Hot Shots 2022: Trent Williams-Jones

“Momentum, self-belief and an open mindset” are what Trent Williams-Jones has in spades, according to Tom O’Brien, creative director at Fremantle label Naked.

“An exceptional people person with a refined sense of taste, a strong communicator and a very open collaborator, he is both flexible enough to listen and adapt, but has a strong sense of self that means he doesn’t lose his own perspective in a cacophony of voices.”

Williams-Jones has worked with Naked across two series of BBC3’s The Rap Game UK – first as senior producer then series producer – with an “extremely noticeable uplift in production values, casting and overall package” in his second stint, says O’Brien.

Initially part of the production teams on BBC2’s Screenwipe With Charlie Brooker and C4’s 10 O’Clock Live, Williams-Jones went on to work on two Expectation Entertainment productions: YouTube series Race Around Britain, which scooped both Broadcast Digital and RTS Awards, and established C4 series The Big Narstie Show.

Williams-Jones was also a producer on BBC3’s black music entertainment show Tonight With Target and host producer of CC Lab’s coverage of the 2021 Mobo Awards.

“Trent has also helped to implement our core company values across productions, is unashamedly hungry to fill his trophy cabinet, has tackled some of our most multi-dimensional compliance and duty-of-care considerations, and it’s all done with momentum, self-belief, and an open mindset,” says O’Brien.

“He is a real talent, and someone who puts everything into what he does to create incredible, agenda-setting and entertaining programming. His taste, judgement, commitment to vision and overall nous is unchallenged, all evident in his bulletproof body of work.”