Hot Shots 2025: Christien Bart-Gittens

Since making his first low-budget short films, Christien Bart-Gittens has been determined to avoid being pigeon-holed.

“It’s always been really important that while I’m black and therefore well placed to tell certain stories, I also have the range and intent to tell diverse stories from perspectives we rarely see in the UK,” he says.

In just a few years, he has made BFI-funded shorts, Idiomatic (a comedy short that screened at Tribeca) and a string of high-profile scripted TV shows. As well as clocking up an assistant producer credit on Alan Carr’s ITV comedy Changing Ends, Bart-Gittens honed his skills as a shadow producer on series two of Sky sci-fi thriller The Lazarus Project. He clearly made a mark on that show’s creator, Joe Barton, as he was brought in as an AP on the writer’s latest Sky project – 18th-century period drama Amadeus.

Bart-Gittens stepped up to producer for episode four, with executive producer John Griffin noting that he took the lead from prep through to the end of the shoot with “precision and strong leadership”.

Griffin says Bart-Gittens represents the next generation of producers who will take UK drama to new heights. “He’s sharp, creatively driven and able to operate at the highest level even under stress,” Griffin observes. “What sets Christien apart is his combination of editorial instinct, creative vision and production skills.”

Bart-Gittens also runs It’s Fine Productions, where his mission is to work with writers on projects that broaden the scope of who gets to be at the centre of the story, without compromising on ambition, quality or reach.