User:Johnwatkin

John Watkin is a multi-Emmy winning producer and director based in Malibu, California. He co-founded Planet Grande Pictures with Eamon Harrington in 1993, where they have produced over 150 projects for television.

Early Life: Watkin grew up in England where he attended Whitgift School in Croydon, and graduated from Exeter University in 1979 with a combined honors degree in English and Drama. An accomplished rock guitarist, he began work as a session player in London, before becoming an award-winning radio commercials producer. He emigrated to New York in 1987.

New York: Arriving in New York without a visa, Watkin immediately applied to a local head-hunter, offering to work for any advertising agency in the city for free for one month. The proviso was, if they wanted to keep him, they would have to sponsor his visa. He was hired by Marty Greenhouse at Berenter Greenhouse and Webster, and after just two weeks, the agency agreed to keep him on, where he stayed for 2 years, winning awards for his work for Fox Channel 5 and Matchbox Toys. During that time, he began freelancing at MTV and VH1, where he was hired by Eamon Harrington to write a series of environmental spots for the Greenpeace "World Alerts" campaign. The campaign won numerous awards including a Peabody Award, and began his long-lasting partnership with Harrington. Together they produced a documentary about teenagers called "in Full Effect" which won a local Emmy and caught the attention of Oprah Winfrey's company Harpo Productions. This led to a documentary "Shades of a Single Protein" narrated by Winfrey, which won the Emmy for Best Children's special in 1993.

Planet Grande: Watkin and Harrington moved to Malibu, CA in 1993 where they founded Planet Grande Pictures. They won 2 more Emmys for their documentary "Positive: A Journey Into AIDS" in 1995, and around that time began a long lasting relationship with HBO. Projects included Sex Bytes, Freshman Year, the Universoul Circus, and the animated series Crashbox in which Watkin voiced over a dozen characters. In subsequent years, Watkin and Harrington have produced more than 150 projects for television, including the documentaries "Bond Girls Are Forever" with Maryam D'Abo, "Homecoming: Jimmy Carter in Plains", and "Inside Out: Juliette Lewis". They created the series "Small Town Secrets" for CMT, and produced "The Andy Griffith Show Reunion" for CBS. They have also enjoyed a long relationship with The Paley Center for Media (formerly The Museum of Television and Radio), producing a series of prime-time specials including "Breaking The News" about the great broadcast journalists of our time, "The Great Women of Television Comedy", and "A Day in the Life of Television" where they went behind the scenes of 15 different TV shows on the same day with over 40 crews. In 2009, Watkin and Harrington won their most recent Emmy, for their documentary on Alzheimer's Disease with Maria Shriver "Grandpa, Do You Know Who I Am?"

Personal Life: While working in Chicago, Watkin met Dr Suzanne Donovan. They married in 1995, and have 2 children, Max born in 1997 and Gabby born in 1999. Following his divorce in 2005, Watkin met Stefanie Paige in 2007. They are now living together, with a combined total of 5 children.

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