James Corden’s Fulwell 73 Hires ITV Comedy Controller Saskia Schuster for U.K. Scripted Outfit
By Manori Ravindran
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “Carpool Karaoke” producer Fulwell 73 has hired comedy controller Saskia Schuster to head a new scripted outfit out of the U.K.
Schuster joins as head of scripted at the “Late Late Show with James Corden” producer in early May. Based in London, she will report into managing partner Leo Pearlman.
Schuster joined ITV in 2014 as controller for comedy, and her commissions include “The Trouble With Maggie Cole,” “The Keith and Paddy Picture Show,” “Birds of a Feather” and “Harry Hill’s Alien Fun Capsule” for ITV, as well as “ Shopping with Keith Lemon,” “The Stand Up Sketch Show,” “Don’t Hate The Playaz” and “Timewasters” for ITV2.
Schuster has played a key role in addressing gender imbalance in comedy, founding Comedy 50:50, an initiative aimed at rolling out practical measures to achieve equal representation in writing rooms and production teams for women.
As part of this drive, Schuster was responsible for a change in ITV’s terms of commission, stipulating that no comedy entertainment shows with all-male writing teams would be commissioned, and that scripted comedy productions must demonstrate best endeavours to employ women in the writing room.
She also made ITV accessible to writers by holding monthly open afternoons, where she had face-to-face meetings with writers to discuss and demystify her commissioning process and hold creative discussions.
Before joining the broadcaster, Schuster was a comedy commissioner at Sky, where her credits include “Yonderland” and “Little Crackers” for Sky One, “A Young Doctor’s Notebook” for Sky Arts and “Ronna and Beverly” for Sky Atlantic.
Prior to that, Schuster was head of development at Toff Media, the drama and comedy production company founded by Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller, and head of scripted comedy at Objective Productions.
is currently in production on its first studio feature film, “Cinderella” for Sony Pictures, based on an original idea from Corden, and starring Camila Cabello, Idina Menzel, Billy Porter and Pierce Brosnan.
Meanwhile, its recent TV slate includes the hit documentary “Bros: After the Screaming Stops” for BBC, “Drop the Mic” for TBS, “Sounds Like Friday Night” for BBC One, “Carpool Karaoke: The Series” for Apple, “Sunderland ‘Til I Die” for Netflix, and the “Gavin & Stacey Christmas Special” for BBC One.
Schuster said: “Fulwell 73 is synonymous with creating world class comedy and entertainment programming working with the best talent. Off the back of international successes such as ‘Gavin and Stacey’ and ‘Roast Battle,’ I’m really excited to be joining to expand Fulwell’s scripted output.
“As anyone who knows me already knows, I’m passionate about addressing gender imbalance in comedy and I am really pleased that at Fulwell this is very much part of their remit. It’s great that when I join Fulwell in May I’ll be able to continue my work with Comedy 50:50, with support from my new colleagues and the wider industry.”
Fulwell 73 partner Pearlman said: “Saskia is one of the best comedy executives in the business and the perfect cultural fit for Fulwell. She has an enviable track record of having commissioned some of the U.K.’s best loved shows during her time at ITV and Sky. We’re really pleased to welcome her to the Fulwell family as we continue to expand our scripted programming and cannot wait to work with her on a slate of original, innovative and noisy content.”
