WildBear Entertainment is launching WildBear Aotearoa in New Zealand, its first office outside Australia, and recruiting experienced executive producer, director and writer Craig Meade as its general manager.
Meade joins the factual production house from NHNZ where he was head of production, responsible for its factual and documentary output as well as relationships with the wider international television industry. During his 15 years with the company he worked on programming for a wide range of broadcasters, including Gem Hunt for Travel Channel, I Survived 9/11 for A&E, Megastructures for National Geographic and A Year in the Wild: Scotland for Channel 5.
As general manager and executive producer of Dunedin-based WildBear Aotearoa, Meade will report to WildBear Entertainment managing director Alan Erson. His remit is to help expand and deepen the slate in those specialist factual genres such as history, science and engineering and natural history, in which WildBear is already strong.
Michael Tear, WildBear Entertainment’s CEO, said: “We are delighted to add a new base to our business in New Zealand and to have such a distinguished and well-respected creative as Craig onboard as GM. Despite its relatively small population, New Zealand has produced a large number of excellent factual programmes over the years and has an impressive talent base. With Craig’s knowledge and expertise, we hope to successfully tap into both local ideas and talent to grow this new business and support WildBear Entertainment’s broader ambitions in the international marketplace.”
Craig Meade added: “The opportunity to establish a new production base, with the full support of a thriving business, doesn’t come along every day. I am genuinely excited by this new role and the prospect of shaping something from the ground up to become a key contributor to the growing WildBear business. Aotearoa-New Zealand is a brilliant location for factual television production, and I am now looking forward to starting the development process here and connecting with other creatives across the country.”