Tessa Sarah Ross CBE (born 1961) is a UK film executive. She became the Controller of Film and Drama at Channel 4 in 2000 and was head of Film4 from 2002 to 2014.[1][2][3] Ross was appointed to the Board of the Royal National Theatre in 2011, and Chief Executive in 2014.[1][4] She resigned in April 2015, citing concerns over the new leadership structure, but remained working with the National Theatre as a consultant.[5] Ross received the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award and was named as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman's Hour in 2013.[4][6] Ross is an honorary fellow of the National Film and Television School.[7]
Ross was born in 1961 in London. She attended Westminster School, and graduated from Somerville College, Oxford, where she majored in oriental studies, in 1980.[6][8] In 1986, she became a literary agent and in 1988 a script editor at BBC Scotland. She was appointed Head of Development at British Screen in 1990, and in 1993 head of drama for the BBC independent commissioning group.[9][10]
Ross has been the executive producer of a number of notable UK-financed films including; Billy Elliot (2000), The Last King of Scotland (2006), This Is England (2006), Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), Hunger (2008), Four Lions (2010), The Iron Lady (2011), 12 Years a Slave (2013), and Carol (2015). In the 2010 New Year Honours, she was awarded the CBE for services to broadcasting.[1]
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