Hot Shots 2026: Nikkita Punia

“Nikkita Punia’s one of those producers who just gets how television works at a fundamental level,” says 24 Hours in Police Custody executive producer Jermaine Blake.

Nikkita was senior producer and edit producer on series six of The Garden’s fixed-rig Channel 4 series, managing a team over a year of story finding, development and coverage of cases while managing difficult police relationships and reacting to highly tricky and sensitive cases.

As the only producer on the ground for most of the year, she remained unflappable as she directed and produced coverage of one of Befordshire’s biggest rape and serious sexual assault cases, following the manhunts to the arrest and police interviews of seven suspects. Gaining access to one-on-one interviews with arrested and detained individuals, she earned the nickname ‘in-cell queen’.

“Working on a case involving the most vulnerable of victims, Nikkita led her team through harrowing material with maturity, safeguarding their wellbeing while maintaining strong editorial focus to help shape a resonant story,” says Blake.

On top of other fixed-rig shows Ambulance and Hospital, Nikkita played a central part in establishing Screendog’s C4 format The Jury: Murder Trial. Helping to set the look, feel and shape of the show and working with the drama and art team to ensure accurate reconstructions, Nikkita built contributor relationships, conducted master interviews, gallery-directed the rig and story produced the live re-enacted trial.

Other shows benefiting from Nikkita’s considered approach and multi-tasking skills include C4 single Is Covid Racist?, BBC1’s Our Dementia Choir Sings Again with Vicky McClure, Netflix’s I Am a Killer and Nat Geo’s Murder in the Skies: Who Downed MH17?.

“People trust Nikkita and they feel looked after,” says Blake. “She’s organised, smart, and thinks things through in real detail, which makes everyone’s job easier. There’s a real sophistication to the way she works, but she never makes a fuss about it. She listens, she considers, and she finds solutions that feel right for the story and for the people involved.”