Hot Shots 2022: Jack Dargov

Jack Dargov’s formative steps in the media industry included working for free as a radio presenter in Birmingham, cleaning jewellery for a shopping channel and appearing on – and winning – ITV2 reality format Prank Pad.

A move to London proved the decisive step in setting Dargov on the production path after a friend needed a runner to work on the fourth series of Minnow Films’ Channel 4 series SAS: Who Dares Wins.

Simultaneously producing and presenting his own short-form docs and comedy pilots, while acting as a runner on programmes including Strictly Come Dancing, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK and Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back, ultimately resulted in him finding his natural home in development after being offered a researcher role at Label1.

Refusing to have his burgeoning career derailed by a Covid-related redundancy in 2020, Dargov proved his tenacity by self-funding, producing and presenting Newcastle Brown Male: Inside The Fringe – a documentary that showed what life is like for those who appear at the festival, and which was acquired by STV.

Rehoused at Crackit for a year-long stint as a development assistant producer, during which the team secured 11 commissions, Dargov landed at Zinc Media’s fledgling label Red Sauce at the start of 2022.

Red Sauce creative director Tom Edwards says Dargov’s star is rising with “supreme velocity”.

“In his relatively short time with us, he has already elevated our work enormously. From fantastic initiative, people skills and tenacity to secure the most sought-after doc access, through to outstanding visual work within our decks, and from pitching materials to a great degree of organisation, focus and maturity to his all-round work, he’s bound for the greatest of things.”