Who We Are

Neil Percival

Neil Percival is a Media Production lecturer, and former freelance factual producer/director, with 15 years experience in the TV industry. He started his career writing and directing corporate productions, commercials and sports broadcast programmes with filmNOVA in Newcastle, then moved to Salisbury working for human interest documentary specialists Touch Productions. From there he moved to London, working on factual productions for indies such as Lion, Leopard, Endemol and Hart Ryan, as well as broadcasters like the BBC, Granada and BBC Scotland. He moved back to Newcastle in 2005 and joined Northumbria University’s Media department in January 2007, where he is now Enterprise Director as well as overseeing several practical production and work placement modules. He also runs the online community www.tvfreelancers.org.uk which has over 6,000 members working as freelancers in the UK TV industry, has campaigned on issues of freelancers’ employment conditions and continues to research that subject.

Kavita Puri

Kavita Puri trained as an investigative broadcast journalist for four years, then went on to work for Channel 4 news on a range of national and international stories. Soon after leaving news to work as a researcher on her first documentary, Kavita won a place on Channel 4's prestigious training scheme propelling her irreversibly into film-making.

For the last seven years, Kavita describes her progress as that of a 'freelance gypsy'. As an Associate Producer for indies both abroad and all across the UK including Granada, Insight TV, Yipp! Films, True North, SMG and Chameleon, Kavita has worked on a variety of network documentaries and programmes for the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. She now runs her own production company, with both corporate and broadcast clients, and has recently begun to branch out into drama production. For more details about Kavita's work, please visit www.4medias.co.uk .

Abigail Archer

Abigail Archer comes from a festivals and events background. When not working to develop cultural provision in the region, she has been involved in supporting it through research and training. Prior to coming into post at North East Telly Net, Abigail was based in the Centre for Public Policy at Northumbria University where she contributed to research in the areas of Enterprise and Culture. Her research interests focus mostly on the areas where arts and culture meet business and she is also particularly interested in the role of Higher Education in regional development (economic or otherwise). Until recently, Abigail was working on a HEIF-funded ‘Cultural Coordination’ programme developing CPD training opportunities for the region’s creative industries as well as a HEFCE SDF-funded project about building ‘Partnerships in Enterprise’. She is very pleased to be a part of North East Telly Net’s relationship with Northumbria University.