Hot Shots 2026: Chris Richmond

Bowled Over Media creative director Heidi Gomes was doing a favour for a friend when she spoke to Chris Richmand over Zoom about working in TV, happy to give the primary school teacher some general pointers. Half an hour later, she was ready to give him a job; four years on, he’s a producer.

“Chris was so engaging, funny and full of ideas,” says Gomes. “I knew he would be amazing with contributors – and I wasn’t wrong.”

Despite initially knowing nothing about casting, schedules, filming or any industry jargon, Chris made the jump from junior researcher to researcher in the first series of Bowled Over’s C4 series Narrow Escapes, rising to producer on series three. Between series, he took a runner’s job on The Apprentice and has since worked on the Fremantle show as an assistant producer.

“There was nothing junior about Chris – he was a very quick learner,” says Gomes. “He was keen to learn how to operate a camera, so he spent his weekends with our post prod exec, who is also an excellent cameraman. He learnt to edit our social media reels, he was casting, and he was writing biographies.”

Chris has produced and shot four shows overseas and is now learning to direct.

“There is literally nothing Chris can’t do when he turns his hand to it,” says Gomes. “He is funny, engaging and kind, and that enables us to make the best shows with warm content born from kindness and empathy. He gets better with every show and he will go on to great things.”

That ‘warm content’ includes C5’s Blenheim Palace: Behind the Grandeur and a number of seasonal specials including ITV’s A Warwick Castle Christmas, C4’s Santaland: the Countdown to Christmas, and two upcoming festive singles.

Gomes also highlights Chris’s hope to realise his passion project: drawing on his own experiences with a documentary about alopecia in young men.