Sarah Coursey
Highly regarded for her expertise in global sales, acquisitions and development, Coursey has 17 years of executive-level distribution experience at international media companies, and speaks 6 languages. Previously, Coursey was SVP International for GRB Studios, in charge of global co-productions, sales and acquisitions. Coursey managed the international sales team, selling unscripted franchises such as UNTOLD STORIES OF THE ER and INTERVENTION into Europe and Latin America. Coursey spearheaded an international co-production alliance with UK unscripted producers Zig Zag. Coursey also acquired 54 hours of scripted and unscripted programming from Oxygen Network. Before that, Coursey was GM, Americas for Inverleigh, managing one of the world’s most prestigious sports and lifestyle content catalogs. Coursey built a North and South American sales team, hiring multilingual staff to cover the region, culminating in Pan-Latin American sales as well as a lucrative syndication agreement in the US, garnering six-figure monthly commissions for the company.
Prior to that, Coursey was Head of Sales & Co-Productions, Americas for ZEE, managing 210,000 hours of series, 3,500 feature films and a robust formats catalog. Coursey managed and executed on lucrative deals with Netflix, opening the streamer to the company’s catalog, for hundreds of hours of TV and multiple films, resulting in multi-million dollar contracts.
Coursey is also the creator of the unscripted cooking/dating format, LOVE AT FIRST BITE, which aired on Discovery. Coursey has co-developed unscripted formats with US and Italian producers, and has served as Dialogue Editor for the sci-fi feature film CRYSTALINA.
Coursey has contributed her skills to TV consultancy roles in Europe and the US, working with local & global teams, managing 12 people in 5 countries, and handling eight-figure budgets.
Prior to ZEE, Coursey was EVP Global Sales for Newzulu, a content start-up. Before that, Coursey created a format sales and acquisitions department for MEG, launching 20 unscripted formats from Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Italy and the US, to domestic and international buyers.
Prior to MEG, Coursey headed 2 departments at Zodiak, namely Format Sales and Acquisitions. Coursey supervised acquisitions from 34 production companies. Coursey managed the sales team and sold formats and films, including THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, handling theatrical, DVD and TV sales.
Coursey also oversaw European sales at Distraction, the first distributor to specialize in formats. Coursey licensed franchises to European networks and picked up formats for acquisition, setting sales records. Coursey sold the Italian format Dirty Rotten Cheater to the BBC, landing a precious time slot for a daily stripped game show.
A dynamic communicator, Coursey has shared her expertise as a panelist/lecturer at NATPE, DISCOP, Rose d’Or and EBU. Coursey has been a judge for the International Emmys since 2016.
In addition, Coursey is a sommelier, blogger and food & wine expert, creating London’s second ever Slow Food Festival.