Lifted Entertainment Appoints New Managing Director

ITV Studios label Lifted Entertainment has appointed Richard Cowles as its new Managing Director.

Cowles, who has co-created some of the biggest and most successful formats to come out of the UK, including Love Island, I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! and Hell's Kitchen, steps up from Director of Unscripted at the label which has a broad and varied slate of well-known and long-running titles that also includes The Voice, University Challenge and Countdown.

Cowles joined Lifted Entertainment in 2012 as Creative Director, overseeing I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! and leading on the relaunch of Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway after a five-year hiatus. During this time he also led on the development of global hit show Love Island, which has gone on to be commissioned in over 20 territories worldwide. Whilst in the post of Director of Unscripted, which he took up in 2019, the label secured commissions with ITV for Walk The Line and Beverley & Jordan: Destination Wedding, as well as a pilot for The Secret Gameshow and further funded development projects with both linear and SVOD platforms.

His appointment to MD of the label follows Angela Jain joining ITV Studios to become its first Director of Unscripted in the UK.

www.itv.com