‘River Monsters’ Producer Icon Films Hires Red Rock Films Executive Belinda Cherrington (EXCLUSIVE)

U.K. independent factual production company Icon Films has appointed Belinda Cherrington as creative director.

Based in Washington D.C., Cherrington will report into Icon CEO and co-founder Laura Marshall and joins the leadership team of Lucy Middelboe, commercial director, and Andie Clare, director of production, with immediate effect. She is in charge of expanding the Icon brand in adventure programming, innovating in the natural history space, and growing the next generation of talent for the company.

Icon’s factual productions include Animal Planet U.S.’ highest-ever rating series, “River Monsters,” “Malawi Wildlife Rescue” for Blue Ant Media, “Unknown Amazon with Pedro Andrade” for Vice Media Group, and Charles Dance-narrated “Savage Kingdom” for National Geographic.

Icon’s previous creative director Stephen McQuillan recently joined “Attenborough’s Life in Colour” producer Humble Bee Films.

Cherrington joins Icon from Red Rock Films where as creative director she held a dual role, executive producing and developing new series and specials, including the company’s first natural history series for Netflix, details of which are under wraps at the moment.

Prior to Red Rock, Cherrington was creative director at 360 Production (now Rare TV) launching several series including “Mountain Vets” for BBC2, “The Nile: Egypt’s Great River with Bettany Hughes” for Channel 5 and “Egypt’s Unexplained Files” for Discovery Science. She has also held senior positions at U.K. independent production companies Renegade, Mentorn Media, Lion Television, Tiger Aspect, Tigress Productions, as well as the BBC.

Cherrington was BAFTA-nominated for acclaimed BBC series “Hotel.”

“The opportunity to lead a truly independent company with the ambition, resources and vision to build a new generation of returning brands for the U.K., SVOD and U.S. markets is incredibly exciting in a time when the whole content production landscape is changing and expanding,” Cherrington said.

Marshall said: “At a time of renewal, we are delighted to welcome Belinda to Icon Films. She brings creativity matched with clarity of purpose and a reputation for being an inspiring and supportive leader who shares our values and vision for the future.”

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