All winners announced for the Audio Production Awards 2023

The Audio Production Awards have been announced at an event in London hosted by Nish Kumar & Coco Khan, presenters of weekly British political comedy podcast, Pod Save the UK.

This year’s winners include Jack Suddaby (Beautiful Strangers), who won gold for Best Arts & Culture Producer, silver for Best Lifestyle & Society Producer, and three bronze awards for his podcast Time & Again. The highly competitive Best Factual Producer award went to Joe Kent (BBC News Long Form Audio) for his work on the narrative podcast The Shamima Begum Story.

The Sustainability Award went to Talia Randall for her BBC Sounds podcast, Blossom Trees & Burnt Out Cars, commissioned as part of the inaugural BBC Sounds Audio Lab Scheme. Audio newcomer Kwesia, aka City Girl in Nature, was awarded Best New Voice for Peanut & Crumb’s Get Birding podcast Season 3, and Becky Green (Audio Always) took home the gold for Best New Producer.

Anishka Sharma was crowned Producer of the Year, Overcoat Media was named Production Company of the Year, and Resonance won Publisher or Network of the Year for the consecutive year. The AudioUK Award was presented to Reform Radio for their outstanding work and contribution to the Manchester audio community, and wider UK audio industry.

Chloe Straw, Managing Director of AudioUK, said: “This is my third year at the awards as Managing Director of AudioUK, and it is great to see them change and grow each time.

It has been a challenging year in the audio industry and the wider world, and the awards gave us the opportunity to take a breath to celebrate the incredible talent that we see in the UK, across the many strands of podcasting, radio, audiobooks and sound design.

The awards celebrate those right across the industry, and audio reaches far and wide: we have seen winners from production businesses, from freelancers, from platforms, from brands, from the BBC, from publishers. I am delighted that we get to bring all areas of the industry together, this really is a unique event.

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners, I am so pleased that we get to put on this show every year to celebrate you all, your talent and your productions.

Thank you to our headline sponsor Audible, who work with us every year to put the awards on, to Amazon Music and Wondery for partnering with us on the Pay What You Can Scheme again, and to the Entry Level Audio Network, who partnered with us on the pre-show mixer, for people who are new to the industry or who were coming alone.

Thank you to all of our key sponsors: BBC Sounds; BetterHelp; In:Quality; Morley Radio; The Podcast Show; Sue Terry Voices; United Voices; and whynow Media. And thank you to our media partners: Community Media Association, Content Is Queen, Creative Mentor Network, Disruptive Talent Group, Earworm, North Media Talent, Pineapple Audio Production, Pod Bible, Podfollow, Podium.me, Podnews, Podomedy, PodPod, Pospike, RadioToday, Reel2Media, SRA, Sport Social Podcast Network, The Radio Academy and WIZZFX. Partnerships are so important in the growth of the audio industry, and it has been a pleasure working with you all.

Finally thank you to the team behind the awards – all of the excellent judges; Chair of Judges Joby Waldman; EDI consultant Yassine Senghor; Executive Producer Sophie Cantopher, Lead Producer Katie Banham. See you again next year!”

Audio Production Awards Winners 2023

Best New Producer sponsored by BBC Sounds

GOLD – Becky Green – Audio Always
SILVER – Silvia Malnati – Reduced Listening
BRONZE – Tess Davidson – Freelance
HIGHLY COMMENDED – Sam Tyler – There Are No Greater Heroes
Nominees
Jill Achineku – Whistledown
Talia Augustidis – Broccoli Productions/Freelance

Best Factual Producer

GOLD – Joe Kent – BBC News Long Form Audio
SILVER – Arlie Adlington – Overcoat Media
BRONZE – Phoebe McIndoe – Falling Tree Productions
Nominees
Anishka Sharma
Dan Tierney – BBC Audio North
Scarlett O’Malley – Little Cactus

Best Entertainment Producer

GOLD – David Manero – Listen
SILVER – Amy Johnson – BBC Radio 1
BRONZE – Kay Hutchison – Belle Media
Nominees
James Payne – Folding Pocket
Lucy Hunt – Listen
Matt Thomas – Audio Always

Best Arts & Culture Producer

GOLD – Jack Suddaby – Beautiful Strangers
SILVER – Peter Curran – The Foghorn Company
BRONZE – Geoff Bird – Freelance
Nominees
Becca Bryers – BBC Audio
Michael Umney – Freelance
Natalie Steed – Rhubarb Rhubarb

Best Lifestyle & Society Producer sponsored by BetterHelp

GOLD – Sylvie Carlos – Freelance
SILVER – Jack Suddaby – Beautiful Strangers
BRONZE – Bea Duncan – Broccoli Productions
Nominees
Beth Madden – Prison Radio Association
Ruth Abrahams – The Guardian
Ryan Winders – This Is Distorted

Best Audiobook Producer sponsored by Sue Terry Voices

GOLD – Laura-Leigh Smith – String & Tins
SILVER – Jessica Beck – The Guardian
BRONZE – Caroline Raphael – Dora Productions
Nominees
Christopher Thompson – Penguin Random House
Lily Ridett – Freelance/Penguin Random House
Nathan Freeman – Granny Eats Wolf

