PRH appoints Brown from BBC Studios as head of media rights

Penguin Random House UK has appointed Jenna Brown from BBC Studios as its head of media rights, a newly created role.

Brown will work across the company, focused on finding the best possible partners to develop PRH authors’ work into film, TV, radio or theatre productions. She starts this month and reports to Chantal Noel, group rights director.

Brown joins from BBC Studios, where she was strategy and business development manager, responsible for shaping the content strategy for investment and partnerships, implementing it across the organisation. Alongside her focus on analysing TV and digital market opportunities and trends, her role included reviewing and developing scripted projects into commercially viable propositions for TV. She was also a lead on BBC Studios’ new talent workstream, developing a new approach to identifying and attracting talent. She previously worked for BBC Television and Channel 4.

Noel said: “At a time when the demand for creative content has never been higher, one of our strategic priorities has been to look at how we can deliver more licensing opportunities for our books, specifically in the media and entertainment space. So I’m delighted to welcome Jenna into this exciting new role and thrilled that we’ll be able to draw on her expertise from across the film and TV industry.

“With Jenna’s appointment, we will be able to represent our authors via a proven media professional who is also uniquely placed to work in a joined up way with our publishing teams in order maximise opportunities across our adult and children’s catalogue.”

Brown added: “I’m overjoyed to be joining the brilliant Penguin Random House, especially at a time when there is so much activity around optioning books. My aim is to find the very best homes for our authors’ works to be developed into world class screen and stage productions. I can’t wait to share the original, distinctive stories Penguin Random House has to offer with producers from around the world.”