Kate Oates

Kate Oates
Oates in 2022
Born	1979/1980 Nottingham, England
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Warwick University
Occupation(s)	Television producer, researcher, story editor
Years active	2003–present

Kate Oates (born 1979 or 1980)^[1] is a British television producer, who was born in Nottingham and graduated from Warwick University. She began her career working as a researcher and editorial assistant for Germaine Greer, before becoming a script editor for the soap opera Crossroads. In 2003, she joined the radio soap The Archers as a producer, a position which Oates credits as the majority of her training. After resigning from this job, Oates began working on the ITV soap opera Emmerdale as a script editor, during which time she assisted with the soap's fortieth anniversary celebrations and worked on British Soap Award-winning storylines. She remained in the position until 2012 when she joined Coronation Street as the assistant producer.

In October 2012, Oates was announced as the series producer of Emmerdale, a position she began three months later. As series producer, Oates oversaw a surge in the popularity of the programme. Her duration at Emmerdale received positive acclaim from critics of the genre. She resigned from the show and left in December 2015. After leaving Emmerdale, Oates transferred to Coronation Street as the series producer, a move which was praised by ITV personnel. While in the position, the show's ratings and critical acclaim increased, although Oates' darker storylines received mixed critical response and led to the soap being reported to Ofcom for the inclusion of violent imagery during the pre-watershed time frame. Oates announced her resignation from Coronation Street in April 2018, where it was announced that she would join production company Tall Story Pictures producing series 2 of Bancroft.

Oates' hiring by the BBC as the senior executive producer of EastEnders, Casualty and Holby City was announced in August 2018. With the announcement came praise from multiple personnel of the BBC, including the BBC's director of content, Charlotte Moore. Oates' primary responsibility in the position is her work on EastEnders its executive producer. She was later promoted to Head of Continuing Drama at BBC Studios in 2019, overseeing six BBC soap operas and dramas, remaining in creative control of EastEnders.