Andy Webb: Director
Andy Webb, who lives in London, England, has directed many documentaries in locations around the world. He began his career as a journalist with BBC Television News, covering major news stories around the globe, but then switched to documentary film-making. His favorite topics are history related, and he earlier directed an episode of Secrets of the Dead dealing with the trial and execution of Michigan physician Hawley Crippen. This documentary on the Silver Pharaoh is his second project set in Egypt, following an earlier film on the death of Tutankhamun.
Sarah Sapper: Head of Production
Sarah Sapper is Blink’s Head of Production and has overall responsibility for all business affairs, financial matters, office management and Human Resources. She joined the team in November 08 and has already overseen two large co-productions with Five, Smithsonian, CanWest and Discovery. She has previously worked as Head of Production at Tiger Aspect’s factual department; and during her time there oversaw two series of Make Me a Supermodel for Five and which was sold as a format globally; as well as specialist factual projects for the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV. She has worked across all genres and was responsible for spearheading Tiger Aspect’s post production unit which specializes in tapeless post production. Before becoming a Head of Production, Sarah was a freelance line producer and worked predominately for Brook Lapping and Partridge Films.
Dan Chambers: Executive Producer, Blink Films
Since starting Blink with Justine Kershaw, Dan has Executive Produced
Ancients Behaving Badly, True Stories, Chinese Food In Minutes; he’s overseen When Boris Met Dave and, along with Justine, Extraordinary Animals, The Lion Cub From Harrods, and The Great Sperm Race. Before forming Blink, Dan was Five’s Director of Programs from 2003 to 2006. From 2001 to 2003, he was Five’s Controller of Factual where he created the RTS award-winning history strand, Revealed, commissioned World War I in Color, Pompeii Live, Kings & Queens, and feature shows including Britain’s Worst Driver. As Director of Programs he was also responsible for Banged Up Abroad, The Gadget Show, Fifth Gear, and The Hotel Inspector. Dan graduated from Oxford University, and began his television career in 1991 as a researcher on current affairs shows including Panorama and Dispatches. He went on to direct films for Channel 4 science strand Equinox.
William R. Grant: Executive in Charge
William R. Grant is director of history, science and nature at WNET.ORG, parent company of THIRTEEN and WLIW 21 in New York. He joined WNET in 1995 after 12 years at WGBH in Boston, where he was managing editor of Frontline and executive editor of Nova. At WGBH he also served as executive producer of Living Against the Odds and Made In America?
At WNET.ORG, Grant is in charge of one of a documentary production department which brings to national broadcast programs in the areas of natural history, science, history, business, travel, and other topics. While at WNET.ORG he has also been executive producer of Innovation and Going Places and numerous miniseries, including America on Wheels, Savage Skies, Savage Earth, Savage Seas, Knife to the Heart, Stephen Hawking’s Universe, On the Trail of Mark Twain, The American President, In Search of Ancient Ireland, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow, Slavery and the Making of America, African American Lives, The Supreme Court 1, Looking for Lincoln and the continuing series Secrets of the Dead. He has been responsible, as executive in charge of production, for Nature, one of public television’s most watched continuing series, and the miniseries Savage Planet, Secrets of the Pharaohs, Warship, Africa, 1900 House, Frontier House, Manor House, The Secret Life of the Brain, Colonial House, Texas Ranch House, Warplane, Ground War and the Human Spark.
Prior to joining WGBH in 1983, Grant was for 14 years a reporter and editor at two of the nation’s largest daily newspapers – the Detroit Free Press and the San Francisco Chronicle, where his work won numerous awards. In 1979-80 he was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 2001, and in 2005 was named to the University of Kentucky’s Hall of Distinguished Alumni.
Programs produced under his supervision have won 13 national News and Documentary Emmy awards, including one for the 2005 series Slavery and the Making of America, and one for the 2004 series DNA, and six George Foster Peabody awards, including one for the 2002 series The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow.
Jared Lipworth: Executive Producer
From 2007 to 2010 Jared Lipworth was director of science programs at WNET. In addition to Secrets of the Dead, he executive produced Ground War, Curious, The Human Spark, and The Mysterious Human Heart, which won a 2008 Emmy for Science, Technology, and Nature programming.
Prior to becoming executive producer and then director of science programs, Lipworth was the series producer for the department’s technology series, Innovation. He also served as series producer for Warrior Challenge, Secrets of the Pharaohs, the Emmy Award-winning Frontier House and The Secret Life of the Brain, Warship, Taxi Dreams, Echoes From the White House and Savage Planet. Additional credits at THIRTEEN include post-production producer for The American President and 1900 House and production assistant for Savage Seas, On The Trail of Mark Twain, The Great Balloon Race and Stories of Lupus.
He is currently the executive producer of science and nature at National Geographic Television.
