HBO Europe hires drama exec

HBO’s European production group has hired its first London-based executive, who will work on its growing drama output.

Steve Matthews is joining HBO Europe as executive producer, drama development at the HBO Europe Original Productions unit.

He will be based in London, but work with HBO Europe production bases in Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Romania, supporting local creative teams on original series and miniseries development as well as international format adaptations.

HBO Europe moved into original development last year with the announcement of Wataha, a drama set on the Polish-Ukrainian border, but has produced a number of series based on formats such as Israel’s In Treatment.

Matthews most recently worked with Octagon Films in Dublin on RTE gangster drama Love/Hate and was a consulting producer on all three seasons on the Jeremy Irons period drama The Borgias (pictured).

He has also script-edited the BBC’s Silent Witness and co-created Urban Gothic, which went out on UK terrestrial Channel 5. He was also head of development for Golden Square Pictures and Portman Productions.

“Steve brings over 20 years of development and production experience across multiple drama genres which I believe will be invaluable as we expand our output at HBO Europe,” said HBO Europe’s executive VP, original programming and production Antony Root.

HBO Europe is the eastern Europe-based production and channels arm of US premium cable provider HBO.

Read an in-depth interview with Antony Root in the upcoming TBI August/September magazine