Exclusive: Sky Drama exec joins Anne Mensah at Netflix

Sky Drama’s head of development Lindsay Salt has joined Anne Mensah’s scripted team at Netflix, TBI can reveal. 

Netflix has confirmed that Salt will join as a manager out of the London office, working under Mensah. She will begin the role in June.

Mensah, the former head of drama at Sky who boarded Netflix earlier this year, worked closely with Salt, who joined Sky Drama as head of development in February 2016.

The exec has been a rising star at the pay-TV broadcaster.

In her three years at Sky, Salt has overseen all development for original dramas across Sky One and Sky Atlantic, whose recent shows on air include Sister Pictures’ Chernobyl, Kudos’ Tin Star 2, Archery Pictures’ Riviera 2 and Neal Street and Vertigo’s Britannia.

Recently, she has been working alongside Sky drama boss Cameron Roach, who took over from Mensah back in February and has been building up in-house drama unit Sky Studios.

Prior to joining Sky, Salt spent eight years at Left Bank Pictures, working in development and production on shows including Strike Back (Sky One/Cinemax) and Wallander (BBC One/BBC America). She began her career at Talkback Thames.

Salt’s appointment at Netflix is another coup for the streaming giant, which has been very successful in poaching top execs from UK broadcasters in the past year.

As revealed by TBI, Netflix hired former Channel 4 commissioner Lucy Leveugle late last year to head its unscripted team, focused on EMEA. More recently, it appointed BAFTA and Grierson Award-nominated producer-director Jonny Taylor as part of its UK documentary team.

Over at Sky, the broadcaster continues to build out its drama team on the back of Mensah and Salt’s departures.

It has hired Paul Gilbert, former producer on Humans and Press, as executive producer. He will work alongside a team that includes EP Kara Manley, commissioning editor Liz Lewin, commissioning editor Gabriel Silver and EP Serena Thompson, who is focusing on development and is supported by development co-ordinators Yolanda Sithole and Hannah Campbell.