Juliet Blake is a British-American film, television and web producer. She is Head of Television for TED Talks.[1] [2] Blake executive produced the TED Talks Live TV series for PBS and produces TED Talks India Nayi Soch a TV series on Star Plus in India produced in Hindi, hosted by Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan.[3] In June 2018 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Savannah College of Art & Design.[4]
Blake began her career developing successful TV franchises for a variety of networks and production companies in the US and the UK, including the BBC1 series Beast.[5]
In 2000, Blake was promoted to executive vice-president and co-head of Jim Henson Television, where she was responsible for all aspects of the company's worldwide television operations,[6] including global oversight of the Muppet franchise. She developed and produced the Muppets' first TV-movie It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie.[7]
While working for Henson, Blake oversaw the science-fiction series Farscape, a top-rated show [8] which ran from 1999 to 2003 [9] on the Sci Fi network, joining the show as executive producer in season 3 and working on its final 33 episodes.[10] [11]
Blake became senior vice-president of production at the National Geographic Channel in 2006, overseeing the development and production of National Geographic Television, the channel's in-house production company.[12] During her tenure at National Geographic, she oversaw a budget of over $40 million[13] and was responsible for the production of numerous series, including the NGC's multi-Emmy award winning program Explorer, the longest-running documentary series on cable TV,[14] and Border Wars, a critically acclaimed series on illegal immigration that ran for five seasons.[11]
Blake produced TED Talks Education (hosted by John Legend) for TED and PBS.[1] She produced The Hundred Foot Journey, a film starring Helen Mirren and Om Puri, shot in France and India, and directed by Lasse Hallstrom with producing partners Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey.[15] [16]
Blake also developed feature films for Arnie Messer and Mike Medavoy's Phoenix Pictures,[17] including the thriller Blood Relatives.[18]
Blake is married to Mark Shepherd. They live in Austin and have two daughters: Sophie, a web designer for GitHub and Lily, the CEO of The Double Wild Plant Company.[13]