Hot Shots 2026: Daisy Gilbert

Daisy Gilbert came to TV with a background in theatre, including a sellout Edinburgh Fringe run of a play she wrote.

Entering the industry as an intern at eOne Features, Daisy so impressed president of production Xavier Marchand that when he set up his indie Moonriver in 2016, she was his first hire.

Joining as an assistant, she scored an associate producer credit on feature film Mrs Harris Goes to Paris before steering the development of Jules Verne-inspired ten-part drama Nautilus with showrunner James Dormer and taking the helm of its Queensland set when Marchand returned to England during the 200-day shoot.

“Thrown in at the deep end, Daisy showed leadership well beyond her experience level,” says senior executive producer Casey Herbert.

“She won the trust of the crew, creative team and studio executives, and despite being relatively young at the time, proved herself to be as gifted an on-set producer as she was a development chief. If this is just the first decade, I can’t wait to watch where she goes from here.”

Daisy then became lead producer on Soapbox Pictures’ BBC/ABC co-pro Dustfall where she demonstrated her delicate handling of its themes of trauma and sexual assault.

Soapbox founder Deborah Balderstone was impressed by Daisy’s straddling of the creative and business sides of production.

“Daisy is one of the rare people in life you can completely trust to get things done,” Balderstone says. “She was deeply involved in the weeds from the project’s inception through to delivery and is willing and able to manage difficult situations when they arise.”

Daisy is also, Balderstone says, “incredibly kind, empathetic and fun – and never ego-driven”.

She adds: “What Daisy has already achieved at her age feels extraordinary, and I have absolutely no doubt she is going to become one of the great producers of her generation.”