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New Youth Executive appointed in Northern Ireland



Date Posted: February 4, 2021

Mairead Kelly has been appointed as the new Youth Executive for Northern Ireland Screen, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Three.

She is the second person to take up the year-long Youth Executive post, which was created in 2019 through the partnership agreement between the BBC and Northern Ireland Screen. The role is employed by Northern Ireland Screen and BBC Northern Ireland and works closely with BBC Three.

The role, previously held by Maeve McLoughlin, works between the BBC and Northern Ireland Screen to create bespoke content for younger audiences (16-34 year-olds) and help drive the creative sector in Northern Ireland towards further network commissions, ultimately providing greater portrayal of Northern Ireland to audiences across the UK and beyond.

In this role, Mairead will collaborate with BBC Three commissioners to identify trends and themes relevant to younger audiences and communicate those to production companies within the creative sector in Northern Ireland. The objective is to develop ideas with Northern Ireland-based independent production companies, aligned to BBC Northern Ireland, which will result in network commissions.

Mairead will act as liaison between BBC Three and BBC NI commissioning to help pilot projects from Northern Ireland-based production companies receive funding and development.

She will also work with BBC Northern Ireland’s local Commissioning team to help develop ideas and youth content for BBC iPlayer and BBC Northern Ireland Television. This year the Youth Executive’s role will expand to include work on the new network BBC Two Observational Documentary initiative, which is being co-funded by Northern Ireland Screen, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Two.

Prior to accepting the role, Mairead worked as a development producer and producer for feature documentary company, Fine Point Films. Her credits there include; The Dakota Entrapment Tapes (premiered at Hot Docs, 2020), The Go-Go’s (premiered at Sundance Film Festival, 2020) and The Sheriff (premiered at Galway Film Fleadh, 2020). Mairead started her film and television career at Waddell Media, working across development and production on series including; At Your Service (RTÉ), Find Me A Home (RTÉ) and Francis Brennan’s Grand Vietnamese Tour (RTÉ).

Mairead Kelly says: “I am delighted to partner with Northern Ireland Screen, BBC Northern Ireland and network BBC in this exciting role. I can’t wait to get started, building on the success of the first year of this initiative and working with our talented local indies on their ambitious ideas.”

Richard Williams, Chief Executive, Northern Ireland Screen, says: “The Youth Executive role has made great progress in finding local content that portrays Northern Ireland to young audiences all across the UK, with a number of commissions to be announced soon.

“16-34 year-olds are notoriously difficult to reach even though they are spending more time in front of a TV than ever before. What and how they are watching has changed because they are the first fully connected generation. We wish Mairead every success as she works with our independent production sector to find exciting new content that will appeal to this demographic and amplify Northern Ireland voices across the BBC network.”

Eddie Doyle, Senior Head of Content Commissioning, BBC Northern Ireland, says: “We remain committed to providing bespoke content with local relevance to 16-34 year olds and portraying Northern Ireland to wider audiences. This role has already made huge strides with the youth content development scheme launched last year resulting in a number of exciting new commissions in the pipeline. This role has also been further developed to allow greater collaboration with our colleagues in BBC Two which will ensure younger audiences in Northern Ireland see themselves reflected across the BBC portfolio.”

Fiona Campbell, Controller, BBC Three, says: “Our partnership with BBC Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland Screen has already proven to be successful with some exciting new commissions coming down the line for BBC Three. With even more to come, we want to continue growing the talent and commissioning pipeline and we’re really glad to have Mairead on board to help steer it.”

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