Media Parents

Media Parents TALENT, Richard Nash, in his own words…

"I'm a Producer/Director, Writer and Dad". Richard Nash can be found in the TALENT section of www.mediaparents.co.uk

I’m a Producer/Director, Writer and Dad.

My children, Nia (11) and Ivor (8), are used to me being away on shoots from time to time, but I spend as much time with them as I can. I am fortunate that my wife, archive producer Lisa Clayton-Jones, is able to work flexibly for parent-friendly companies like Blakeway, RAW, Out of Office Films and WAG.

I love the madly varied nature of being a freelance producer/director. In the past couple of years, I’ve made a Come Dine With Me featuring frozen rodents and a lorry boss with a sideline selling supersized knickers; a BBC investigation into Mexican human trafficking cartels in and around Juarez (a Mexican border city with the highest murder rate in the western hemisphere, although the Mayor looked oddly like former Countdown host Richard Whiteley); a teenage reality show next door to Hezbollah’s HQ in Beirut (topless sunbathing didn’t go down well); a Secret Millionaire about asylum seekers with an Iranian nightclub owner; a World’s Strictest Parents with Afro-American Baptist preachers; a BAFTA-winning children’s entertainment series in which Vince Cable sold vegetables and Ken Livingstone campaigned about toilets and a surrealist dating show in which I had to organize a fake mugging every Sunday for six weeks.  To quote Vinnie Jones, “It’s been emotional”.

World's Strictest Parents, Atlanta. Produced and Directed by Richard Nash.

Illustrator Miles Cole's caricature of Richard Nash.

I started out as a BBC Production Trainee in 1991 and went freelance in 1994, directing on the BBC2 cinema series Moving Pictures. I’ve had opportunities to move up the ladder, but I love making programmes – my dream is to direct something everybody talks about and remembers.

I write scripts of all kinds for everyone from British Pathe to the European Space Agency. A screenplay I co-wrote with Ronald Top is due to go into production in Holland soon and I’m represented by Louise Greenberg Books.  I’ve launched an internet comedy viral website (www.semitasking.com) and I’m developing it commercially with the help of a producer from Google.

You're invited to the Writers' Ink screenings on Wednesday 23rd March 2011.

The site wouldn’t have got off the ground without the help of Writers’ Ink, London (http://writers-ink-london.com/), an organization helping writers use new technology to promote their work.

I’d like to invite all members of Media Parents to a free Writers’ Ink Short Film and Networking Event this Wednesday  (23^rd) in Notting Hill.  It gets going at 7pm at The Portobello Lounge, 269 Portobello Road, Notting Hill, London, W11 1LR.  http://www.drawingroomlondon.com/ Please register (it’s free & quick) here : http://writers-ink-london.com/events/event-registration-2/

We’re showing six short films and the makers will all be there. Hope to see some of you there. Richard

Richard Nash can be found in the TALENT section of www.mediaparents.co.uk

www.mediaparents.co.uk for great talent, networking, jobs and information.