Hertfordshire student wins Sky Studios Elstree sustainability storytelling competition

Sky Studios Elstree today announce the winner of their Sustainability Heroes competition as Vaidehi Sonigra, a Year 6 student from Howe Dell Primary School in Hatfield.

Vaidehi’s illustration was selected after over 1,500 students in the local area participated in the competition, each creating a climate change superhero.

The winning entry – a story about ‘Dr Thingamajig and Evil Dr. Venom’ - has been turned into a short animation, courtesy of DreamWorks, Sky’s sister-company, and home to hit animated franchises like Shrek, Madagascar and How to Train Your Dragon.

To celebrate, Vaidehi visited Sky Studios Elstree, which aims to be the most sustainable TV and film studio in the world, to see her design on display.

Entries were judged by top creative teams at both Sky Studios and NBCUniversal, both part of Comcast Group, who ran the competition in partnership as the two anchor tenants of the new Sky Studios Elstree which is set to open next year.

Vaidehi’s story follows ‘Dr Thingamajig’ and the evil ‘Dr Venom’ who attempts to ruin her plans to create an eco-friendly fuel but accidentally helps her. As part of this process Vaidehi was invited to do the voiceover of ‘Dr Thingamajig’.

Vaidehi Sonigra, Sky Studios Sustainability Heroes competition winner said: “I was on a zoom assembly call when they announced the winner, and I was so shocked to hear my name. I’ve always wanted to be an illustrator, and seeing my drawings come to life with my voice has been incredible”

Nishy Lall, Head of Young People at Sky, said: “The creativity shown by these young people has been amazing. By building Sky Studios Elstree we’re creating over 2,000 local jobs and we’re committed to developing young local talent. It’s clear there is a wide pool of children in the area that we’d be lucky to work with in the future”

When it opens in 2022, Sky Studios Elstree will house 13 sound stages and will generate an additional £3 billion of production investment in the UK creative sector in the first five years alone. Sky’s ambition to build the world’s most sustainable film and TV studios aligns with its overall ambition to be net zero carbon by 2030 and the Sky Zero campaign to help millions of customers reduce their carbon footprint.

Notes to Editors

For more information, please contact lucy.blackmore@sky.uk /+44 (0) 7851049593

About Sky 

Sky is Europe’s leading media and entertainment company and is proud to be part of the Comcast group. Across six countries, we connect our 24 million customers to the best entertainment, sports, news, arts and to our own award-winning original content. 

Our technology, including the market leading Sky Q, connects people to everything they love - TV, music, games, online video, fitness and educational content, all in one place, easy. Our streaming service, NOW TV, brings viewers all the enjoyment of Sky with the flexibility of a contract-free service.  

Building on the success of Sky Originals like Chernobyl, I Hate Suzie and Brassic, we are doubling our investment in original content by 2024 through Sky Studios. Sky News provides impartial and trustworthy journalism for free, while Sky Arts, the UK’s only dedicated free-to-air arts channel, makes the arts accessible for everyone. Our new TV and movie studio, Sky Studios Elstree, is expected to create over 2,000 new jobs and generate an additional £3 billion of production investment in the UK over the first five years alone.  

We believe that we can be a force for good in the communities in which we operate. We’re committed to being Europe’s first net zero carbon entertainment company by 2030. We take pride in our approach to diversity and inclusion: we’ve been recognised by The Times and Stonewall for our commitment to diversity and we’ve put in place a new programme to invest £30million across our markets over the next three years to tackle racial injustice. 

About Sky Studios

Sky Studios brings to screen unique stories from the very best talent in Europe.

We develop, produce and fund original drama, comedy and documentary for Sky’s 24m customers and beyond. Building on the success of critically-acclaimed Sky Originals including Emmy-winning Chernobyl, Bafta-winning Patrick Melrose and international hits Das Boot, Riviera and Britannia, Sky Studios is the new creative home of Sky Originals, such as The Third Day with Jude Law, I Hate Suzie, co-created by Lucy Prebble and Billie Piper and BAFTA-nominated hit comedy, Brassic.

We’re an agile Studio, seeking out the best untold stories from new voices while working in creative partnership with today’s best writers, producers and on-screen talent to bring viewers stories they wouldn’t find anywhere else.

With commissioning talent and production capability across the UK, Germany and Italy, we understand local tastes across Europe better than anyone else and have plans to more than double our investment in original content by 2024, fully supported and backed by Comcast NBCUniversal.

We’re also developing a new TV and movie studio, Sky Studios Elstree, which is expected to lead to the creation of over 2,000 new jobs and generate an additional £3 billion of production investment in the UK creative sector in the first five years alone.

Sky Studios invests in the cultural economy and global production sector with equity stakes in several production companies in the UK and the US, including Great British Bake-Off creator Love Productions, and the premier reality crime producer in the US, Jupiter Entertainment, creator of long-running hit Snapped. Sky Studios has invested in high quality factual specialists Blast! Films, True North Productions, and Transistor Films; natural history producer True to Nature; drama producers The Lighthouse and Longboat Pictures; and growth businesses Sugar Films, Chrysalis Vision, and Talos Films (US).

Sky Studios launched in June 2019. The senior leadership team is Chief Executive Officer, Cécile Frot-Coutaz, Chief Content Officer Jane Millichip, Chief Operating Officer Caroline Cooper, Director of Commissioning, Drama Gabriel Silver, Director of Comedy UK Jon Mountague, Director Original Production Sky Studios Italia Nils Hartmann, and Director Original Productions Sky Studios Deutschland Marcus Ammon.