Hot Shots 2024: Sharon King

After more than a decade working her way up from freelance runner to third assistant director and script editor for Channel 4 and EastEnders, Sharon King says her career “stalled”.

She took on a compliance role, where she spent another nine years, but she “made a conscious decision not to give up”, and has since made a triumphant return to TV drama.

After a stint as a senior producer working on two series of MTV’s Shuga, she secured a spot as a script editor on Apple TV+ series Suspicion and then as a story producer at Happy Prince.

She was a co-producer on Code 404 for Keshet and Sky, and is currently a co-producer at Bad Wolf on Doctor Who for BBC1 and Disney+.

Doctor Who executive producer Phil Collinson says: “Sharon came to us with a strong track record as a script executive but has emerged from a year at the coalface of production with burgeoning producing skills.

“This new era for Doctor Who has involved a huge shift in ambition for the show and the planning for each episode is massive. But she has embraced the complexity and detail wholeheartedly, with an unwavering determination, offering invaluable support to the series producer and directors, and guidance to the script team and creative heads of department.”

King has also been credited by her colleagues as the driving force behind Bad Wolf’s placement director scheme with Directors UK, which aims to correct the under-representation of black women in directing.