Stuart Watts

Biography

Stuart Watts is an English sportsman, producer, director and content creator who has worked across the areas of Television, Sport, Live Music, Theatre Production and Documentary. Stuart studied at York St John University in the early 1980s, graduating in 1987 with a degree in Drama, Film and Television. He was also a keen sportsman and became the British collegiate tennis champion in 1987 after winning the national championships in Bedfordshire. After a stint in tennis coaching in London, Stuart joined the SKY tennis production team, progressing to associate producer on other SKY programmes, including outside broadcasting of the Premier League, FA Cup, and England internationals. Watts returned to tennis with IMG Media as producer the weekly "ATP Show" involving worldwide filming at ATP tournaments. In 1997 Watts moved away from sports broadcasting to documentary television including working with BBC One and Channel Four. Watts was executive producer for the worldwide broadcast of the live millennium celebration from Hong Kong, working with stars like Whitney Houston. Watts became known as a documentary film maker, executive producing the BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated "Muhammad Ali – Through the Eyes of the World". He produced and directed "Christopher Reeve – Hope in Motion", winning the Communicator Award for Excellence in Journalism and Documentary Making, as well as being BAFTA shortlisted and nominated for a primetime EMMY in 2003 for outstanding non-fiction special. Watts set up his own production company "Double Jab Productions" at Shepperton Studios, creating documentaries including; "The World of Nat King Cole", "John Lennon: Working Class Hero", "Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds: Live on Stage!" and "Jeff Beck - Performing This Week... Live At Ronnie Scott's", "Keep on Running: 50 years of Island Records", "Andrea Bocelli: The Story Behind the Voice" and "Paul Weller: Into Tomorrow". In 2007, his company helped develop a FIFA sanctioned film documenting how football helped prisoners on Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was famously held. After selling his production company, Stuart returned to sports broadcasting with ATP Media, serving as Chief Operating Officer as late as 2018.