Cat Lewis | |
---|---|
Born |
Catriona Margaret Pettigrew 23 March 1965 Rajkot, India |
Occupation | CEO, Joint Creative Director and Executive Producer, Nine Lives Media |
Spouse(s) | Mike Lewis |
Children | Tom Lewis, Joe Lewis |
Cat Lewis (born 23 March 1965) is a British TV executive producer and the founder and CEO of Nine Lives Media.
Lewis was born Catriona Margaret Pettigrew on 23 March 1965 in Rajkot, India. Her family returned to live in England when she was 3-years-old and her school years were spent in , where she attended Ian Ramsay C. of E. School and Stockton Sixth Form. Her father is mountaineer Bob Pettigrew and her mother, Deana Addison was Head of Religious Education at The Norton School in . They separated when they returned from India. Her mother married Lewis's step-father Terence Michael Addison, who worked as an engineer and consultant to the steel industry.
Lewis' great grandfather Guy Pettigrew was a music hall performer who began making films during the era of silent movies in 1919.
Lewis co-presented a children’s radio programme called Hubble Bubble on Radio Tees (now called TFM Radio) from the age of 15 to 18. In 1981 she presented the first Sunday morning children's programme called Sunday Sundae, which has been archived by the British Film Institute.
In 1983, Lewis enrolled at Bristol University to read English & Drama. After graduating in 1986 she spent a year shooting and editing educational films before completing a Post Grad Diploma in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire.
In 1988 Lewis won a place as a BBC Production Trainee, based in the North West. After working on a range of BBC productions as a Researcher, she moved across to Granada as an Assistant Producer and was promoted to Series Producer at the age of 26. She went on to work on a range of factual programmes for Granada Television including This Morning, World in Action and the first property makeover series – House Style.
In 1995 Lewis went back on screen as a reporter for a programme about the internet presented by Tony Wilson and then she worked for three years as a BBC news reporter for North West Tonight. In the 1990s she also set up Granada Television's programme related websites. She organised the first live internet vote on TV in 1998 on the Stars in their Eyes’ final. In 1998, Lewis began working as a documentary Producer/Director for Granada Television making films for Sky One, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. In 1999 she won her first two TV commissions for Channel Five and Channel 4.