Ian began his career working in production. His producing credits include THE WEEKEND, which won the Special Jury Prize at the Seattle Int. Film Festival, THE MISADVENTURES OF MARGARET, and the comedy feature film CONFETTI which was bought for worldwide distribution by Fox Searchlight at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006.

In the same year Ian joined The Agency to focus on representing film and TV writers and directors. Ian likes to work closely and collaboratively with his clients and takes a proactive approach to agenting; his experience in production has proved invaluable in terms of how he approaches his work. In his capacity as an agent Ian’s writer/director clients have garnered numerous awards – including an Outstanding Debut BAFTA, four BIFAs, a Sundance Audience Award, Two Berlinale Silver Bears, an Oscar nomination and an Oscar win. With a client list of established and new exciting talent the office continues to grow.

With the support of Creative England, Ian established Blue Bear Film and TV as The Agency’s client led in-house production office.

With a base in Manchester, Blue Bear develops projects across all genres and formats, including animation, with emerging and established writers and directors, creating high quality drama content for domestic and international film and television platforms. Blue Bear’s most recent features include IN FABRIC and FLUX GOURMET.

May Swaney is Blue Bear’s Head of Development. May has worked in production and development, as a creative producer and script editor, in the UK and abroad, for over 20 years on films including Chocolat, Gosford Park, Confetti and Nativity!