Zai Bennett

CEO and Chief Creative Officer, BBC Studios Productions

Zai Bennett leads BBC Studios Productions as CEO and Chief Creative Officer, overseeing the UK’s most awarded production company and one of the world’s foremost creators of premium content. His team is tasked with building high-value IP for the company and overseeing it from production to screen and through to distribution.

Since joining in November 2024, Zai has brought a bold, creative-first vision to a global portfolio spanning Scripted, Unscripted, Global Productions, Kids & Family, and Audio - driving innovation across both UK and international markets.

Under his leadership, BBC Studios Productions continues to deliver genre-defining hits and record-breaking successes including Death Valley, which launched with the biggest overnight audience for a new scripted comedy in 5 years across all UK channels, the Natural History Unit’s The Americas, made for NBC and narrated by Tom Hanks, became the most-watched natural history show on US linear TV in 15 years, and Baby Reindeer, from BBC Studios’ label Clerkenwell Films, which won six Emmy Awards.

Before BBC Studios, Zai was Managing Director of Content at Sky UK & Ireland, where he commissioned acclaimed titles like Chernobyl, Gangs of London, and Brassic, and launched Sky Documentaries and Sky Kids. Earlier in his career, he helped launch ITV2, ITV3, and ITV4, and as Controller of BBC Three, commissioned award-winning shows like People Just Do Nothing and Life and Death Row.