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Amanda Berry

Amanda Berry

Title
Honorary Doctor
Person Type
Honorary
Amanda Berry

Biography

Honorary Doctor

Amanda Berry is currently the Chief Executive of The Royal Foundation, having left her position as CEO of BAFTA after 24 years at the arts organisation, in 2022. During her time at BAFTA she transformed what was an inward-looking British-focussed arts charity, into a globally relevant organisation that launches the entertainment awards season every year.

As a child, Amanda’s asthma was so bad that going to the dust-filled cinema would mean ending up in hospital with an asthma attack. Far from this dampening her love of film, she thought of cinema as a palace of dreams.

Leading the 10,000 members and a charity that includes film, gaming and television has been much more than flitting from one red carpet to another. Amanda’s moto: ‘talent is everywhere but opportunity is not’ drove the £25million fundraising required to redevelop BAFTA's home at 195 Piccadilly. The building’s revenue, flexible space and state-of-the-art technology supports the many future-thinking initiatives Amanda and her team created, including mentoring, editing, BAFTA Connect, BAFTA Elevate, and BAFTA Breakthrough which spans the US, the UK, India and China.

A champion of new talent, when Amanda was told there were no female directors, she immediately found 250 female directors and launched mentoring projects. When she was told there were no women in games, she responded with the Young Game Designers competition.

During her tenure, BAFTA grew its forward-thinking technology arm, and changed from a neutral body that didn’t get involved in issues within the industry, to taking responsibility. This meant turning BAFTA into a charity with social purpose, joining other arts organisations to create diversity standards, and fighting bullying and harassment.

Amanda received the Order of the British Empire in 2009 for her services to the film industry.