedy legends including Tommy Cooper, Les Dawson and Morecambe & Wise. As well as executive producing the majority of Wise Owl’s output, Mark oversaw a number of ITV’s celebrations of the Life of the Queen, documentaries which aired in September 2022.