Hot Shots 2023: Robert Hunter

In his seven years working in development, Robert Hunter has devised and developed more than 100 hours of commissioned shows for UK and international broadcasters. For the past five, he’s been instrumental in helping Renowned Films evolve from a UK-centric indie to one that primarily makes shows for the US.

As well as shows such as BBC1’s Good Morning Dagenham, BBC2’s Coastal Defenders and BBC3’s recent streetwear competition format The Drop, Hunter has found huge success on The Weather Channel, with 12-part series Frozen Gold and climate change-focused documentary series Deep Water Salvage.

Scottish-born Hunter initially worked as an artist and on the radio station Subcity before a place on the Grierson Trust’s DocLab programme steered him into the TV world with a two-year stint at Pulse Films, on shows such as BBC2’s Billion Dollar Deals and Sky drama Gangs Of London.

Renowned chief executive Max Welch says it has been a pleasure to watch Hunter grow, adding his “strong aptitude for developing ideas for incredibly differing networks”, informed by an impressive understanding of the media landscape, has led to major commissions such as the 10-part Discovery+ series Ice Cold Catch and Amazon Prime/Paramount+ co-pro Elvis’ Women.

And there’s more where that came from, including premium true-crime box sets for major US streaming services and an eight-part sports doc for BBC3 and BBC Scotland.

“Robert is a skilled writer, producer, sales person, negotiator and creative, with strong leadership skills,” says Welch.