Juliet Blake

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Juliet Blake is a British-American film, television and web producer. She is Head of Television for TED Talks. [1] [2] Blake executive produced the TED Talks Live TV series for PBS and produces TED Talks India Nayi Soch a TV series on Star Plus in India produced in Hindi, hosted by Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan. [3] In June 2018 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Savannah College of Art & Design. [4]

Contents

Career

Blake began her career developing successful TV franchises for a variety of networks and production companies in the US and the UK, including the BBC1 series Beast. [5]

In 2000, Blake was promoted to executive vice-president and co-head of Jim Henson Television, where she was responsible for all aspects of the company's worldwide television operations, [6] including global oversight of the Muppet franchise. She developed and produced the Muppets' first TV-movie It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie. [7]

While working for Henson, Blake oversaw the science-fiction series Farscape, a top-rated show [8] which ran from 1999 to 2003 [9] on the Sci Fi network, joining the show as executive producer in season 3 and working on its final 33 episodes. [10] [11]

Blake became senior vice-president of production at the National Geographic Channel in 2006, overseeing the development and production of National Geographic Television, the channel's in-house production company. [12] During her tenure at National Geographic, she oversaw a budget of over $40 million [13] and was responsible for the production of numerous series, including the NGC's multi-Emmy award winning program Explorer, the longest-running documentary series on cable TV, [14] and Border Wars, a critically acclaimed series on illegal immigration that ran for five seasons. [11]

Blake produced TED Talks Education (hosted by John Legend) for TED and PBS. [1] She produced The Hundred Foot Journey, a film starring Helen Mirren and Om Puri, shot in France and India, and directed by Lasse Hallstrom with producing partners Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey. [15] [16]

Blake also developed feature films for Arnie Messer and Mike Medavoy's Phoenix Pictures, [17] including the thriller Blood Relatives. [18]

Personal life

Blake is married to Mark Shepherd. They live in Austin and have two daughters: Sophie, a web designer for GitHub and Lily, the CEO of The Double Wild Plant Company. [13]

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References

  1. 1 2 Jensen, Elizabeth (5 May 2013). "TED Teams Up With PBS on Ideas for Education". The New York Times . Retrieved 2014-08-10.
  2. ↑ "Juliet Blake's TED Recommendations".
  3. ↑ "Announced at TED2018: TED's Hindi-language Star Plus TV series "TED Talks India: Nayi Soch" renewed for three seasons | TED Blog". 13 April 2018.
  4. ↑ "A luminous send-off to the SCAD class of 2018".
  5. ↑ "Beast - Production Details & Cast and Crew - British Comedy Guide". Comedy.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-08-10.
  6. ↑ "Fletcher and Blake promoted at Jim Henson | News | Broadcast". Broadcastnow.co.uk. 2000-07-13. Retrieved 2014-08-10.
  7. ↑ "It's A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie - TV Movie - Cast & Credits - Listings". The New York Times . 2007-01-18. Retrieved 2014-08-10.
  8. ↑ "US Ratings Rundown". Farscape World. Retrieved 2014-08-10.
  9. ↑ John Dempsey (2002-09-09). "Sci Fi nixes 'Farscape' skein". Variety. Retrieved 2014-08-10.
  10. ↑ "BBC Online - Cult - Farscape - Interview - Juliet Blake - Season of death". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-08-10.
  11. 1 2 Juliet Blake (2014-08-05). "Juliet Blake - IMDbPro". Pro-labs.imdb.com. Retrieved 2014-08-10.
  12. ↑ "Juliet Blake becomes SVP of production for National Geographic Channel". Media Life Magazine. 2006-08-17. Retrieved 2014-08-10.
  13. 1 2 "Juliet Blake | Profile". TED.com. 2013-06-28. Retrieved 2014-08-10.
  14. ↑ "Explorer | National Geographic Channel". Channel.nationalgeographic.com. 2012-06-11. Archived from the original on October 24, 2005. Retrieved 2014-08-10.
  15. ↑ "Partha Pratim in Spielberg produced film". Newagebd.net. 2014-05-05. Retrieved 2014-08-10.
  16. ↑ "Helen Mirren to Star in DreamWorks Drama 'The Hundred-Foot Journey'". Hollywoodreporter.com. 2013-07-01. Retrieved 2014-08-10.
  17. ↑ "About Us-Phoenix Pictures Inc". Phoenixpictures.com. Retrieved 2014-08-10.
  18. ↑ "Hollywood Spec Sales (Updated On A Daily Basis)". Hollywoodlitsales.com. Archived from the original on 2014-05-29. Retrieved 2014-08-10.
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