With over 500 members across Europe, IADAS is the member body of Internet visionaries who devote their time to reviewing all Lovie submissions, and carefully select the very best work created for the Internet each year. As the Internet grows and evolves, so does IADAS, and we’re proud to welcome a range of new judges this year.
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The new judges for the 10th Annual Lovie Awards
Fearne Cotton, Host, Happy Place Podcast
Fearne Cotton is one of the best known and most popular TV and radio personalities in the UK and most recently known as the Founder of the wellbeing brand, Happy Place. The brand was created from her first book released in 2017, Happy, which was a Sunday Times Bestseller. This was the first in a series of books talking about her own, and some of the not so positive, experiences with happiness. This was also the premise for her podcast. Happy Place launched in 2018, featuring an array of A-lists guests such as Ellie Golding, Hilary Rodham Clinton, Russell Brand, Gary Barlow, Rub Wax, and Elizabeth Gilbert amongst others. To date, the podcast has had over 20 million downloads and continues to top the charts. 2019 saw a further extension of the brand into the live space, with over 10,000 people attending two Happy Place Festivals, one in the north and one in the south of England.
Fearne is a mother of two and closely supports a range of charities – most notably mental health charity Mind, Coppafeel! and The Prince’s Trust, the latter of which she launched a fun new fundraising campaign to boost the mental wellbeing of young people in the UK, ‘The Great Create.”
You can follow her at @Fearnecotton.
Markus Villig, Founder & CEO, Bolt
Markus Villig is the founder and CEO of Bolt (formerly Taxify), the Europe-based on-demand transportation platform focused on making urban travel easier, quicker and more reliable.
Villig teamed up with his brother Martin to build the first version of Bolt in 2013 when he was 19 years old. He has been featured as the youngest tech CEO in Forbes’s Europe 30 Under 30 list, and is the youngest founder of a billion-dollar company in Europe.
Follow him at @villigm.
Ashley Walters, Actor, Producer & Musician
Ashley Walters is the star of the critically-acclaimed Netflix series Top Boy, where he portrays the lead, Dushane. He also stars in the Sky 1 series Bulletproof, which he co-created with actor and director Noel Clarke. Throughout his career, Walters has worked with numerous well-known directors including The Wachowskis (Speed Racer), Danny Cannon (Goal!), and Jim Sheridan (Get Rich or Die Tryin’).
His gripping and powerful performance in Top Boy earned him a Lovie Best Actor Award in 2019. Check out our exclusive interview with Walters for The Lovie Letters, where he shares how the artist Drake told him over dinner about binge-watching Top Boy on YouTube.
You can follow him at @AshleyWalters82.
Jamie Morton, Co-Creator & Co-Host, My Dad Wrote A Porno
Jamie Morton is an award-winning British director, writer and podcaster. In 2015, he co-created the podcast My Dad Wrote A Porno after discovering his father had been secretly writing erotica in the garden shed. Proclaimed “a cultural phenomenon” by The Sunday Times, the show has amassed more than 250 million global downloads, won numerous awards and has been adapted into a best-selling book and a comedy special for HBO.
Follow him at @uncleegor. Also, if you haven’t yet, treat yourself to this podcast right away for a seriously good laugh.
Alice Levine, Co-Creator & Co-Host, My Dad Wrote A Porno
Alice Levine is the co-creator and co-host of the podcast “My Dad Wrote A Porno”.
With a career stretching across many genres, Levine’s experience across live TV, comedy and documentaries is an incredible addition to our roster of judges.
She has hosted the BRITS and BAFTAs, and has fronted flagship shows for major broadcasters, like The Circle for Channel 4 as well immersive documentaries such as Sleeping with the Far Right and Kevin McClouds Rough Guide To The Future.
She also appeared on shows such as Qi, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Taskmaster, Would I Lie To You, Room 101 and Travel Man.
You can follow her at @AliceLevine.
James Cooper, Co-Creator & Co-Host, My Dad Wrote A Porno
James Cooper is a BAFTA-nominated producer and writer and one of the co-hosts of the critically-acclaimed podcast My Dad Wrote A Porno. He’s worked on some of the UK’s biggest television shows including The X Factor (ITV), The Apprentice (BBC), An Idiot Abroad (Sky1) and The Voice UK (BBC), as well as shows and documentaries for Facebook, YouTube and VICE.
You can follow him at @coopdloop.
Evanna Lynch, Actress & Founder of KinderBeautyBox
Well-known for playing Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter movie series, actress Evanna Lynch expertly promotes vegan activism and environmental health across the Internet with her podcast The ChickPeeps Vegan Podcast, and through her cruelty-free subscription beauty box business, KinderBeautyBox.
Last year, Lynch received a Lovie Special Achievement Award for devoting her online presence to changing people’s perceptions of veganism, and for introducing vegan products into the often unethical world of skincare and beauty.
Check out our exclusive interview with Evanna in The Lovie Letters, created in partnership with Google, where she discusses the mission behind KinderBeautyBox and why the Internet is the driving force behind spreading her message.
George The Poet, creator of Have You Heard George’s Podcast?
George Mpanga, famously known as George The Poet, is a spoken word performer and the creator of the award-winning podcast Have You Heard George’s Podcast? His innovative style of musical poetry has won him critical acclaim both as a recording artist and a social commentator.
Last year, George won the Lovie Artist of the Year Award for brilliantly redefining what a podcast can be and for using the medium to shine a light on important cultural issues as a role model to his community.
Check out his podcast and follow him at @GeorgeThePoet.
