Claire Tonkin.
Claire Tonkin has been appointed head of drama development at CJZ Group, starting January.
Tonkin has spent the last decade at Ten, working as a network drama executive. She was a network executive producer for Neighbours and helped to oversee the development and production of Offspring, Puberty Blues, Rush, The Wrong Girl, Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms, Underground – The Julian Assange Story, Hawke and Secrets & Lies.
Tonkin has won an AWGIE award for the short Button, and in 2009 received the Sir Peter Ustinov Television Scriptwriting Award from the International Emmy Foundation for her script Me & Mine.
Tonkin joins CJZ as it expands its work in the scripted space, with multiple series currently in funded development for local and overseas networks.
On CJZ’s slate at the moment is House of Bond for the Nine Network, starring Rachel Taylor, Adrienne Pickering, Sam Neill and Ben Mingay. It follows on from last year’s work on House of Hancock for Nine and the ABC's The Ex-PM.
The New Zealand arm of the group, Greenstone, has also produced Cul de Sac for TVNZ and are currently shooting a second series.
CEO Matt Campbell said the company was thrilled to welcome Tonkin.
“We have a diverse slate of fantastic scripted projects and it will be fabulous to have Claire on board to steer those and others through to production. There has never been a more exciting time to be producing drama, as our client base expands to multiple territories and the bar is set so high. We welcome Claire to the CJZ family,” he said.
Tonkin said that after “many wonderful years” working at TEN the time had come to embark on a new challenge.
“CJZ is a fantastic bunch of people who are rightly known for making bold, original and thought-provoking television. I’m delighted to be joining this clever and passionate team."