Best Drama & Fiction Producer

GOLD – Nicolas Jackson – Afónica
SILVER – Anishka Sharma
BRONZE – Rooks Nest – Algorithms
Nominees
David Beck – Wireless Theatre Company
Jack Bowman – Freelance
Nicholas Newton – Promenade Productions

Best Narrator sponsored by United Voices

GOLD – Eva Feiler – Almost Tangible
SILVER – Kristin Atherton – HarperCollins Publishers
BRONZE – Natasha Miller – Miller Libertine
HIGHLY COMMENDED – Oliver Jeffers – HarperCollins Publishers
Nominees
Kerry Godliman – Wondery
Paapa Essiedu – Audible Studios

Best Ensemble Cast

GOLD – Betty Glover, Christian Hewgill & Greg James – The Fast and the Curious
SILVER – William Hanson and Jordan North – Help I Sexted My Boss
BRONZE – The Ensemble Cast of Bess Loves Porgy
Nominees
Coco Khan and Nish Kumar – Pod Save the UK
Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders – Titting About
The Kurupt FM Podkast – series 3′ (Audible)

Best Presenter sponsored by Morley Radio

GOLD – Catherine Carr – Loftus Media
SILVER – Jack Saunders – Listen
BRONZE – James Grasby – National Trust
Nominees
Justin Dealey – BBC Three Counties Radio
Niall Paterson – Sky News
Scarlett O’Malley – Freelance/Little Cactus

Best New Voice sponsored by BBC Sounds

GOLD – Kwesia aka City Girl in Nature – Peanut & Crumb
SILVER – Ali Ali – Prison Radio Association
BRONZE – Aggie Chambré – Politico/Whistledown
Nominees
Coco Khan – Reduced Listening
Natasha Miller – Miller Libertine
Phoebe McIndoe – Falling Tree Productions

Best Branded Content Producer

GOLD – Daniel Prior – Absolute Radio Network
SILVER – Adam Venton – Little Monster Media
BRONZE – Natalie Steed – Rhubarb Rhubarb
Nominees
Arthur Hagues – Prison Radio Association
Geoff Bird – Freelance
James Stodd – Greatest Hits Radio

Best Music Producer

GOLD – Katie Callin – Reduced Listening
SILVER – Tom Whalley – Freelance
BRONZE – Silas Gray – Freelance
Nominees
Bradley Duggan – Listen
Gabriel Francis – Reduced Listening
Shreni Yajnik – Listen

Best Comedy Producer (Gethin Thomas Award)

GOLD – Joe Fraser – Baby Cow
SILVER – Simon Nicholls – Freelance
BRONZE – Jon Holmes – unusual
HIGHLY COMMENDED – Lyndsay Fenner – Mighty Bunny
Nominees
Lance Dann – Rezilience
Matt Thomas – Audio Always

Best News & Current Affairs Producer

GOLD – James Tindale – Whistledown
SILVER – James Shield – The Times and The Sunday Times
BRONZE – Alex Bishop – Reduced Listening
Nominees
Rebecca Kesby – CTVC
Ruth Abrahams – The Guardian
Will Roe – The Times and The Sunday Times

Best Sports Producer sponsored by In:Quality

GOLD – Abi Paterson – The Athletic
SILVER – Matt Tasker – Audio Always
BRONZE – Justin Dealey – BBC Three Counties Radio
Nominees
Adonis Pratsides – The Athletic
Katie Sayer – unusual/Pozzitive
Sarah Stolarz – Chalk + Blade

Best Sound Design Producer

GOLD – John Wakefield – Hat Trick
SILVER – Emma Barnaby – Freelance
BRONZE – Jack Suddaby – Beautiful Strangers
HIGHLY COMMENDED – Nicholas Alexander – Novel
Nominees
Jon Holmes & Tony Churnside – unusual
Jon Nicholls – Almost Tangible
AudioUK Award
Reform Radio

The Amazon Music & Wondery Grassroots Production Awards

GOLD – Made by Mortals – Armchair Adventures
SILVER – Transmission Roundhouse Podcast Academy
BRONZE – Jack Suddaby – Time & Again
Nominees
Behear
Multitrack
Prison Radio Association

The Sustainability Award

GOLD – Talia Randall – Blossom Trees & Burnt Out Cars
SILVER – Sarah Craig – Toughie
BRONZE – BCG & Lower Street – Climate Vision 2050
Nominees
Dirty Films & Story Hunter – Climate of Change Season 2
Eloise Stevens – Sustainability Acupuncture
Whistledown – Our Broken Planet

Publisher or Network of the Year sponsored by The Podcast Show

GOLD – Resonance
SILVER – Wondery
BRONZE – BBC Asian Network
HIGHLY COMMENDED – Podimo
Nominees
Audible
The Economist Podcasts

Producer of the Year sponsored by Audible

GOLD – Anishka Sharma
SILVER – Ruth Abrahams – The Guardian & Whistledown
BRONZE – Jack Suddaby – Beautiful Strangers
Nominees
Bea Duncan – Broccoli Productions
Katie Callin – Reduced Listening
Steven Rajam – Overcoat Media

Production Company of the Year sponsored by whynow Media

GOLD – Overcoat Media
SILVER – Prison Radio Association
BRONZE – Fresh Air
Nominees
Audible Studios UK
Reduced Listening
TellTale