Icon Films appoints Belinda Cherrington as Creative Director

BAFTA-nominated executive to spearhead Icon Films’ factual slate

(30th March 2021 – Bristol) Leading UK independent factual production company Icon Films today announces the appointment of Belinda Cherrington as Creative Director.

With an extensive background in documentary, popular factual, science, history and natural history and based in Washington DC, Belinda is charged with expanding the Icon Films brand in adventure programming, innovating in the natural history space and growing the next generation of on-screen and off-screen talent for the company. 

She joins Icon Films from Red Rock Films where as Creative Director she held a dual role executive producing and developing new series and specials - including the company’s first natural history series for Netflix.

A widely experienced BAFTA-nominated filmmaker and award-winning executive producer, Belinda has more than 10 years’ experience winning and delivering returning business in the UK and US across multiple unscripted genres.

Prior to Red Rock Films, she was Creative Director at 360 Production (now Rare TV) and oversaw the rapid growth of the company, launching a range of returning series including ‘Mountain Vets’ for BBC2, ‘The Nile: Egypt’s Great River with Bettany Hughes’ for Channel 5, ‘Egypt’s Unexplained Files’ for Discovery Science alongside primetime  specials  ‘Chitty Flies Again with David Walliams’ for Channel 4, ‘Eyewitness: D Day’ for National Geographic  and ‘Lockerbie: The Unheard Voices’ for Channel 5.

During her career, Belinda has also held senior positions at UK independent production companies Renegade, Mentorn Media, Lion Television, Tiger Aspect, Tigress Productions - as well as the BBC.

At Icon Films, she will report to CEO and Co-Founder Laura Marshall and joins the leadership team of Lucy Middelboe, Commercial Director and Andie Clare, Director of Production with immediate effect.

Belinda Cherrington, Creative Director of Icon Films, said: “The opportunity to lead a truly independent company with the ambition, resources and vision to build a new generation of returning brands for the UK, SVOD and US markets is incredibly exciting in a time when the whole content production landscape is changing and expanding.”

Laura Marshall, CEO of Icon Films, said: “At a time of renewal, we are delighted to welcome Belinda to Icon Films. She brings creativity matched with clarity of purpose and a reputation for being an inspiring and supportive leader who shares our values and vision for the future.”

Icon Films is an award-winning production company with a reputation for originality, excellence and entertainment. The business delivers high-end, returning factual content for broadcasters around the world across a breadth of factual genres including natural history with programmes including Animal Planet US’ highest-ever rating series, ‘River Monsters’, ‘Malawi Wildlife Rescue’ for Blue Ant Media and ‘Unknown Amazon with Pedro Andrade’ for Vice Media Group, Charles Dance-narrated ‘Savage Kingdom’, ‘Primal Survivor’ and 8K feature doc ‘Okavango’ for NHK in Japan

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About Icon Films
Icon Films has a reputation for originality, excellence and entertainment across the breadth of factual genres including science, history, exploration and natural history; having produced over 400 hours of factual programming over 29 years for UK and international broadcasters.

Headquartered in Bristol, the UK’s capital of natural history TV production, Icon Films creates award-winning programming for broadcasters including the BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, ITV, National Geographic, Discovery Networks, Vice and Blue Ant Media. The company is listed in Realscreen’s Global 100 top independent production companies as voted for by broadcasters, producers and distributors in the global non-fiction content industry. Icon Films has been repeatedly named in Broadcast’s annual Best Places to Work in TV list and has been listed in the Top Independent and True Indies table in both Broadcast and Televisual Indie surveys. Icon Films was founded by Harry Marshall (Chairman) and Laura Marshall (CEO). www.iconfilms.co.uk