Hot Shots 2023: Freya Judd

“Freya is undoubtedly one of the most talented creatives I have worked with,” says Big Talk Studios executive producer Victoria Grew. “Her precision on story and character arcs is second to none, supported by her voracious appetite to read and consume all forms of media.”

Judd’s career has been cross-disciplinary, with roles in the commercial, development and production fields, driven by a desire to skill up in every part of the process.

She started out in theatre, working for writer-centred theatre company HighTide and West End producer Kenny Wax, before moving on to join talent management agency Curtis Brown as an agent’s assistant in the theatre, film and television department.

This gave her a thorough grounding in the commercial and legal side of the TV industry as she negotiated contracts and financial deals. She also worked with high-profile writers such as Adam Kay and Sarah Solemani.

In early 2020, Judd made the jump to Big Talk to work as a development producer in the comedy team, where she cut her teeth by supporting the scripting process for series one of Steve Stamp and Ben Murray’s BBC3 comedy about a personal trainer, Peacock.

Grew notes that Judd has a particular knack for building relationships with the writers with whom she works – perhaps that’s not surprising, since she’s also an acclaimed writer in her own right. In 2022, she won the Edinburgh TV Festival New Voices Award for her comedy pilot, which is currently in development with Objective Fiction.

In the past year, Judd’s career as a development producer has galloped forward, with a role script editing Horseface (working title), a major action-adventure comedy series for Apple TV+ about Dick Turpin. The massive production features the cream of British comedy talent, including Noel Fielding, Hugh Bonneville, Guz Khan, Ellie White, Asim Chaudhry and Tamsin Greig.

Big Talk chief executive Kenton Allen says: “From the writers’ room to pre-production and throughout shooting, Freya has been an integral part of the editorial team, helping to craft the characters and stories, supporting their realisation on-screen, and responding with imagination and flexibility to changing production requirements.”

Her next projects include working with an Emmy and Bafta award-winning writer on an adaptation of a comic Dickens novel, and a nostalgic comedy by Richard Naylor, which is currently in paid development with Apple TV+.

As a writer, Judd is also currently working on an adaptation of a series of romance novels.

“Freya is a very clever, articulate person who works incredibly hard at her craft,” Grew says.

“When the chips are down, Freya is someone you can rely on to be inventive and entrepreneurial in her approach to a script.

“Writers love working with her and she will only grow to become a force within the industry.”