Amanda Ross is a prominent British television executive known for her significant contributions to the television industry, particularly in developing long running formats, food and book-related programming.
She is co-founder and CEO of Cactus TV,[1] a production company she founded with her husband Simon Ross in 1994[1]. Cactus specialises in broad-based entertainment, features and chat shows, making programmes for many major UK broadcasters, including the BBC, ITV, UKTV and Channel 4.[2] In a recent Broadcast Independent Survey 2023, Cactus was ranked as the fourth biggest supplier to the BBC[3] and the fifth biggest supplier to ITV[4] by hours.
Always closely involved in her productions, Amanda has won a Royal Television Society Award[5] and been nominated for four others as a Producer and a Director.[6] Amanda has been instrumental in creating and maintaining many long running TV programme brands including Saturday Kitchen for over 18 years (2006 – ongoing), Between The Covers for 8 series (2020-ongoing), and Richard & Judy, 5 nights a week for 8 years (2001- 2009)[6].
Before founding her own production company, Amanda worked for many major TV companies, including ITV, BBC, and American channel VH1 - producing, presenting, and creating formats.[6]
She made her network debut as a presenter on the ITV Telethon in 1988 and has since hosted many shows including her own gameshow format Follow Your Nose (ITV, 1992)[7][8][9] and Intuition (Anglia, 1999)[10]. Most recently, she also hosted a live stage tour of Between The Covers[11], presented awards and made several podcast[12][13][14] and radio appearances[15].
^ ab"Cactus TV". productionbase.co.uk. Retrieved 25 April 2021.