Biography
Chantal Rickards joined the British Academy of Film and TV Arts in LA as its first Chief Executive in April 2015. She runs the business administration for the membership organisation and oversees all its education and charitable work in California. BAFTA LA organises around 150 events a year including the renowned international BAFTA Britannia Awards, the global BAFTA Student Film Awards and the famous BAFTA LA Tea Parties which are a must for Hollywood A listers in awards season.
She has had a long career in TV production in the UK in both producing and directing shows for all the major British broadcasters – her TV credits include working with Sir David Frost for more than a decade on Through the Keyhole, a highly successful primetime tv format; Masterchef for the BBC, the long-running ITV lifestyle show, This Morning and the Michael Parkinson chat show. Chantal also produced Countdown, the longest running game show on Channel 4 which is still on air since the channel’s launch in 1982 and as well as running the Carlton Food Network and being a commissioner of lifestyle programming at the BBC for UKTV.
She has worked in both live and recorded television, in entertainment, documentaries and factual features. Prior to BAFTA, Chantal was Head of Branded Content at media agency MEC, part of the WPP behemoth who control around 40% of the world’s advertising; her role covered Europe, Middle East and the USA for brands including Citi Group, Chevron, Visa and Marriott, creating content in all shapes and sizes in TV and digital media.
She has a degree from University College, London and sat as a Trustee for the non-profit, The Suzy Lamplugh Trust, in the UK for three years before relocating to the USA. She was was also a ‘Titan of Industry’ for the The School for Creative Arts in London. She has been a frequent contributor to the British press on all aspects of the media as well as being an international spokesperson on branded content, delivering lectures from Sydney to Beirut and Cairo to Courchevel.
She has two children and divides her time between London and LA.
