Karen Smith
CEO/Managing Director
Full of grace (Tuesday’s Child)
Karen’s network television career started at Granada TV’s “This Morning” as a Day Producer. Three weeks into the job she conducted the world’s first live Viagra trial dubbed “the tawdriest two hours of daytime television ever” by The Daily Mail. The team had t-shirts printed with the headline on the back. Despite her dad’s worries that she was going to be sacked for it and sent back up North in disgrace, she was quickly promoted to Deputy Editor and then Editor.
From there she spent time as a Series Producer at Endemol launching “Comic Relief Does Fame Academy” (BBC1) and “The Games” (C4) and in October 2004 she joined BBC Entertainment as an Executive Producer as they had an idea to bring back Come Dancing with celebrities.
Karen was the co-devisor and launch Executive Producer of the multi-award winning Strictly Come Dancing (Dancing with the Stars) which is now one of the world’s biggest entertainment formats. She led the first five series in the UK and ultimately became Creative Director of BBC Entertainment overseeing all format and factual entertainment shows. In January 2009, Karen joined Shine TV, initially as Director of Programmes and shortly afterwards was made Joint Managing Director.
Shine TV grew to be one of the UK’s largest indies with shows such as Masterchef (BBC1 and BBC2); Got to Dance (Sky1); Gladiators (Sky1); The Biggest Loser (ITV1) and The Magicians (BBC1). Karen launched Tuesday’s Child Television in Sept 2012. As a teenager she’d dreamed of being Monday’s Child, but now is happy to be “full of grace”. Her twins are also Tuesday’s children, but are fantastically fair of face too.
Steph Harris
Creative Director
Full of woe (Wednesday’s Child)
Steph joined Tuesday’s Child in its first few months and has worked closely with Karen to build the company into the respected indie it is today. As Creative Director, her remit and stable is broad – from the global entertainment format Lego Masters to the genre bending reality horror gameshow Killer Camp, comedy panel shows like Guessable?, rigged fact ent formats in Dutch coffeeshops and Welsh bingo halls alongside travelogues such as Extraordinary Escapes with Sandi Toksvig and access documentaries.
Steph recently celebrated her telly silver jubilee; a 25 year adventure that began in comedy development at Thames Television, luring young comics from the dimly lit comedy clubs into the bright lights of the television studio. Little did she know how much she’d need a sense of humour when she was tasked with making a new series about dusting for Channel 4 and found herself knee-deep in filth as she unleashed Kim and Aggie on the nation in How Clean Is Your House? Steph realised her television calling was to help people, and in her role as Editor of Factual at TalkbackThames she spent the next four years in other people’s homes, installing cameras in their bedrooms, re-designing their homes and clearing their clutter in various Channel 4 and BBC features shows. After homes came balls and boobs at Maverick Television with a role as Executive Producer of C4’s Embarrassing Bodies, which picked up three Baftas and an Emmy for its multi-platform innovations. Five years later, she moved to Shine TV to head up Factual Entertainment and did a stint at Dragonfly overseeing spin-offs of One Born Every Minute whilst birthing Channel 4’s What Happens in Kavos.
Steph wouldn’t say she was a typical Wednesday’s Child – whilst she’ll admit she’s made some woeful decisions at times – her glass is definitely always half full – often overflowing.
Sheryl Lacy
Head of Production
Full of woe (Wednesday’s Child)
Sheryl joined Tuesday’s Child in 2018, overseeing the launch of Tuesday’s Child Scotland and the commissions of The Hit List, Head Hunters and Killer Camp. With a production career stretching over 24 years, Sheryl started her TV career as a Meeter Greeter on The Big Breakfast, where memories of that time span from the low of having to don a giant egg costume and have her face painted yellow to the highs of making breakfast for the Wu Tang Clan and looking after the Zig and Zag band performances.
Joining Princess Productions in 2001 after a stint at Talkback she stayed for 19 years, assisting with the growth of the company as it expanded to have its own live studios and post-production facilities, and working on a diverse range of programmes from RI:SE, Orange Unsigned Act to The Friday Night Project, The Big Art Project, Ashley Banjo’s Secret Street Crew and The Mash Report.
Sheryl loves being able to work across varied genres on innovative programmes in a company that supports working parents and is committed to the highest production values.
Colette Magee
Production Executive
Fair of face (Monday's Child)
Production Executive Colette has been with us since January 2019 leading all productions from Tuesday’s Child Scotland including The Hit List and daytime quiz Head Hunters for the BBC; the Scottish BAFTA nominated Extraordinary Escapes with Sandi Toksvig and a First Cut film, The Boy Who Can’t Stop Dancing for Channel 4 plus Ghost Bus Tours and Killer Camp Series 2 for ITV.
Colette’s TV career began in front of the camera when she was murdered twice in true crime re-enactments on a Channel 4 documentary, once with a hammer in a field, and once with a gun. After stints in scripted development, documentary distribution and organising parties at film festivals, she moved into production and worked on award-winning factual programming for Finestripe Productions, Tiger Aspect and Hello Halo before joining Tuesday’s Child.Colette likes money and organising everyone else’s lives. She enjoys working at an innovative and ambitious company that has an output as diverse as its staffing, and values regional voices.
