Tim Haines-led Loud Minds hires Wall to Wall & Pioneer alums for unscripted development

L-R: Emma Parkin & Will Aslett

Loud Minds, the UK indie led by Walking With Dinosaurs creator Tim Haines, has appointed Wall to Wall exec Will Aslett and Pioneer Productions’ Emma Parkin to unscripted development roles.

Aslett becomes head of development for Loud Minds’ unscripted content, and is tasked with growing and managing its cross-genre programming slate.

He joins from Wall to Wall where he was showrunner on its four-part Netflix series Earthstorm. Before that he was SVP development at Cineflix Media, working across its specialist factual output in the UK, US and Canada, including Patrick Aryee’s Wild World for Sky.

Aslett was also part of the team that developed Coast for BBC Two Richard Hammond’s Journey to the Centre of the Planet for BBC One & Discovery. He has also held senior roles at Nutopia, Pioneer Productions, Impossible Pictures and the BBC.

Parkin, meanwhile, joins as development executive, reporting directly into Aslett. She comes to the company from Pioneer Productions, where she was assistant producer on a yet to be announced feature documentary.

Prior to that, her previous experience includes assistant producer on Dinosaurs With Stephen Fry for Channel 5 at Mentorn Media, senior researcher on Our Living World for Netflix at Wild Space Productions, and assistant producer on Limitless with Chris Hemsworth for National Geographic while working for Nutopia.

Loud Minds’ first major series, Surviving Earth, is currently in production with Universal Television Alternative Studio. The 8 x 60-minute series for NBC and Peacock tells the story of eight mass extinction moments throughout the Earth’s history.

“Will is a world class senior development executive and supremely skilled at helping to create and deliver the sort of epic, smart and engaging global factual content for which we are known. Emma, meanwhile, brings a valuable scientific background, a brilliantly inquiring and creative mind, plus a talent for managing large scale international shoots,” said Haines.

“Together, they make a formidable addition to our evolving business and are the perfect team to supercharge our slate, which in turn will ensure we can deliver on both our creative and growth ambitions.”