He / Him
Founder & CEO

Darren set up Top Hat in 2016 with a drive to produce brilliant films and work with the very best talent. Darren oversees company strategy and is executive producer across all Top Hat output and development concepts. Across his career, including over a decade as an Executive Producer and Commissioner at the BBC, Darren has directed, originated and executive produced multiple award-winning factual series and dramas.

She / Her
Head of Production

Arriving from Canada in 1984, Janet has worked with some of the UK’s leading independent production companies, budgeting, supervising and delivering over 600 hours of broadcast television in genres spanning documentaries, drama, comedy, factual entertainment, feature docs and current affairs.

She / Her

Director of Development

Kate has worked in factual television for 18 years. Prior to joining Top Hat, she ran development at Sandpaper Films and Lightbox where she developed premium and award-winning unscripted programming for broadcasters including Netflix, Discovery, Showtime, Channel 4 and the BBC. These include Investigating Diana (Discovery+ /Channel 4), Untouchable (BBC, Hulu), Cajun Navy (Discovery), Murder Mountain (Netflix) and War Child (Channel 4). Prior to her focus on development, she worked as a producer specialising in observational documentary. Her credits include the BAFTA nominated Scenes from a Teenage Killing and Keeping Britain Alive: The NHS in a Day.

She / Her
Director

Sophie makes sensitive and compassionate access led documentaries, an award-winning producer with over ten years' experience, her directorial debut Look Away, aired to critical acclaim and saw her nominated within the Emerging Talent category at the 2022 BAFTA Craft Awards and for Best Documentary at the Broadcast and Broadcast Digital Awards. She was selected as one of the BAFTA Breakthrough 2022/3 cohort, which highlights the next generation of British talent within the film and TV industry.

She/Her

Producer

With a background in journalism, Lauren has worked in factual television for over a decade. She has a track record in documentaries that draw on the recent past, combining untapped archive with the testimony of those at the heart of major political and cultural moments. Her work includes the BAFTA and Grierson nominated Thatcher: A Very British Revolution and a critically acclaimed series about New Labour for the BBC, and more recently, a six-part docuseries on the Vietnam War for Apple.