Ben Wilson
Showrunner/Development Executive
Full of grace (Tuesday’s Child)
Ben Wilson has been working with Tuesday’s Child as a Series Producer and Development Executive since late 2018.
In that time he co-developed and Series Produced new formats Killer Camp (ITV2 and The CW), Apocalypse Wow (ITV2) and Ghost Bus Tours (ITV2) whilst also contributing to the raft of new ideas Tuesday’s Child have in development and production.
Previously as a freelance Series Producer and Senior Development Producer Ben worked with on Release the Hounds (ITV2), Carnage (Sky One), Bigheads (ITV1), Take the Tower (ITV4) and iScream 360 (BBC Three).
What all the above shows have in common is a strong comedic backbone combined with epic scale. Ben loves making noisy blockbuster TV filled with edge of your seat excitement and drama.
Ben started out as a comedy writer and performer. With his sketch group Idiots of Ants, Ben performed at comedy festivals all over the world, won multiple awards, was nominated for the Perrier Award and made a series for BBC Radio 4 and sketch show pilots for both BBC and E4. He later moved into directing commercials for brands like John Lewis and Pot Noodle before moving into “proper telly”.
Ben is a dad to two young boys, a passionate Yorkshireman and a lover of cult TV and Film.
Edwina Madden-Egan
Series Producer/Development Producer
Has far to go (Thursday's Child)
Edwina joined us for the first series of The Hit List in 2019 as Casting Producer, and stepped up to series producer for the fifth series. She’s also worked across Queens For The Night and Lego Masters and achieved a career highlight in 2022 when she succeeded in sneaking a My Chemical Romance track onto BBC1 on a Saturday night. She thinks all television should be Saturday Night television and loves working on noisy, fun shows and loves a well scripted pun. She’s proud to work for a company that produces exciting and varied content, and really champions regional output and people.
Edwina studied journalism at Cardiff University, followed by a Masters in Documentary, with ambitions to become the next John Pilger or David Attenborough. Thankfully she realised pretty quickly she was far more at home in a shiny floor studio than a war zone or the Antarctic, and has stuck with Entertainment. She joins Tuesday’s Child after stints at 12 Yard, Hungry Bear & Firecracker.
When not in studio, Edwina enjoys festivals and gigs (The Hit List research obviously), and can be frequently found in the gym as she is a champion Powerlifter and Strongwoman (which comes in useful for lifting heavy boxes in the office). Edwina has chosen to interpret the “far to go” as a divine instruction that she should go on lots of holidays, and enjoys exploring in her campervan.
Will Brown
Series and Development Producer
Is fair of face (Monday's Child)
Will Brown has been with Tuesday’s Child since late 2020. In that time, he was a key creative and series challenge produced The Fortune Hotel (ITV1), Series Produced Guessable? (Comedy Central) and Bad Baby (Channel 4.0), and Challenge Produced Killer Camp (ITV2 and The CW) and Apocalypse Wow (ITV2), whilst contributing to the new ideas Tuesday’s Child have in development and production.
Other shows Will has produced as a freelancer are Comedy Game Night (Comedy Central), Gordon, Gino & Fred: Road Trip (ITV), Royal Wedding Live With Cord And Tish (HBO) and Sounds Like Friday Night (BBC1).
His passions lie in creating and producing comedy-focused programmes and large-scale challenge formats.
Will moved down to London from Scotland in 2007 in the hope of working in TV. He had no back up plan, so is relieved it has so far worked out.
Outside of work he enjoys writing music, playing board games and most things sci-fi related.
Will is a Monday’s child and his face says it all!
Katie Ward
Office and Social Media Manager
Works hard for a living (Saturday's Child)
Katie has been working with Tuesday’s Child since August 2022 when she started as a Production Secretary. With the growth of the company and therefore it’s administrative needs, she has moved up to take over our social media management as well as managing the office. Katie has become the go-to person for most of the team with anything from booking taxi’s to sorting out IT issues. She has also been involved with welfare of cast members whilst on location and their aftercare. With Katie’s hugely varied role, she is now fondly known as Tuesday’s Child’s ‘Plugger of Holes’!
Katie has a BA in Education and a PGCE awarded by Canterbury and Christchurch University and up until 2019 was a primary school teacher. She made the leap into television in 2020 working as a runner and then as a production secretary over a variety of un-scripted shows, before landing at Tuesday’s Child where her career in TV production has thrived. She loves the range of shows that we produce and enjoys working with the diverse teams that Tuesday’s Child employ over a variety of projects.
TV and film are both passions for Katie outside of work too as are live music and comedy. She loves running and keeping fit and with 2 grown up children often finds time to escape for long walks with her husband and their dog to find a pub and pint.
Katie is a Saturday’s Child and so works hard for a living – obviously she’d be silly to not agree with this!