Eben Upton, Creator, RaspberryPi
Eben Upton is the creator of Raspberry Pi and the Raspberry Pi Foundation, which help children and educators all over the world have access to computing and digital technologies — for which he won the 2019 Lovie Lifetime Achievement Award.
His pioneering work has paved the way for more people everywhere, regardless of circumstance or access, to have the opportunity to not only learn digital computing but to contribute their own technological advancements to society as well. The RaspberryPi is beloved for a reason.
Watch to learn more in our exclusive Lovie Letters interview.
Follow him at @EbenUpton.
Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC’s Technology Correspondent
Rory Cellan-Jones is one of the UK’s leading voices in the tech industry. He has been reporting on business and technology for more than 20 years, and has covered all the major events and characters of the smartphone era.
Follow him at @ruskin147 and be sure to listen to his BBC World News programme Tech Tent, the essential weekly guide to the latest news and trends from the technology world.
Deborah Frances-White, Comedian, Podcaster & Screenwriter
Deborah Frances-White is a stand-up comedian, podcaster, author, screenwriter and the co-creator and host of the hit Lovie-winning podcast The Guilty Feminist, and Global Pillage. You may also know her from BBC Radio 4’s Deborah Frances-White Rolls the Dice and GrownUpLand, as well as the film Say My Name, which she co-wrote.
You can follow her at @DeborahFW.
James Cator, UK/IE Head of Studio, Spotify
James Cator has always been involved in music and audio. He started out promoting events and DJing while still at school, going on to later run record labels and produce music.
He joined YouTube as Manager of Content Partnerships running music in the UK, where he managed relations with labels, artists and managers. After a short period leading a music start-up, Cator joined Spotify in 2015 to build its growing podcast business in the UK. He now oversees UK partnerships and Spotify Originals commissioning, while continuing to produce music.
You can follow him at @JamesCator.
Cheryl Brumley, Global Head of Audio, Financial Times
Cheryl Brumley is the Global Head of Audio at the Financial Times. Previously, she was a founding co-executive producer of The Intelligence, The Economist’s flagship daily podcast. Brumley was also a freelance reporter and producer for leading podcast and radio outlets including Public Radio International and the BBC World Service. She developed podcast features for the London School of Economics and is the co-author of a book on research communication.
You can follow her at @cherylbrumley.
Susie Warhurst, Senior Vice President of Content, ACast
As SVP of Content at ACast, Susie Warhurst and her global content team support the biggest podcasters and publishers across 10 markets around the world to develop and grow their global strategy.
A former public radio producer, she also created award-winning news and audio documentary features for both BBC Radio and WNYC, including The Takeaway.
You can follow her at @susiewarhurst.
Anushka Asthana, Editor at Large & Presenter, The Guardian’s Today in Focus Podcast
Anushka Asthana is the editor at large at The Guardian, and the presenter of its daily Lovie-winning podcast Today in Focus. She has covered numerous key political moments throughout her career, including the EU referendum and its dramatic fallout as well as leadership contests in both the Conservative and Labour parties in the UK.
Keep up with Asthana and her coverage on Twitter: @AnushkaAsthana.
Rachael Pollard, Chief Growth Officer, Starling Bank
Rachael Pollard is responsible for making Starling Bank famous by building and marketing its brand. As Chief Growth Officer, she oversees the marketing, creative and brand teams, obsessed with standing out from the banking crowd and building a loyal base of customers.
She joined Starling with 20 years of experience gained across a wide range of industries, working for brands such as Just Eat and Compare the Market.
Nina Bibby, Chief Marketing Officer, Telefónica UK
Nina Bibby brings invaluable expertise gathered over 21 years in the marketing industry to our panel of judges. As Chief Marketing Officer at Telefónica UK, she is responsible for the consumer and SMB mobile business, as well as all marketing across O2, including brand, marketing communications, data analytics, customer experience and devices.
Bibby is also a non-executive director of Barratt Developments, a fellow of The Marketing Society, sits on the Council of The Marketing Group of Great Britain and is a Trustee of Great Ormond Street Hospital.
You can follow her at @ninasbib.
Jason Phipps, Commissioning Editor, BBC Sounds
Jason Phipps is an award-winning podcast producer and a believer in the power of audio in the digital age. As the Commissioning Editor for BBC Sounds podcasts, he works with a team on podcast-first titles for the platform.
He was previously the Head of Audio at The Guardian.
You can follow him at @jasotweet.
Helen Zaltzman, Host & Producer, The Allusionist
Helen Zaltzman is the award-winning host and producer of the podcasts The Allusionist, Answer Me This and Veronica Mars Investigations. The Allusionist, an entertainment show about language, was the first show ever created for the prestigious Radiotopia collective.
Her interactive comedy show Answer Me This is one of Britain’s longest-running podcasts, starting in her living room in 2007.
Follow her at @HelenZaltzman.
Karma founders: Elsa Bernadotte, Mattis Larsson, Ludvig Berling and Hjalmar Ståhlberg Nordegren
The Karma team takes the power of the Internet paired with food even further by making it their mission to ensure no great food is wasted.
With Karma, Bernadotte, Larsson, Berling, and Nordegren not only raise awareness about a crucial problem, but they empower people to stop wasting food and to acquire good food for lower prices. Karma has saved hundreds of tonnes of food to date, showing people across Sweden, London, Paris and the greater world as a result what’s possible when the desire to do good for people and the environment is met with the power of the Internet.
For all of that, last year Karma received the Lovie Emerging Entrepreneur award. Here’s Karma’s 7 Words of Lovie speech, delivered by Nordegren during the ceremony.
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