Hot Shots 2026: Katie Nicholas

Katie Nicholas’ career didn’t get off to the easiest start: four months in, Covid hit, her employer Knickerbockerglory paused production, and she was constrained to her bed for months with Covid. It was a major setback for Katie, who has faced misunderstanding from past employers about her moderate-to-severe dyslexia.

“I’m very high functioning with this condition and want to prove that it doesn’t hold you back from achieving the career you want, especially in TV,” she says.

Katie soon landed a development role at Cardiff Productions, working on the BBC’s We Are Black and British and Channel 4’s The Soldiers That Saved Britain, earning a historical consultant credit on the latter for responding to questions about it long after leaving the company.

Katie went on to join Lifted Entertainment, helping to win major commissions including Celebrity Sabotage, Nobody’s Fool, The Neighbourhood and single doc Adam Lambert: Out and Proud, and also landing an assistant producer credit on Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway.

Since then she’s worked on the development of Studio Lambert’s The Inheritance, where she found the show’s location, and Prime Video’s Fallout Shelter.

Studio Ramsay development consultant Lee McNicholas, who worked with Katie in his former role as Lifted creative director, admires her ability to wear multiple hats, from senior development producer to question writer, locations finder and games AP.

“Katie’s one of the most promising young development producers working in the UK today,” he says.

“She’s rare in the breadth of ideas she can develop, from shiny floor entertainment formats to hard hitting documentaries.

“Katie’s an ideas machine, she is incredibly resilient, and she goes out of her way to make those around her feel comfortable and supported, driven by a genuine love of TV and a desire to keep making great shows that can entertain us when the world seems a little murky.”