Antony Root
Encyclopedia
Antony Root is an award-winning television executive and producer.
, Marlborough College and Christ's College, Cambridge
where he read Philosophy
and English
. At Cambridge he was President of the Amateur Dramatic Club
(CUADC) and Junior Treasurer of the Footlights revue group
.
Television's Drama Series and Serials Department as an Assistant Floor Manager. He was subsequently promoted to Script Editor, working on such series as Doctor Who
, The Chinese Detective
and Strangers and Brothers
.
In 1984 he was recruited by Euston Films
, a subsidiary of Thames Television
, as its Development Executive where his credits included Capital City, Bellman and True
and the miniseries The Fear, which he also co-produced.
In 1989 he joined Working Title Television as Head of Production where he produced Lorna Doone
(ITV), Derek Jarman
's Edward II
(BBC) and Armistead Maupin
's Tales of the City (C4
).
In 1994 he was appointed Head of Drama at Thames Television, executive producing John Schlesinger
's Cold Comfort Farm (BBC) and setting up Five’s first drama series, A Wing and a Prayer, before leaving to join Granada Television
as Head of Drama in 1997. In this role his credits as executive producer
included The Grand
(ITV) and Far from the Madding Crowd
(ITV).
In 1998 he became the first Granada executive tasked with developing and producing drama for broadcasters outside the United Kingdom
. As Head of International Drama he oversaw three movies for A&E
in the United States - Murder in a Small Town and The Lady in Question, both starring Gene Wilder
, and Dash and Lilly
, starring Sam Shepard
and Judy Davis
. He also served as executive producer on the BAFTA-winning miniseries Longitude (C4) for Granada Film.
In 1999 he transferred to Los Angeles
and assumed the additional role of SVP, Movies and Miniseries at Granada Entertainment USA where his credits as executive producer included The Great Gatsby
(A&E) and Princess of Thieves
(ABC). In 2000 he was appointed President of the company overseeing all its output including the television movies My Beautiful Son (Showtime/ITV) and Second Nature (TNT), the second season of the series Beggars and Choosers
(Showtime), and drama
and comedy
television pilot
s for the U.S. networks.
In 2005 he returned to the UK to take up the position of Senior Vice President, European Production, for Sony Pictures Television
. In this role, which he held until December 2009, he was responsible for all SPT's development and production in the European region including the management of its wholly owned and joint venture entities in six countries.
From January 2010 to October 2011 he again worked as an international consultant and executive producer. His assignments included advising independent production companies on their international growth strategies and serving as Director of Industry Week at the RomaFictionFest in 2010 and 2011. From September 2010 to October 2011 he also served as CEO of 8th Floor Productions, a UK-based drama development and production company focusing on television fiction designed for the international market.
In October 2011 he took up the position of Executive Vice President, Original Programming and Production, at HBO Central Europe.
Productions with which he has been associated as producer or executive producer have won BAFTA, Peabody and Banff awards and been nominated for Primetime Emmys and Golden Globes.
Education
He was educated at King's College School, CambridgeKing's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....
, Marlborough College and Christ's College, Cambridge
Christ's College, Cambridge
Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.With a reputation for high academic standards, Christ's College averaged top place in the Tompkins Table from 1980-2000 . In 2011, Christ's was placed sixth.-College history:...
where he read Philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. At Cambridge he was President of the Amateur Dramatic Club
Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club
Founded in 1855, the Amateur Dramatic Club is the oldest University dramatic society in England - and the largest dramatic society in Cambridge....
(CUADC) and Junior Treasurer of the Footlights revue group
Footlights
Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club, commonly referred to simply as the Footlights, is an amateur theatrical club in Cambridge, England, founded in 1883 and run by the students of Cambridge University....
.
Career
After a brief career in theatre management, he joined BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Television's Drama Series and Serials Department as an Assistant Floor Manager. He was subsequently promoted to Script Editor, working on such series as Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
, The Chinese Detective
The Chinese Detective
The Chinese Detective is a British television series, transmitted by the BBC between 1981 and 1982 and created by Ian Kennedy Martin, who had previously devised The Sweeney and Juliet Bravo....
and Strangers and Brothers
Strangers and Brothers
Strangers and Brothers is a series of novels by C. P. Snow, published between 1940 and 1974. They deal with – amongst other things – questions of political and personal integrity, and the mechanics of exercising power....
.
In 1984 he was recruited by Euston Films
Euston Films
Euston Films was a British film and television production company. It was a subsidiary company of Thames Television, and operated from the 1970s to the 1990s, producing various series for Thames, which were screened nationally on the ITV network...
, a subsidiary of Thames Television
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
, as its Development Executive where his credits included Capital City, Bellman and True
Bellman and True
Bellman and True is a 1987 film written and directed by Richard Loncraine, starring Bernard Hill, Derek Newark, and Richard Hope.-Plot:Hiller, a computer expert, was bribed by a group of bank robbers to obtain details of the security system at a newly-built bank. Having obtained the information, he...
and the miniseries The Fear, which he also co-produced.
