About Emma

Emma Whitlock has a degree in English Literature from Cambridge University and an MFA in Film Writing and Directing from Columbia University, New York. She is an award winning film maker and a Fulbright Scholar.

Guantanamo Guidebook

Following her degree, Emma spent two years living in New York where she worked for ABC and WGBH, returning to London in 1990.

Emma Whitlock started her British television career as a researcher on the late night chat show After Dark, where she was responsible for booking guests Kate Millett and Oliver Reed for their notorious showdown. Following this debut, she worked at the BBC in News and Current Affairs on Panorama, Correspondent and Here and Now, working under Steve Hewlett and Paul Woolwich.

Zero Hour: Sierre Leone

As a freelance producer/director, Emma Whitlock went on to direct numerous films for the BBC, ITV and Channel Four. The Mystery of the Black Death, commissioned by Dan Chambers as part of the Secrets of the Dead series, won a Cine Golden Eagle in 2003. Following this success Emma spent two years following the Metropolitan Police investigation into the 'torso boy' murder case. The resulting documentary series, Torso in the Thames, was nominated for an Indie award for Best Science Series. Of the many films that she has directed, Emma's personal favourite is Guantanamo Guidebook, a clever fusion of reality TV and current affairs. In this show, commissioned by Dorothy Byrne at Channel Four, members of the public are subjected to torture in a recreation of Guantanamo Bay. The film was nominated for an RTS award for Innovation in Television and described in the Observer as “Brilliant... important TV impeccably executed.”

Dirty Jobs

From 2006 to 2009 Emma Whitlock was an executive producer at Discovery Networks Europe where she was responsible for both specialist factual and factual entertainment series. She was involved in commissioning a raft of programmes including Zero Hour, Dirty Jobs with legendary goal keeper Peter Schmeichel and Industrial Junkie with Jonny Smith..

Since leaving Discovery Emma has worked as a freelance executive producer and series producer. In 2009 she was Series Editor of Genius of Britain, made by IWC Media and commissioned by David Glover at Channel Four. This five part series told the stories of Britain's greatest scientists through the eyes of their successors: Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins, David Attenborough and others tell us about the pioneering scientists who inspired them.

Emma is currently working as a series producer for BBC News and Current Affairs where she has recently produced How Facebook Changed the World, Mishal Husain's exploration of the technology behind the revolutions that have rocked the Arab world.

Emma Whitlock lives in North London with the writer Edward Fox and their two sons.

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