our team

Island Life Productions is fortunate to be supported by a fantastic board of directors who give their time, passion and energy to guiding and advising the work we do.

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Melanie Ross Russell

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Melanie Ross Russell is an Edinburgh-based French emerging feminist filmmaker and content creator. She is currently the videographer and photographer for the Edinburgh Short Film Festival. She has recently taken over from Fin as artistic director of Island Life Productions.

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Fin Ross Russell

BOARD MEMBER

Fin Ross Russell is the co-founder of Island Life Productions. Since founding the company, he completed his BA in Drama, Applied Theatre & Education from the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama.

Following a year working at Chichester Festival Theatre as the theatre's Education Assistant, Fin moved up to Edinburgh where he has worked as a freelance facilitator for various companies including the Brunton Theatre, Millennium Stage School, Scottish Youth Theatre, Edinburgh City Council, Strange Town, Ignite Theatre, Imaginate, LYRA, PACE Theatre Company and Lyceum Youth Theatre. Fin also lectures for the CGO Institute and  assistant directed Perth Theatre's main-stage production of Chaos (February 2022). Fin is a board member of Capital Theatres and founding member of their new Youth Advisory Board.

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Phil Carter

BOARD CHAIRMAN

Phil works as a Venture Capital Investment Specialist at HSBC Asset Management in London. Prior to this, he contributed to creating and launching their Direct Lending business and also has experience in private equity, hedge funds, and structured credit.

Phil’s connection to Island Life Productions is through his long-standing friendship with Fin, which has included living together and seeing the company evolve and grow over this time. Phil holds a BSc in Economics (first class) from The University of Nottingham , grew up in Egypt, Oman and the U.K. and also speaks Arabic.

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Allegra Nespoli

BOARD MEMBER

Allegra is Producer at Curious Monkey Theatre in Newcastle as well as a freelance theatre and live events producer. She has worked in a range of leading arts organisations including Raindance Film Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, Roundhouse and the Old Vic Theatre, producing creative projects for young people. ⁠
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Allegra is particularly passionate about human rights and audience development. Her theatre company, 1989 Productions, has commissioned and produced original work about social justice issues such as modern slavery, freedom of speech and women’s rights. (Hackney Showroom, Royal Court Theatre). Allegra is interested in international collaboration, supporting live artists and increasing accessibility in theatre and festivals. She is honoured to be joining the board of Island Life Productions.

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Betina Van Meter

BOARD MEMBER

I am a Dutch-American illustrator and designer based in Amsterdam. My work path is a constantly evolving journey in search of ways to use my skills to help build a better world. I got my bachelor's degree in Industrial Design from the University of Twente in 2016 and did a Social Entrepreneurship Traineeship at Social Start in Amsterdam in the fall of that same year.

I have been a freelance Illustrator since the start of 2017 and have also worked at the whiteboard animation company Bord&Stift since then. At Bord&Stift I mostly co-create explainer-videos and help to run the company, which we all do together because we are horizontally organized (no managers/bosses). The first book that I have illustrated will be released in the spring of 2022, it's a Dutch book for preteens about growing up and puberty.