Exec producer Callum Akass joins Lindsay Salt’s team

The BBC has unveiled House Productions exec producer Callum Akass as its head of development for drama.

Akass replaces Bradley Down, who joined Mona and Tanya Qureshi at the nascent international division of Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap last month.

He joins the corporation after five years at BBC Studios-owned Sherwood indie House. During his time there he was a script executive on Peter Straughan’s Conclave, which won the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay.

His other House credits include Disney+/Hulu series The Good Mothers, and films The Iron Claw, The Wonder and Starve Acre. He also worked on forthcoming films Sweetsick, written and directed by Alice Birch (Dead Ringers), and Bijan Sheibani’s The Arrival.

Prior to House, Akass worked at Urban Myth Films where he script edited the first series of Joe Barton’s The Lazarus Project for Sky. He began his career at Leopard Pictures, working as script editor on Mackenzie Crook’s BBC adaptation Worzel Gummidge.

He will report into BBC director of drama Lindsay Salt, who said: “Callum has worked with some of the UK’s very best writers across an enviable breadth of drama and film.

“We feel very lucky for such a smart and insightful talent to be joining our team where he will play a crucial part in spotting, championing and supporting the next raft of original dramas for the BBC.”

Akass added: “So many of my favourite shows past and present have come from the BBC and I’ve always been inspired by the creative risk-taking and ambition that fuels their output. They already have an exceptional slate, and I can’t wait to play a part in building on it.”