Noel Tovey named as MD, Sky Studios Elstree

Sky today announced that Noel Tovey has been appointed to the role of Managing Director at Sky Studios Elstree, Sky’s brand-new state of the art film and TV studio.

In this new role Tovey will take on overall responsibility for the management of Sky Studios Elstree as it becomes home to a range of productions from Sky and NBCUniversal when it opens later this year. With 13 sound stages across 27.5 acres, the new studio complex is set to attract £3bn of new production investment to the UK over the next five years alone, creating 2,000 new production jobs along the way. Earlier this week it was confirmed that Universal Pictures’ Wicked, starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, will be the first production to take up residence at Sky Studios Elstree.

Prior to joining Sky, Tovey held senior leadership roles at three of the UK’s world-leading studio facilities; Pinewood, Warner Bros Leavesden and Shepperton Studios. Most recently VP Sales at Leavesden, Tovey has over 30 years’ experience in the industry helping to develop Pinewood’s international expansion as well as overseeing operations and client services at Shepperton.

Caroline Cooper, COO Sky Studios, said, “Noel has a vast range of experience within the industry and a deep knowledge of what productions want and need. I am delighted he’s joined Sky to lead our brilliant and growing team as we prepare to launch Sky Studios Elstree, the UK’s newest studio, later this year.”

Noel Tovey, MD Sky Studios Elstree, says, “Sky have been making waves in the industry since first announcing Sky Studios Elstree back in 2019. The fresh perspective and ambition meant I could not pass up this opportunity. I look forward to working with the talented team already in place and officially open the doors soon.”

The broader senior leadership roles at Sky Studios Elstree also include the recently appointed Tom Avison as Director of Operations and Roger Ferrin as Director of Client Services.

Training ground for new talent

Alongside the ambition to become the world’s most sustainable film and TV studio, Sky Studios Elstree is also becoming a state-of-the-art training ground for talent and will work to develop the next generation of film and TV talent. Through Sky’s Content Academy, the Studio is currently recruiting school leavers or recent graduates to take up 12 new, year-long, fully-paid roles across its Client Services, Operations and Production Services teams.

In addition, a ground-breaking talent and training partnership was announced last week through Sky’s sister company, NBCUniversal in collaboration with The Mayor of London and Film London. The traineeships form part of the ‘Below-the-Line’ initiative and will give young Londoners from underrepresented communities the opportunity to work behind-the-camera on high-end NBCU productions, including Wicked.

If you’re interested in applying for existing roles at Sky Studios Elstree visit careers.sky.com.

Notes to Editors

Media Contact

Harrison.Kelly@sky.uk / Lucy.Blackmore@sky.uk

About Sky

Sky is Europe’s leading media and entertainment company and is proud to be part of Comcast Corporation. Across six countries, we connect our 23 million customers to the best entertainment, sports, news, arts and to our own award-winning original content. 

Following the launch of Sky Glass, we now offer customers our strongest ever line-up of products and services. As well as the new streaming TV with Sky inside and everything integrated, customers can enjoy the award-winning Sky Q with all your favourite channels and apps in one place, and with Sky Go you can now access an even better experience on your devices. Sky TV has new channels, new shows and new deals with Peacock, Paramount+ and more. Sky Mobile was voted Best Pay Monthly and Best Value Pay Monthly network by Uswitch, and with Sky Broadband we’re offering our fastest speeds yet.

Building on the success of Sky Originals like Chernobyl, Gangs of London and Brassic, we are doubling our investment in original content by 2024 through Sky Studios. 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. Sky News provides impartial and trustworthy journalism for free, Sky Arts is the UK’s only dedicated free-to-air arts channel making the arts accessible for everyone and Sky Sports, our leading sports broadcasting service, brings customers some of the biggest and best global sporting events from the Premier League to Formula 1 and everything in-between. Sky Cinema is the home of Sky Original films with brand new films launching every month alongside an unrivalled range of the latest cinema releases and on demand library.

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 and we’re proud to be a Principal Partner and Media Partner of COP26 – the UN Climate Change Conference. 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 set ambitious 2025 targets to continue to increase diversity and representation.  We’re also committed to investing £30million across our markets over the next three years to improve our approach to diversity and inclusion, and to tackle racial injustice.