Primal Media Promotes Neil Kirby To Head Of Developments

Primal Media, part of STV Studios, has promoted Neil Kirby to Head of Development.

Kirby is currently Development Executive at Primal, a position he has held for the past two years. Before that, he worked in development roles at Fulwell 73, the BBC, Whizz Kid and ITV Studios. His credits span reality, comedy entertainment and live events, including Plastic Surgery Rewind (E!), The One That Got Away (Amazon Prime), Sex Unzipped (Netflix) and Encanto: Live at the Hollywood Bowl (Disney Plus).

Primal has in recent years focused on large-scale reality entertainment, most recently with the award-winning The Underdog: Josh Must Win for Channel 4/E4. The company will shortly unveil a major new global reality competition; it is on the shortlist for the next BBC/NBC tender and is in funded development on entertainment and reality formats for US networks and streamers.

Kirby succeeds Ben Riley, who is leaving Primal in February after six years to take up a new role.

Kirby said: "I originally joined Primal because of their knack for creating big, bold and bonkers ideas. But nothing could have prepared me for how bonkers their latest one would be: making me their new Head of Development. I’m excited to take the reins and help build a slate of ideas that carries forward Primal's legacy of originality and top-tier entertainment."