Discovery Communications has hired producer and network executive Phil Craig as executive vice president and chief creative officer for Discovery Networks International (DNI). The newly created position will see Craig lead an international production and development team driving many of Discovery’s global hit series and creating a content pipeline spanning more than 220 countries and territories.
Craig will report to JB Perrette, president of Discovery Networks International, and will be based in London with a starting date of February 2015. He joins Discovery from ABC TV in Australia, where he has held the post of Head of Factual since 2012, based in Sydney. Perrette said in a release: “Phil has an impressive track record of creating hit series and nurturing great creative talent, which together with his unique global experience, makes him the perfect choice.”
The production and development group Craig will lead is in five locations: Silver Spring, Md.; New York; Miami, Fla.; London and Singapore. He will develop factual and lifestyle content primarily for flagship global networks Discovery Channel and TLC, and will work with his U.S. counterparts on content sharing and development. He will work alongside Rosemary Newell, DNI’s SVP of programming and content operations, who has led the production and development group while the search was conducted.
While time at ABC TV, he led a team that was responsible for more than 150 hours of original content. He drove a number of high-profile initiatives, including Redesign My Brain, which now airs on Science channel as Hack My Brain; and Stop At Nothing, the Lance Armstrong documentary that aired as part of the BBC Storyville documentary strand and in numerous other territories.
Earlier Craig worked for UK independent producer Nutopia, where he took charge of the Discovery landmark series How We Invented The World and was originating producer on series The 80s, The Decade That Made Us and How We Got To Now With Stephen Johnson.
His long career (IMDB) as a producer also includes 2005's Flight 93: The Flight That Fought Back, for Discovery Channel.
