Helen is a BAFTA and Broadcast Award winning Series Director and Series Producer. With over 20 years TV experience, she’s as comfortable nurturing new talent as she is working with movie stars, filming on the streets of Wolverhampton or in the mountains of Tibet. She prides herself on telling compelling, human stories and bringing art and history to life with warmth and humour.

Helen has directed A list Hollywood talent including Andrew Garfield, Eva Longoria and Stanley Tucci and British household names such as Danny Dyer, Davina McCall, David Dimbleby and Lauren Laverne. She directed first-time presenters Dr Yasmin Khan and Sathnam Sanghera in series for which they won, or were nominated for, RTS and Grierson awards.

She’s filmed all over the world on everything from glossy Emmy-winning documentary series and BBC landmarks, to archive-filled history series and Arts documentaries.

SELECTED CREDITS

Director on the Danny Dyer episode of Who Do You Think You Are. It won the first ever BAFTA and Broadcast Award for the series.

‘The best WDYTYA ever’ – The Guardian

Director on the Andrew Garfield episode of Who Do You Think You Are

“They really should have given this an extra half an hour!”

– The Times

Series Director on The Mother and Baby Home Scandal for ITV. This two-part investigative series exposed the shocking practice of forced adoptions in England and included emotional reunions between two mothers in their eighties and their lost daughters.

“Enraging” – The Telegraph

Director on Searching for Mexico and Series Director on Searching For Spain for CNN, both fronted by Eva Longoria. Edit Producer on the Emmy-winning Searching For Italy, also for CNN, fronted by Stanley Tucci. All three series were beautifully crafted, glossy travelogues combining cookery, culture and history.

Series Director on Empire State of Mind for Channel 4. This provocative series was a deeply personal and emotional documentary fronted by Times journalist Sathnam Sanghera, in which he explored the legacy of the British Empire in modern Britain.

“Within moments I am crying onto my laptop” – The Guardian

“A thoughtful take on a very thorny topic” – The Telegraph

“Extremely powerful” -- The Sun

Development Series Producer and Director on the first ever BBC commission from China, a visually stunning, continent-spanning history of tea.

Helen Nixon