Meet the Producer: Factual Formats with Leanne Klein

In this strand of WFTV events, members are invited to Meet the Producer. This session will feature our host Michelle Stein in conversation with Executive Producer behind a range of hit factual formats, Leanne Klein. 

Michelle and Leanne will discuss Leanne’s career path, along with any current trends she’s noticing within the industry, and insights on funding and developing projects.

There will be an opportunity to ask Leanne questions during the last 15 minutes of the session.

Event Schedule:

18:25: Please join the webinar waiting room

18:30: In conversation with Leanne Klein

19:15: Attendee Q&A opens

19:30: Finish

About Leanne Klein, Guest Producer

Leanne began her career in television as a runner in the early 90s having studied Film and TV at Goldsmiths College (part of the University of London) and also has a BA in Psychology from Cambridge University. She became a director of both documentary and drama, as well as TV commercials, and won a Best Director Emmy in 1995 for the innovative Channel 4 series, Baby It’s You.

Currently, she is the MD and Head of Wall to Wall and Twenty Twenty; both businesses renowned for producing acclaimed and popular content across multiple genres.

Leanne became Head of Wall to Wall in 2014, having served as the company’s Creative Director from 2011. She originally joined Wall to Wall as a series producer and has been instrumental in the company’s many successes, having developed, executive produced and overseen multiple hit returning series which have sold around the world – examples include multiple-BAFTA winning Who Do You Think You Are for the BBC, multiple-BAFTA winning Long Lost Family for ITV, and Glow Up for the BBC and Netflix.

In 2012, Leanne oversaw delivery of the company’s first Saturday night show, The Voice UK, which became the BBC’s biggest new entertainment show for over a decade.

Leanne is also behind prestigious factual dramas like HBO/BBC Hitchcock biopic The Girl and BBC/ZDF’s The Windermere Children, and in 2023 oversaw the reboot of Waterloo Road after the original series became a lockdown hit on iPlayer. Wall to Wall has set up its second regional base in Manchester to produce the series. Under Leanne’s creative leadership the company now has a thriving drama slate with projects in funded development with Sky, Canal Plus, Apple TV+, the BBC and ITV.

Leanne is a known innovator – having helmed many series which blend elements of drama, entertainment and factual storytelling to create award winning, ground-breaking television. Examples include Channel 4’s 1900 House which spawned an entire genre of ‘living history’ and hundreds of hours of TV commissions for the company, as well as the celebrated Unheard Tapes franchise where actors lip sync audio interviews to bring the past vividly to life.

In 2019 Leanne took over the leadership of Twenty Twenty alongside her role at Wall to Wall, installing a new, top-class creative team and moving the business from London to Bristol.

About Michelle Stein, Host and Producer

Michelle is s BAFTA, RTS nominated and BIFA winning producer.  Her most recent feature film, sci-fi Sky Peals, from Moin Hussain premiered in Venice Critic’s week in 2023 and was backed by Film4, BFI and Screen Yorkshire and is being sold by Bankside.  Over the last 16 years, Michelle has worked on a plethora of projects from producing a micro-budget first feature that secured international theatrical distribution to developing a big-budget animation franchise with Aardman.  Michelle has a keen eye for international-level talent and has produced content that has screened in competition at A-list festivals such as Cannes, SXSW, LFF and Tribeca and been bought by the BBC and Sky.  Michelle’s previous company, Escape Films, was the recipient of a received a BFI Vision Award.

How will the online event work?

This event will be live streamed via Zoom.us. Viewing details will be sent via your confirmation.

Attending participants will not be visible to others and will be muted throughout the session. After the talk, there will be an opportunity for audience members to ask questions by using the Q&A feature.

This event is for existing WFTV members only.

If you are not a member and would like to join, membership costs just £100 + VAT/yr , please click here or email admin@wftv.org.uk

At WFTV we’re really keen to ensure that all our events are accessible for everyone. So if you have any particular access requirements, please can you let us know before an event and we will do our best to accommodate you. We would be grateful if you can give us as much notice as possible – please contact admin@wftv.org.uk