Team
Gub Neal
Creative Chair
Gub Neal is an Emmy award-winning producer responsible for the internationally acclaimed and BAFTA nominated series The Fall as well as the French adaptation, Insoupçonnable. His other credits include The Last Enemy, Prime Suspect, Cracker and the Prix Italia winner; Sunday. Prior to setting up Ringside, Gub was Creative Director and founder of Artists Studio and Box TV. Gub was previously controller of drama at Granada TV, as well as head of drama at Channel 4, where he commissioned shows such as ‘Queer as Folk’ and the BAFTA-winning mini-series ‘Longitude’ and ‘Shackleton’.
Kate
B
ennetts
C.E.O./M.D.
Kate is an experienced TV financing executive, having worked at Ingenious Media for 8 years and overseen the TV strategy. Whilst there, Kate worked across both complex project financing and co-production deals, as well as assessing and structuring venture capital investment deals. Notable projects Kate has helped finance and offered advisory services on are ‘Marcella’, ‘White House Farm’, ‘Britannia’ and ‘Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell’. Prior to Ingenious Kate worked in investment management and is a qualified accountant.
Edward Barlow
Creative Director
Edward joined Gub at Artists' Studio in 2015 from Rainmark Films, where he developed ‘The Frankenstein Chronicles’ (ITV) and ‘The Same Sky’ (Netflix and ZDF). He began his career in publishing in New York, before moving into the film industry in 2005 with a position at Spitfire Pictures. With subsequent roles at Box TV and Monkey Kingdom, his other credits include ‘Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle’; ‘The Last Enemy’; Grammy nominated documentary ‘Amazing Journey: The Story of the Who’ and ‘Zvizdan’, winner of the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes in 2015.
Lee Thomas
Producer - Executive Producer
Lee is an award-winning high-end TV drama and feature film producer with over 30 years of experience across script development, physical production, financing, post-production, and distribution.
His recent TV producer credits include the Philippine-Australia set thriller ‘No Escape’ (Paramount +), the launch series of the hit banking drama ‘Industry’ (HBO/BBC), and the true crime drama ‘White House Farm Murders’ (ITV/HBO Max).
Through his indie company Prodigal, Lee developed and produced Shola Amoo’s award-winning feature ‘The Last Tree’. He also produced the Oscar-nominated ‘The Voorman Problem’ and the Film4/Sony Pictures Classics Romantic Comedy ‘Crush’, starring Andie MacDowell.
From 2005 to 2010, Lee was the head of production and development at regional UK funder SWM, where he supported, developed, and executive produced over 12 feature films including the Silver Bear-winning ‘The Road to Guantanamo’ and the Christmas comedy franchise ‘Nativity’.
Fluent in Japanese, Lee’s career started in Japan, where he produced, shot, and directed documentaries for Japanese TV, production coordinated high-end commercials with Western stars, and for Dentsu, production-assisted on Wim Wenders' feature 'Until the End of the World' and the Sundance Film Festival in Tokyo.
Jeremy Gawade
Consultant
Jeremy is a consultant to Lee & Thompson, one of the UK's leading entertainment law practices with over 30 years’ experience in the film and television sectors, where he founded the firm’s first Film and Television group in 1990. Together with his business partner Justin Thomson, Jeremy is also a founder of DoveTale Media, an international TV drama development and packaging company – specialising in putting together of large scale international TV drama projects. DoveTale Media is a minority shareholder in Ringside Studios and Jeremy sits as a director.
Jeremy has particular expertise in putting together finance, distribution and production/co-production deals for film and television projects as well as structuring bespoke investment deals for talent-based production companies.
Ellen Fraser
Consultant Director of Legal and Business Affairs
Ellen qualified as a barrister in July 2000 and later as a solicitor and spent over 10 years at a leading media investment boutique in London as senior counsel and then latterly Legal Director at media financing company, Great Point Media.
Ellen is now a legal and business affairs consultant specialising in advising content producers and financiers on all matters relating to the development, production, sales and exploitation of films and television programmes. She has advised on complex cross jurisdictional co-productions and financing arrangements and worked on multiple international films and tv shows from small British independent films such as the forthcoming Chuck Chuck Baby to large budget films like Greenland, Rogue Agent and Jeepers Creepers 4 as well as recent tv series The Pact and Small Axe for the BBC and the long running Doc Martin series for ITV. Ellen also sits on the board of Ffilm Cyrmu.
Nick Hayes
Head of Development
Nick joined Ringside in April 2020 having previously worked for Literary Agent, Michael McCoy, at Independent Talent. As well as heading up Ringside Studios’ development slate, Nick also works across Ringside Media projects and recently script edited Liaison for Apple TV.
Laura Wilsmore
Development Coordinator
Laura recently stepped up to Development Coordinator at Ringside Studios after joining the company as their Team Assistant in 2022. Laura works across Ringside and Ringside Media’s wider slate, helping to develop new project opportunities for the company. She is also a trained Access Coordinator, passionate about improving access to the industry for those who identify as deaf, disabled, and/or neurodivergent. She began her career as Junior Production Secretary for the fifth season of ‘The Crown’, working on the show for a year.
Prior to joining the HETV industry, Laura completed a MSt in English Literature at the University of Oxford, staying with the university to work on their admissions and outreach programs after graduating in 2020.
Claire Cunningham
Company Assistant
Claire joined Ringside Studios in 2023, having most recently worked for comedy agent Hannah Layton at DLT Entertainment. Claire helps with the administrative running of Ringside Studios. She holds a degree in Film Studies and American Studies from the University of Sussex and studied for a year at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Prior to that, she studied at The BRIT School in Film & Media Production.