Chris Sussman has signed a first look deal with Banijay UK to develop original scripted projects with the group.

Previously Director of UK Scripted for Netflix and prior to that, Head of Scripted Comedy at BBC Studios, Chris has been involved with many of the UK’s most successful scripted comedy series in recent years including Fleabag, This Country, Catastrophe, Charlie Brooker’s Wipe, Man Vs Bee, Good Omens, Mum, People Just Do Nothing, Bad Education and more.

The deal struck with Banijay UK’s CEO Patrick Holland will see Chris partnering with appropriate labels within the UK group to produce new original scripted projects. This deal forms part of the recently announce £50m Banijay UK Growth Fund which enables the group to partner with high profile talent, as well as investing in new businesses and key talent, to supercharge growth.

Patrick Holland, CEO Banijay UK said; “Chris is an extraordinary creative with fantastic talent relationships so I can’t wait to work with him. The UK Growth Fund was set up to enable us to attract exciting names like Chris to business, so I’m delighted to be able to announce this deal.”

Chris Sussman added:

“I loved working with Patrick when he was Controller of BBC2 and am excited to see what else we can develop together. Nobody seems to be returning my phone calls now I’m not in commissioning anymore, but I’m sure that’s just a problem with my mobile network and it will all be sorted soon…”

During his time at Netflix (2019 – 2022), Chris executive produced scripted series including short form physical comedy series starring Rowan Atkinson, Man VS Bee, dark satirical series Black Mirror and drama series based on Harlan Coben novel, Stay Close, starring Cush Jumbo, Jimmy Nesbitt and Richard Armitage.

As Head of Scripted Comedy at BBC Studios (2016 – 2019) Chris oversaw a number of commercial and critically-acclaimed series, including Trying (Apple TV), This Country (BBC 3), Good Omens (Amazon/ BBC 2), Famalam (BBC 3), Inside No 9 (BBC 2), Upstart Crow (BBC2) and WIA (BBC 2).

Prior to this, as Commissioning Executive for BBC Comedy (2011-2016), Chris was responsible for award-winning commissions including Fleabag (BBC 3), People Just Do Nothing (BBC3), Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe (BBC2), Mum (BBC2), Motherland (BBC2), Cuckoo, Bad Education (BBC3), Rev (BBC2) and more.

Prior to working at the BBC, Chris spent almost ten years as an executive producer and producer on comedy and entertainment projects at a variety of UK production companies.

He has also written on a number of sketch shows, including The Peter Serafinowicz Show (BBC2, Objective Productions), Monkey Dust (BBC3, Talkback Thames), World’s Craziest Fools (BBC3, Rough Cut Television) and Man Stroke Woman (BBC, Talkback Thames), as well as writing three series of Radio 4 comedy House On Fire.