Hot Shots 2025: Xinlan Rose

A former safeguarding and employment lawyer with a journalism master’s from City University, Xinlan Rose has worked hard to establish herself in factual TV, on several films that have sparked a national conversation.

Among these was Channel 4’s Russell Brand: In Plain Sight exposé, on which she was an assistant producer, and ITV’s The Clinic, which looked into the Tavistock clinic’s work with gender dysphoric and trans children. Last year, she developed BBC’s The Search For Nicola Bulley, on which she gained access to Bulley’s family and the police involved in the case. She also assisted in a smooth and solid delivery of Panorama doc Paying More For Less: Councils In Crisis.

Rose has already made her mark in the industry in the director category as one of the top 25 finalists for the Netflix Documentary Talent Fund and as a TV Foundation Visionary.

This year, she looks set to build on an already impressive track record as a finalist for C4’s First Cuts stand at Sheffield DocFest, and as producer of Rogan Productions’ three-part C4 series Free Nelson Mandela, for which she secured interviews with musicians, politicians and activists, and exclusive access to never-aired archive footage.

Rogan managing director Soleta Rogan says Rose has “taken to all of the editorial and emotional challenges of these sorts of films with care, conscientiousness and bravery and helped to elevate the projects”, adding: “Xinlan has been trusted to work across high-profile projects and has delivered at a consistently high level.”