GARETH NEAME
Executive Chairman
Gareth Neame is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning drama producer and executive, based in London. Neame is Executive Chairman of Carnival Films, the production company he sold to NBC Universal in 2008 as the cornerstone of their new international TV studio. Neame is one of the UK’s leading producers and is responsible for the global TV phenomenon Downton Abbey, winner of three Golden Globes, including Best Mini Series and fifteen Primetime Emmy Awards, including Best Mini Series. With a total of 69 nominations, it is the most nominated non-US show in the history of the Emmys and probably Britain’s most successful scripted television export. Among numerous national and international awards, including three Screen Actors Guild Awards – the show has even garnered a Guinness World Record for highest critical ratings for a TV show. Neame has also been recognised by the Producers Guild of America with the David L.Wolper Award for Outstanding Producer of long-form television. In August 2015, Neame accepted the show's Special BAFTA award in recognition of Downton’s unique contribution to television in Britain and around the world.
Under Neame’s leadership, Carnival became the UK’s biggest drama specialist, producing numerous popular and critically well received shows, including the The Last Kingdom, BAFTA award winning mini-series The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies and Any Human Heart, which won in 2015 and 2011 respectively. Neame also Executive Produced David Hare’s political thriller trilogy Page Eight. The company produced the popular ITV crime series Whitechapel and two US series Dracula, starring Jonathan Rhys Myers, and The Philanthropist, starring James Purefoy, both for NBC. Over the years the company has produced many hours of popular and well-loved series such as Hotel Babylon, Rosemary & Thyme, Poirot, As if and Jeeves & Wooster, and iconic mini-series such as C4’s Traffik.
Prior to joining the company, Neame had a successful career as Head of Drama at the BBC and was instrumental in the significant growth in independent production, responsible for the development and production of a range of innovative, award-winning and popular shows such as Spooks [MI5], Bodies, Outlaws, Hustle, New Tricks, Tipping the Velvet, Conviction and Clocking Off.
Gareth Neame represents the fourth generation of a remarkable dynasty that has made a significant contribution to the world of cinema and television over the past century. His great-grandparents were the society photographer and pioneer filmmaker Elwin Neame (1885-1923) and the film actress Ivy Close (1890-1968) described by The Daily Mirror as ‘the most beautiful woman in the world’. His grandfather was the celebrated director, producer, cinematographer and writer Ronald Neame CBE (1911-2010), his great-uncle was the author and screenwriter Derek Neame (1915-1979) and his father was the producer and writer Christopher Elwin Neame (1942-2011).
Neame served on The Council of The British Academy of Film and Television Arts from 2004-06, and has been interviewed for the Television Academy Foundation’s Archive of American Television. In December 2014 he was announced by No.10 Downing Street as an Ambassador of the GREAT Britain campaign.
Neame was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to drama.