Wyles Daniel
Laura Blackburn didn’t grow up dreaming of spreadsheets, call sheets, and payroll. She grew up riding her bike past Bray Studios in a small village outside Windsor, England — the town with the castle and the Queen — hoping security guards would let her sneak a look at whatever was being filmed inside the old gothic mansion made famous by Hammer horror movies. Sometimes they did. That was all it took.
By sixteen, she was gaining work experience at Pinewood, Shepperton, and Teddington studios during every school holiday, taking any gig a production company would offer. After graduating from Southampton Solent University with a degree in Design, Communication and Advertising, she landed at Sky TV UK where she scheduled crews across 24/7 live news and sports coverage — an ever-moving target that taught her logistics, pressure management, and the fine art of remembering who works well with whom. The real adventure kicked in when she coordinated the 2007 West Indies Cricket World Cup, then spent four years with Sky’s Premier League and Champions League departments covering up to twelve matches a week before helping coordinate the 2012 London Olympics for NBC.
After the Olympics she pivoted into entertainment — award shows, red carpets, hidden-camera formats, shiny-floor quiz shows, travel cookery series and a string of reality hits including Four in a Bed, Geordie Shore, Ladies of London and Saturday Kitchen Live. In 2018, Studio Lambert offered her a ticket to Los Angeles to reboot Undercover Boss for CBS, and she grabbed it with both hands. Two seasons later — one of them filmed through a pandemic — the show’s premiere episode still holds the record as the highest-rated and most-watched single episode of the 2010s on American television.
Next came a two-year documentary series for National Geographic, The Biggest Littlest Farm, set on 200 acres of biodynamic farmland in Ventura County. Then she flew to North Carolina for Beast Games Season 2, where her team built “The City” from scratch in weeks and delivered a show that instantly became the number one streamed series. Today she’s back in LA, line-producing a brand-new reality show for Hulu with an all-female executive team.
What finally brought you to the Golden State?
A combination of things. After years of producing content for all the major UK channels, I fancied a change from the constant rain of London, and when the opportunity from Studio Lambert came knocking to up sticks and move my life across an ocean, I jumped at the chance! Taking the reins on Undercover Boss, a show I had always wanted to work on, was daunting, but I loved every minute. With multiple teams filming around the country, working incognito and battling against a pandemic on the second season, it was a challenge — but being able to reward and give back to hard-working people was a memory I’ll always cherish. My family first visited friends in LA in 1989, and even as a child, I thought it was a special place. And the sunshine definitely helps, as well as being able to buy proper-size Diet Coke!
So what does a Line Producer actually do?
It changes between shows and genres, but essentially, I’m in charge of all aspects of the production’s needs. If the crew needs to be in Atlanta tomorrow morning and they’re currently in LA, I’m working my magic in the background — sorting flights, rental cars, lodgings, constantly reworking schedules to maximize the team’s time together. I work alongside the creative team to find balance in the budget alongside the aesthetic vision, as well as all the boring stuff like payroll and accounts!
What’s the best part of your job?
I love the creative nature of the industry and bringing my own people skills and business acumen to the table. I really enjoy collaborating with a wide variety of people and giving people their first chances in the industry and watching their careers soar.
Beast Games sounds like an incredible experience. What was that like?
We created “The City” from scratch in a matter of weeks, designed and built challenges around the world and employed hundreds of crew members. I’m so proud of the Beast Games team — we worked around the clock, battling against the elements of the North Carolina summer, but we pulled off something extraordinary and made friends for life along the way.
Any hidden talents?
I went back to school for a makeup course where I learned special effects makeup and prosthetics! A really challenging but rewarding course that I still look back on fondly — and hey, if the line producing ever ends, I’ve got a great talent to fall back on.
What’s next for you?
I’m currently working on a new reality TV show for Hulu based right here in Los Angeles with an all-female exec team, and I’m looking forward to everyone seeing what we’ve created!