AD Guild’s Advisory Council (AC) is made up of elected ADG members and non-members from the wider Film & TV industry. Our Advisory Council members have extensive experience and expertise either as Assistant Directors or from their chosen fields of related work. The purpose of the AC is to contribute to the vision and strategy of the Guild and to provide input and advice which supports the goals and objectives of the Guild.
2nd Assistant Director
Jo Tew is a 2nd Assistant Director, working in film & drama, with over twenty years’ experience in the industry. Jo has been a member of the ADG Council since the start of its inception. During her time as a council member, she has enjoyed working on the development of the Guild, as it grows.
Jo is interested in education & training, developing outreach programmes, training and mentor opportunities for all members.
Jo also believes equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) within the industry is essential, and that the Guild can have a huge impact on enabling working environments, where every AD feels empowered to achieve their full potential.
1st Assistant Director
Paul Murphy has over twenty years’ experience as a 1st AD, working in features, HETV and commercials. In that time, he has worked with both Oscar and BAFTA-winning cast, directors and production companies, and some of the productions he has collaborated on have themselves won BAFTAs, a fact of which he is very proud.
A member of the ADG since its inception, Paul has been a member of the ADG Regional Committee and, as a father to three neurodiverse children with disabilities, is very interested in avenues for strengthening inclusion and accessibility for all disabled and neurodiverse people already working within our industry, and for those with ambitions to do so.
2023 saw Paul’s first foray into producing. ‘Partygate’, which was commissioned by and screened on Channel 4, was a success with both critics and audiences alike. It was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Director and won Best Single Drama at the Royal Television Society Awards.
Paul is currently looking to cement his nascent producing work with his AD career, seeking opportunities to both 1st and associate produce HETV productions, to help strengthen & solidify his producing experience, as he continues to build his list of feature & HETV 1st AD credits.
Co- founder of Leading Ladies (Female AD organisation)
Ellicia is a working 1st Assistant Director with over a decade in the industry, from shooting Christmas campaigns for M&S in the midst of summer and secret tech launches for Google, to a Sam Fender video that ended up on the A Level Media Studies syllabus and internet-breaking project for Stormzy. She loves the organised chaos of a film set and, most importantly, the people who make it happen.
After spending much of her early career as one of very few women on set, let alone in the AD department, Ellicia co-founded Leading Ladies: a community for women in film and TV to skill share, recommend each other for jobs, ask the questions they might not elsewhere and have a good time while doing it. It now has over 350 members, with every event selling out within days.
Building it sparked bigger questions about the industry we all love. Having never been to university, she went on to complete a Master’s at NFTS, researching a question she kept coming back to… we spend years getting good at our jobs, but when we step up and become responsible for leading people, who teaches us how? She has since been working on a leadership model specifically tailored to the unique environment of being on set.
Ellicia would bring to the ADG a perspective still firmly on the floor, an ear to the next generation and a desire to connect them with the enormous experience already within the Guild. She wants to help build an industry people want to stay in and remind us why we chose this slightly mad career in the first place.
1st Assistant Director
Over the last 15 years Jez has meticulously made his way through the AD department in HETV and features to become 1st AD, and has worked for the likes of BBC, ITV, Mammoth Screen, Netflix, Searchlight and Disney, to name but a few.
Jez has been the Co-Chair of the Education and Training committee for the ADG since its foundation, helping to ensure excellence in the training of UK ADs and maintaining the high standards for which our ADs are regarded worldwide. He is also a contributor and external tutor at the National Film and Television School.
Emmy Brown
2nd Assistant Director
Emmy Brown is in her 9th year in the industry and has worked up from Floor Runner to 2nd AD, working on Band 2 budget productions.
In the past few years, Emmy has worked as 1st AD on second units, short films and indie features, as well as a chaperone, on the side; staying busy and working hard.
In between all her work, Emmy is also an active member of the ADG and is an advocate for new entries into the industry, as she found the support of experienced colleagues a huge asset to starting her career and would like to pass this onto others.
Emmy’s ambitions include becoming 1st AD and, some day, directing her own film.
1st Assistant Director, AD Guild Director
Richard has been actively involved with the AD Guild as a Council member and company director since its inception in 2020. Before this, he enjoyed a 25-year career as a 1st Assistant Director on a wide variety of commercials, film and HETV productions with directors such as Stephen Poliakoff, Beeban Kidron and Taylor Hackford.
Richard is a passionate advocate for the AD Guild and keen to advise and support the next chapter of its development with colleagues on the Advisory Council. He is keen to encourage the provision of more training and services for our Guild membership and to drive wider recognition and respect of the Assistant Directors’ craft and critical role in our industry.
Head of Industry Relations, Directors UK
Paul is the Head of Industry Relations for Directors UK. He has previously spent more than a decade working at Bectu, including five years as the Assistant National Secretary overseeing the London Production Division of the union which negotiated the Bectu/Pact agreements. In this role he helped to establish the AD Branch, and helped in the discussions that resulted in the founding of the ADG and the AD grading scheme itself. His final years at Bectu were spent as the union’s freelance researcher.
Prior to joining Bectu, Paul’s film industry-related work included four years as a researcher in the European Parliament, specialising in film and TV global trade for a Labour MEP. Other working roles have included being a founder and director of a software company, freelance work advising on media matters and organising policy conferences, and a period working as the Advertising Manager at The New Statesman.
Crew Development Manager | Liverpool Film Office
Helen Morgan spent 16 years working in the film and TV industry as an Assistant Director working her way up through the ranks from Runner to First Assistant across a wide range of production types, including Feature Films, High End TV, serial drama and Children’s TV.
Helen was a member of the AD Guild from its inception and took an active part in both the Equality and Diversity and Regional Committees. In 2023, Helen took an industry side-step and joined the Liverpool Film Office as Crew Development Manager. Helen’s role in the film office is to promote and advocate for local film and TV crew and deliver the Liverpool City Region Screen Workforce strategy.
Helen supports productions filming in the region to crew with local behind-the-scenes talent and manages the BFI-funded skills cluster activity with Screen Alliance North. Helen works across a variety of national projects with industry agencies including BAFTA, BFI, The Film and TV Charity, Production Guild UK, Bectu and BFC, as well as with numerous regional and national training providers.
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