In 1989 he joined Working Title Television as Head of Production where he produced Lorna Doone
Lorna Doone (1990 film)
Lorna Doone is a 1990 British drama television film directed by Andrew Grieve and starring Polly Walker, Sean Bean and Clive Owen. It is based on the novel Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore set in the West Country during Monmouth's Rebellion. It was made by Thames Television and aired on ITV....
(ITV), Derek Jarman
Derek Jarman
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.-Life:...
's Edward II
Edward II (film)
Edward II is a 1991 film directed by Derek Jarman, starring Steven Waddington, Tilda Swinton and Andrew Tiernan. It is based on the eponymous play by Christopher Marlowe...
(BBC) and Armistead Maupin
Armistead Maupin
Armistead Jones Maupin, Jr. is an American writer, best known for his Tales of the City series of novels, based in San Francisco.-Early life:...
's Tales of the City (C4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
).
In 1994 he was appointed Head of Drama at Thames Television, executive producing John Schlesinger
John Schlesinger
John Richard Schlesinger, CBE was an English film and stage director and actor.-Early life:Schlesinger was born in London into a middle-class Jewish family, the son of Winifred Henrietta and Bernard Edward Schlesinger, a physician...
's Cold Comfort Farm (BBC) and setting up Five’s first drama series, A Wing and a Prayer, before leaving to join Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
as Head of Drama in 1997. In this role his credits as executive producer
Executive producer
An executive producer is a producer who is not involved in any technical aspects of the film making or music process, but who is still responsible for the overall production...
included The Grand
The Grand (TV series)
The Grand was a British television drama series first broadcast on ITV in 1997-1998. It was written by Russell T Davies and set in a hotel in Manchester in the 1920s....
(ITV) and Far from the Madding Crowd
Far from the Madding Crowd (1998 film)
Far from the Madding Crowd is a 1998 drama television film adaptation of the Thomas Hardy novel of the same name....
(ITV).
In 1998 he became the first Granada executive tasked with developing and producing drama for broadcasters outside the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. As Head of International Drama he oversaw three movies for A&E
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
in the United States - Murder in a Small Town and The Lady in Question, both starring Gene Wilder
Gene Wilder
Gene Wilder is an American stage and screen actor, director, screenwriter, and author.Wilder began his career on stage, making his screen debut in the film Bonnie and Clyde in 1967. His first major role was as Leopold Bloom in the 1968 film The Producers...
, and Dash and Lilly
Dash and Lilly
Dash and Lilly is a 1999 Emmy and Golden Globe Award-nominated television film directed by Kathy Bates and written by Jerrold L. Ludwig.-Plot:...
, starring Sam Shepard
Sam Shepard
Sam Shepard is an American playwright, actor, and television and film director. He is the author of several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child...
and Judy Davis
Judy Davis
Judy Davis is an Australian actress best known for her roles in Husbands and Wives, Barton Fink, A Passage to India and in the TV miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows....
. He also served as executive producer on the BAFTA-winning miniseries Longitude (C4) for Granada Film.
In 1999 he transferred to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and assumed the additional role of SVP, Movies and Miniseries at Granada Entertainment USA where his credits as executive producer included The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby (2000 film)
The Great Gatsby is a 2000 television film adaptation of the novel of the same title by F. Scott Fitzgerald.It was made in collaboration by the A&E Cable Network in the United States, and Granada Productions in Great Britain. It was directed by Robert Markowitz from a teleplay by John J....
(A&E) and Princess of Thieves
Princess of Thieves
Princess of Thieves is a romantic action-adventure TV movie starring Keira Knightley, produced by Granada Productions in 2001 and first broadcast on The Wonderful World of Disney on ABC in the United States that same year...
(ABC). In 2000 he was appointed President of the company overseeing all its output including the television movies My Beautiful Son (Showtime/ITV) and Second Nature (TNT), the second season of the series Beggars and Choosers
Beggars and Choosers (TV series)
Beggars and Choosers is a comedy-drama series broadcast by Showtime. Developed by Peter Lefcourt and Brandon Tartikoff, the series was a comedic, behind-the-scenes look at network television...
(Showtime), and drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
and comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
television pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
s for the U.S. networks.
In 2005 he returned to the UK to take up the position of Senior Vice President, European Production, for Sony Pictures Television
Sony Pictures Television
Sony Pictures Television, Inc. is an American and global television production/distribution subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment. In turn, the latter is part of the Japanese conglomerate Sony.-Background:...
. In this role, which he held until December 2009, he was responsible for all SPT's development and production in the European region including the management of its wholly owned and joint venture entities in six countries.
From January 2010 to October 2011 he again worked as an international consultant and executive producer. His assignments included advising independent production companies on their international growth strategies and serving as Director of Industry Week at the RomaFictionFest in 2010 and 2011. From September 2010 to October 2011 he also served as CEO of 8th Floor Productions, a UK-based drama development and production company focusing on television fiction designed for the international market.
In October 2011 he took up the position of Executive Vice President, Original Programming and Production, at HBO Central Europe.
Productions with which he has been associated as producer or executive producer have won BAFTA, Peabody and Banff awards and been nominated for Primetime Emmys and Golden Globes.