Screen NSW has announced Sophia Zachariou (pictured C) has been appointed to the senior role of head of development and production, effective immediately.
Zachariou has commissioned and executive produced many hundreds of hours of television across all genres and was previously deputy head of entertainment at ABC TV. She was the network EP on all the Gruen series, Kitchen Cabinet with Annabel Crabb, Judith Lucy’s Spiritual Journey, The Chaser’s Media Circus, The Chaser’s War on Everything, Saturday Night Crack Up, Agony, The Checkout and At the Movies.
Zachariou also developed digital formats for iview such as comedy series Fresh Blood, and Canberra Al Desko with Annabel Crabb.
Prior to her time at the ABC, Zachariou was the producer of the legendary short film series Eat Carpet for SBS, and as an independent she produced Australia’s first short film initiative for smartphones, Micromovies, in 2004.
Zachariou steps up to the head role after serving three months as production and development executive at Screen NSW.
Other staff moves:
Mark Hamlyn, who has been manager of development and production at the agency for the past four years, has resigned to return to active production.
Courtney Gibson also announced that filmmakers Sofya Gollan (pictured R) and Karen Radzyner (pictured L) will join the Screen NSW as development and production executives. Both will commence their roles on 30 May.
Gollan is an acclaimed writer, director and actor. Her latest film Gimpsey will screen this week at the St Kilda Film Festival. Gollan, who is well known to TV audiences as a presenter on ABC TV’s Play School, is also profoundly deaf.
Karen Radzyner was producer, with John Edwards, of the Logie Award-winning television miniseries Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo. She also produced the TV series Two Twisted, the feature film Venice, written and directed by Miro Bilbrough, and her short films have starred actors including Joel Edgerton and Mia Wasikowska.