Zig Zag appoints two executives to lead its development and production team

Zig Zag has appointed two new executives; Sarah McQueen as Head of Production and former BBC and Channel 5 executive David Arrowsmith as Director of Development.“Sarah is an exceptional talent and had the great opportunity to work with her in the past," Matt Graff, Managing Director at ZigZag Productions, said. "As we expand our offering and increase our UK & international production output, David’s wealth of experience will be extremely valuable. We are very pleased to welcome Sarah and David to Zig Zag at this exciting time.”

With 18 years industry experience including spells at Fremantle, Naked and TalkBack Thames, McQueen will replace Wendi Rose as Head of Production reporting directly to Managing Director, Matt Graff, where she will lead Zig Zag’s production management team. She will also be tasked with the implementation and budgeting of all productions. “Zig Zag is home to some of the best talents in the business," Mcqueen said. "I am excited to embark on this new journey and really look forward to this new challenge, working again with Danny, Matt and taking up this new ambitious role.”

Under his new role, Arrowsmith is set to contribute more than two decades of experience in factual television, identifying and developing hundreds of hours of commissioned UK and international content across the full spectrum of unscripted TV. He is credited with developing“Cruising with Jane McDonald”, and extreme sport adventure film “The Limbless Mountaineer”, drama doc series “Survivors” and extreme fact-ents format “Tribal Teens.” With a Masters in Script Writing, Arrowsmith produced multi-award-winning scripted short “Girl Alone” and is the author of the neo-noir crime fiction novelette “Nevada Noir: A Trilogy of Short Stories.”

Starting at the BBC and ITV Granada before moving into the indie sector with Unique Factuals and Nine Lives Media, Arrowsmith went on to ITN Productions, co-founding Channel 5's in-house production department, growing the operation from the ground resulting in a thriving business with an annual turnover of over £10m producing over 100 hours of television every year. Upon being appointed, David Arrowsmith said: “I’m really looking forward to joining Zig Zag. As one the country’s leading indies they have been producing excellent work consistently for more than 20 years, and I’m committed to bringing all my knowledge and expertise with me and help drive the company on to even greater success in the future.”

Zig Zag’s production range spans factual entertainment, docusoaps, game shows and reality TV producing over 800 hours of original programming for over 50 broadcasters worldwide including “The Next Jamie Vardy” and “The Football Show” for Sky One, “Football’s Godfathers” for History Channel and “Ultimate Goal” for BT Sport and Insight TV.