Hot Shots 2026: Kezia Sheard

One of Button Down’s first full-time hires, Kezia Sheard has had a hands-on immersion in every aspect of production and development since day one. Commissioners have remarked upon seeing someone lead pitches at such an early stage of their career.

Starting as a researcher, Kazia has risen with remarkable speed and now leads Button Down’s development slate and produces some of its most demanding commissions. Meanwhile, she’s helped shape the company’s digital strategy as part of its winning pitch to become one of the digital companies to benefit from the BBC Small Indie Fund.

Kezia’s first series format commission was E4 format Will You Marry Me?, where she demonstrated her sharp editorial instincts and commercial savvy in gaining access to Britain’s leading proposal planning agency.

She was edit producer and shooting assistant producer on the series, and produced its social media clips, which have amassed more than 13m views.

Kezia was also AP on BBC3’s Brickies and played a key part in securing More 4’s Steam Train Diaries, which doubled its slot average and immediately won a double recommission, enabling Button Down to employ a wealth of local talent in her native Yorkshire.

“Right from the start, Kezia stood out as a talented development producer with an excellent journalistic eye for intriguing and compelling stories and I very much enjoy our routines together,” says BBC Documentaries commissioning editor Anna Dickeson, who enjoyed seeing Kezia bag her first producer credit on BBC2 film Poison Water.

This was Button Down’s first premium feature documentary and Kezia drove it from pitch to greenlight, spending a year embedded at co-producer Keo Films and working closely with director Hannah Lowes from casting to the edit.

Kezia is now leading development on a second ambitious feature doc and has secured BBC funding off the back of her treatment.

“Kezia is a tenacious producer with a natural instinct for storytelling,” says Lowes. “Whatever she turned her hand to, she delivered. I would work with her again in a heartbeat.”