Hannah Maguire and Suruthi Bala of RedHanded and Leanne Alie have been announced as 2024’s Chair of Judges at the British Podcast Awards.
Hannah and Suruthi’s podcast RedHanded has won Gold in the Listener’s Choice category at the British Podcast Awards for three consecutive years and is consistently at the top of the UK podcast charts.
Last year, they also launched the limited true-crime series, Filthy Ritual, with Novel and Global about one of the most prolific fraudsters in British history; Juliette D’Souza, which will be adapted for television by ITV.
Leanne Alie is an experienced podcast presenter, producer, commissioner and the new Head of Podcasts at The Artists Partnership, one of the UK’s leading talent agencies. She has commissioned and developed some of BBC Sound’s most successful titles such as Pressed and Brown Girls Do It Too and she is also the host and creator of British Podcast Award-winning series Coiled.
As an advocate for diversity and inclusion in the audio industry, she is a trustee of the Multitrack Fellowship and developed the BBC Sounds Audio Lab, a programme creating new podcasts with up-and-coming creators from underserved backgrounds.
The Chair of Judges team will ensure the judging panel is made up of the best in the industry and that its nominees reflect the true breadth of the UK’s podcast landscape.
Hannah Maguire and Suruthi Bala say: “Having won the Listeners’ Choice Award three years in a row, we were so excited to be asked to be Chair of Judges for The British Podcast Awards 2024! We feel passionately about promoting the incredible podcasting that’s coming out of the UK”
Leanne Alie says: “Being asked to be the industry chair of judges is a real honour and full circle moment for me. Working behind the scenes on the BPA’s was one of my routes into the industry – I have advocated for better representation for these awards and I look forward to celebrating a diverse range of winners and the best storytellers in the UK.”
The deadline for entry into the British Podcast Awards is Tuesday 9 May at 11.59pm.
The British Podcast Awards are also inviting potential entrants to register their intent to enter in order to extend their early bird access until 9th of May. Use link here (registering doesn’t commit them to enter).