In the latest episode of the State of the Arts podcast (@sotapod), filmmaker and writer Des Doyle sits down with executive producer, director and writer Neasa Hardiman to discuss her expansive career across feature film and television, and her transition to working on large-scale, big-budget streamer projects.
Produced in partnership with Film Ireland and supported by Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland through the Screen Stakeholders Funding Scheme, the State of the Arts series explores the creative processes, industry challenges, and new opportunities that both Irish and international creatives face in today’s ever-evolving artistic landscapes.
In this conversation, Neasa reflects on her journey honing her craft, developing her debut feature, and stepping into directing on a major Netflix project. She and Des also pay tribute to Rob Reiner, discussing the lasting legacy of his work and its influence on contemporary storytelling. Drawing on her unique experience working across the Atlantic, Neasa shares insight into navigating the industry between Ireland and the US, and the creative advantages - and opportunities - of operating in both worlds.
Listen to this podcast now on Apple, Spotify, Soundcloud, Amazon, Deezer or wherever you get your podcasts here.
Dr Neasa Hardiman
A BAFTA-winning Executive Producer, Director, and Writer who has worked across the world on high-budget prestige global content, Neasa began her career with a PhD in Film Theory from Trinity College Dublin, after winning a Double First and a scholarship to the Universität der Künste Berlin. Her strong cinematic sensibility quickly led her to international prominence as a sought-after director making emotionally powerful and visually stunning work, reaching audiences across the world. Neasa was awarded an IFTA in 2016 and a BAFTA in 2010 and in 2017, amongst other prizes. Her feature film Sea Fever premiered in the Discovery strand on the opening night of TIFF 2019. A fluent English, German, Irish and French speaker, Neasa is a voting member of the DGA, the WGA and BAFTA. Neasa is closely engaged with emerging technologies, exploring the implications and opportunities of Generative AI for future content creation and disruptive business models. She sits on the Board of Ireland’s national broadcaster RTÉ, as well as on the Board of Ireland’s most prestigious university, Trinity College Dublin.
Neasa has worked in television across a range of major series, including Untamed (Netflix), We Were the Lucky Ones(Hulu/Disney+), Z: The Beginning of Everything (Amazon), The Power (Amazon), Inhumans (ABC), and Jessica Jones(Marvel/Netflix), where she directed the entire series finale.
Des Doyle
Des is a D.I.T. graduate who spent fifteen years working in the Camera Department in the Irish film industry before moving into directing. He is the writer/director of the critically acclaimed feature documentary Showrunners: The Art of Running a TV Show, featuring JJ Abrams (Alias, Lost, Fringe), Robert and Michelle King (The Good Wife), Ronald D. Moore (Outlander, Battlestar Galactica) and Bill Prady (The Big Bang Theory) amongst others.
He has created a number of courses in conjunction with Screen Ireland over the last few years, which provide breakdowns of all the major US and international streaming networks and what their evolving programming needs may be. He also initiated the Pitching Programme for TV Drama and Comedy with Screen Ireland, giving a selected group of writers the opportunity to pitch directly to some of the major Irish production companies based on briefs they provide, and created the LA Writers Room Placements scheme, which allowed Irish writers to travel to LA and spend time in real-world US TV series writers’ rooms.
He has also lectured on Showrunning, US TV Production and the Future of Content at USC Los Angeles, Rowan University Philadelphia, Scriptmakers Berlin, APIT TV Producers Conference Lisbon, Northern Ireland Screen, IADT Dublin, Writers Guild of Ireland and as part of the recent Greenlight Screenwriting Labs in Galway. He is currently developing a new documentary series, which is a US/Irish co-production, as well as providing creative consultancy services to Irish producers, writers and directors with projects targeting the US or global streaming markets.
He is also the co-founder of Destination TV along with Ciarán Donnelly, a creative skills live events company that recently brought Oscar and Emmy-nominated writer/director/showrunner Jonathan Nolan to Dublin for a masterclass.
