Monica Chadha, Edgar Wright, Scott Stuber, Elizabeth Karlsen and Laura Miele have been appointed to the British Film Institute
The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has appointed Monica Chadha, Edgar Wright, Scott Stuber, Elizabeth Karlsen and Laura Miele to the Board of the BFI Governors for a term of four years commencing on 09 May 2022 until 08 May 2026.
Monica Chadha
Monica is an experienced board advisor with over 25 years experience in the creative industries. She advises a number of organisations including the International Union of Cinemas (UNIC); British Association for Screen Entertainment (BASE); Digital Entertainment Group Europe (DEGE); and serves on the CMI President’s Advisory Council; the Bias in AI Research Group at Durham University; and the All Party Parliamentary Group for AI.
In 2018 Monica was appointed ambassador for Women on Boards and a ‘Super NED’. In 2019 she was one of the top 50 Women to Watch in the UK in the Female FTSE Board Report. She is also a long-term global coach for a multinational entertainment company; and a faculty member of the FT Board Director Programme.
Monica was previously CEO of MyMovies.Net Ltd, Vice Chair of Queen Mary University of London and Chair of Remuneration; Founder and Co-Chair of the Deloitte Higher Education Cyber Security Group; Chair of the British Independent Film Awards Advisory Board and the British Board of Film Classification Advisory Group; a member of the BAFTA Digital Communications Board and Non-Executive Director positions at British Video Association; Voddess Portal Ltd; and Obviously Creative Ltd. Early in her career Monica was Head of Operations for various film distributors and started out at Technicolor Distribution.
Elizabeth Karlsen
Elizabeth is an internationally renowned, award-winning producer, who co-founded the leading independent UK based production company Number 9 Films in 2002 with partner Stephen Woolley garnering 52 BAFTA nominations and wins and 20 Academy Award® nominations and wins.
In February 2019, Elizabeth and Stephen jointly received the highly prestigious and coveted BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema. She has produced some of the most celebrated independent films in the US and Europe including: Todd Haynes’s Carol (nominated for 6 Academy Awards®, 6 Golden Globe Awards and 9 BAFTA Awards) Mark Herman’s Little Voice (winner of a Golden Globe Award, nominated for 1 Academy Award®, 6 Golden Globe Awards and 6 BAFTA Awards) Neil Jordan’s The Crying Game (winner of an Academy Award®, a BAFTA Award and nominated for 6 Academy Awards®), Made In Dagenham (nominated for 3 BAFTA Awards) and Phyllis Nagy’s Mrs Harris (nominated for 12 Emmy® Awards, 3 Golden Globe Awards and a PGA Award) and Wash Westmoreland’s Colette (Nominated for 4 BIFA’s and an Independent Spirit Award), On Chesil Beach, written by Ian McEwan and directed by Dominic Cooke and Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth (nominated for 1 Academy Award® and winner of 3 European Film Awards).
Elizabeth’s latest features are Mothering Sunday, written by Alice Birch and directed by Eva Husson which premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival and Oliver Hermanus’s Living, scripted by Kazuo Ishiguro and on release later this year.
Laura Miele
Laura is a seasoned technology and media executive with 25+ years of leadership in development, marketing, commercial, and data/analytics in the operation and strategic guidance of interactive entertainment and is responsible for EA’s worldwide operational effectiveness and acceleration of long-term growth.
Laura is passionate about increasing the number of opportunities for women and underrepresented talent, leading EA’s efforts to advance representation across the company and its games. Laura founded the EA Women’s Ultimate Team Employee Resource Group to promote gender diversity and equality inside and outside the organization and and an inclusion framework as part of the game development process leading to EA SPORTS FIFA 16 being the first AAA sports title to integrate female players- four years before it became the industry standard.
Laura is amongst Fortune’s Most Powerful Women, AdAge’s “Women to Watch” list, San Francisco Business Times “Most Influential Women in Business,” and the Variety500, a member of Fast Company’s Impact Council, Advisory Board Member for The Game Awards, and served on the board of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
Scott Stuber
Scott oversees the development, production and acquisition of the Netflix film slate. Recent hits under Scott’s supervision include: Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, Academy Award winner Marriage Story, The Old Guard, Murder Mystery, Extraction, Bird Box, and three-time Academy Award winner Roma directed by Alfonso Cuarón.
Prior to Netflix, he founded and ran Bluegrass Films, which produced such hits as Ted, Central Intelligence, and Safe House. A former vice chairman of worldwide production at Universal Studios, he was responsible for films including A Beautiful Mind, 8 Mile, Meet the Parents and its follow-up films, plus both the Bourne and Fast and the Furious franchises.
Scott is on the board and active with a variety of organizations, including the Charlotte + Gwenyth Gray Foundation, Baby2Baby and Chrysalis.
Edgar Wright
Edgar Wright first gained worldwide recognition for his Three Flavours Cornetto film trilogy consisting of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End, each made with actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as well as producer Nira Park, all frequent collaborators. He worked with the same team while directing the late-1990s/early-2000s television series Spaced. Wright also co-wrote, produced and directed the 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Along with Joe Cornish and Steven Moffat, he co-wrote Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn in 2011.
Wright wrote and directed the 2017 action crime film Baby Driver, which went on to become a global box office hit, and in 2021 directed and co-wrote, with Krysty Wilson-Cairns, Last Night in Soho which starred Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, and Dame Diana Rigg in her final film role. 2021 also saw the release of Wright’s first documentary film, The Sparks Brothers, covering the entire 50-year legacy of Ron and Russell Mael of California pop band Sparks, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival that year.
Members of the BFI Board of Governors are not remunerated. These appointments have been made in accordance with the Cabinet Office’s Governance Code on Public Appointments. The appointments process is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Under the Code, any significant political activity undertaken by an appointee in the last five years must be declared. This is defined as including holding office, public speaking, making a recordable donation, or candidature for election.
Monica Chadha,Scott Stuber, Laura Miele & Edgar Wright, declared no political activity.
Elisabeth Karlsen declared being a Labour Party member and having campaigned for them during the 2019 election.