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Advisory Board

Stuart Cosgrove

Director of Nations and Regions, Channel 4

Stuart Cosgrove is Channel 4’s Director of Nations and Regions with overall responsibility for Channel 4’s strategy and corporate development outside London.

He joined Channel 4 in April 1994 as Commissioning Editor for Independent Film and Video. Under his leadership Independent Film and Video won numerous international awards. The Dying Rooms, an expose of death and suffering in Chinese State Orphanages, remains a landmark in Channel 4’s output. The department also commissioned risk-taking dramas such as Irvine Welsh’s Granton Star Cause, which won the Prix Italia in 1998 and was subsequently released in the cinema as The Acid House. Independent Film and Video pioneered themed programming zones including the film zone The Shooting Gallery, the international series Secret Asia and the contentious sex-industry series The Red Light Zone.

In 1996, Stuart was promoted to Controller of Arts and Entertainment, managing arts and entertainment, sports, and Channel 4’s flagship American programmes such as ER, Friends and Frasier. Among programmes the department originated at the time were the weekly entertainment show TFI Friday, new comedy programmes such Chris Morris’s Brass Eye, the Mark Thomas Comedy Product and Harry Hill. The department also commissioned some of Channel 4’s most memorable long running programmes including Father Ted, Eurotrash and The Big Breakfast.

Stuart was born in Perth, Scotland, graduated in Drama and English at the University of Hull, and has a PhD in media. He made his name as a cultural critic working as Media Editor of the NME and contributing to The Face, The Guardian and The Observer. He was a regular presenter of the BBC2 flagship arts programme The Late Show. His cult radio series On The Ball is Scotland’s most popular radio show and has won two Sony Awards.

Stuart joined Channel 4 from independent production, after a successful career as a producer with Big Star, makers of the award-winning popular culture series Halfway to Paradise. He is a Director of BT (Scotland) and a Trustee of the National Endowment of Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA).

Stuart has studied at Hull University, George Mason University, Harvard’s JFK School of Government and Leadership and Wharton Business School. He has a doctorate in English and American Studies and is an Honorary Professor of Abertay University and John Moores University Liverpool.

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