Bafta award-winning producer Kwadjo Dajan and former Channel 4 factual entertainment commissioning editor Nav Raman have joined fledgling diversity-specialist production company Sugar Films.
The pair are joining as co-founders, alongside former BBC executive Pat Younge, Narinder Minhas and Lucy Pilkington, who launched Sugar Films in March.
It was established to put race, gender and sexual diversity at the top of its agenda in a bid to challenge the lack of diversity in Britain’s creative industries that was highlighted by Lenny Henry in a Bafta speech last year.
Dajan’s credits include producing and developing such shows as ITV hit biopics Mrs Biggs, Cilla and The Widower, which all starred Sheridan Smith.
In 2012, he won the Bafta breakthrough talent award.
He said: “The objective is to turn great stories into compelling dramas with mainstream appeal. They’ll be ambitious in scale, provocative, uninhibited and elegant. We want Sugar Films to be the home of dramas that inspire, affect and move people.”
Raman was most recently at independent production company Nutopia, where she executive produced Siege in the Sahara for Channel 4 and PBS.
During her time at Channel 4 she was responsible for peak-time series such as Child Genius, Brat Camp, The Unteachables and Bollywood Star.
“This is an amazing opportunity to work alongside one of the most exciting creative teams in the business. We plan to build on our reputation for making innovative shows to create bold, thought-provoking content.“
