Matt Bennett is Shine’s Senior Executive Producer, recently responsible for Rick Stein’s Cornwall and co-developing and running shows such as the Grierson award winning / BAFTA nominated Hunted, Celebrity Hunted and The Heist. He first met Shine when they marooned him on a deserted island in the Pacific with 12 other hairy blokes to help direct and film the first series of The Island with Bear Grylls. Before working at Shine, Matt was a freelance executive producer and director working in obs-doc, factual entertainment & current affairs, making series such as Trawlermen for the BBC, travelling with and bringing to the screen the majority of Ross Kemp’s documentary output for SKY, such as his trilogy of series in Afghanistan, Extreme World and Gangs, for which he was nominated for two BAFTAs. He's also produced and directed travelogues for ITV with Joanna Lumley, including one where they travelled the length of the Nile for 3 months. For one year he had a desk job as a factual commissioner at Channel 5 where he helped give Ed Stafford his first break in telly.