Ireland’s Fittest Family indie hires development head amid rebrand

Irish unscripted indie Animo TV Productions has rebranded itself as Allkind Media, adding former ShinAwil exec Rachael Kelly as head of development and new business as part of its changes.

The moves are part of the Ireland’s Fittest Family producer’s aim to exploit the recently introduced unscripted tax credit in Ireland to grow its international production pipeline.

In her capacity of leading new business, Kelly will have a specific focus on growing the company’s international productions footprint.

She will assume the role from next week, also tasked with growing Allkind’s slate, forging international partnerships and positioning the company for its next phase of expansion across factual and factual entertainment. She will work alongside head of production Ciara Bresnihan.

Kelly boasts more than two decades of development and production experience, having started her career in Ireland working with unscripted indies ShinAwil, Adare Productions and Vision Independent Productions, before moving to Australia where she was head of development at Outback Truckers outfit Prospero Productions, developing content for domestic and international audiences.

Allkind’s current slate includes long-running RTÉ format Ireland’s Fittest Family, which has sold all over the world, The Great House Revival, which has aired in the UK, US and Australia, upcoming RTÉ doc Turbulence: The Story of Ryanair and Help Me Buy A Home for Virgin Media One.

It is developing projects about the cost-of-living crisis, as well as a doc investigating a small town’s encounters with UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena).

Its formats Dinner with the Enemy has been sold by All3Media International to multiple territories, and The Salvage Squad, which is handled by Primitives, had its European premiere in Hungary last year. Both series were first made for Ireland’s Virgin Media Television.

Its latest series Swindlers, a three-part true crime doc for RTÉ distributed by TVF International, will launch on Netflix UK on 6 April.

Debbie Thornton, managing director of Allkind, said: “Production talent in Ireland is world class, and we are seeing more co-producing and co-financing opportunities in 2026. In a challenging commissioning landscape, we have seen an increasing demand for good quality English language content, and our work is selling well into the US and UK markets.”

Creative director Jean Devlin added: “We are proud to see our IP succeed in an increasingly changing broadcast landscape. The opportunities to create original formats are growing. With the new unscripted tax incentives and support from Screen Ireland our focus is on originating large scale formats that can be produced locally for a global audience.”