Channel 4 has named Blink Industries’ Charlie Perkins as its head of comedy.
A producer who began on shows such as Little Britain, French & Saunders, Benidorm and Mock the Week, Perkins has worked extensively in the live comedy space and with online comedy creators.
As head of comedy at Blink Industries, she produced animated web comedy Don’t Hug Me, I’m Scared, which picked up a series commission from C4.
The indie also provided animation inserts for a recent episode of BBC2's Inside No 9 and is behind Netflix animated series Dead End: Paranormal Park, C4 Blap Sam Campbell: Get Real Dude and E4 animated format Blind Love on a First Date Island.
Perkins has also been a producer for BBC Radio Comedy and Cave Bear Productions. As well as founding comedy venue The Invisible Dot, she revived the University of Bristol’s sketch troupe Bristol Revunions, which nurtured performers such as Jamie and Natasia Demetriou, Ellie White and Charlotte Ritchie.
Perkins – the daughter of late comedy producer, performer and BBC head of comedy Geoffrey Perkins – succeeds Fiona McDermott, who recently left the broadcaster to join Apple TV+.
One of her imminent tasks will be the recruitment of a senior commissioning editor, following Jack Bayles’ move to indie Various Artists Ltd.
Her team also includes Laura Riseam, who was recently promoted from commissioning executive to commissioning editor, and commissioning executive Joe Hullait.
Perkins reports to chief content officer Ian Katz, who said she sat “squarely in the tradition” of C4’s history of “betting on brilliant and iconoclastic new talent”.
He added: “She has an unerring ear for funny, has nurtured and collaborated with some of Britain’s most exciting and distinctive comedy talent and had an ambitious and original vision for the future of Channel 4 comedy.”
Perkins said her approach prioritises “creative freedom, originality, tenacity and passion” and said C4 is a place “which has vitality, risk-taking art at its very core”.
