StoryFutures and Royal Holloway are pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Peter Richardson and Professor Amanda Murphy as co-directors of StoryFutures, effective January 2026.
Professor Peter Richardson and Professor Amanda Murphy
Their joint leadership marks a significant milestone as StoryFutures builds on its remarkable track record of innovation and prepares to expand its impact across the UK creative industries.
StoryFutures has established itself as the UK's leading force in immersive storytelling and creative technology innovation.
Under Professors Richardson and Murphy's leadership, StoryFutures Strategic Business Unit will build on this success by capitalising on high-value partnerships with the creative industries (such as our Final Pixel partnership) and rolling out new skills training in the creative use of advanced technologies, particularly artificial intelligence (AI).
Professor Amanda Murphy is a BAFTA and multi-award-winning Producer and Co-Investigator, recognised for her pioneering work fostering innovation in the UK's creative sector and as founder of some of UK televisions most successful IP, Supernanny and UK’s Big Brother.
She has been part of the strategic leadership at StoryFutures since 2017, devising and leading innovative industry-led training, building high value partnerships and developing scalable frameworks and models for university led Research and Development (R&D) to drive creative industry growth.
Amanda was Executive Producer of the UK’s largest immersive storytelling project, Storytrails, reimagining history in bringing archive and stories to life using augmented reality across the UK.
She is co-investigator at the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in AI for Digital Media Inclusion and leads on the strategic development of StoryFutures Futures Skills programmes.
Her interests are in developing a skills framework to build a talent pipeline and towards a more democratic and inclusive approach to the adoption of new technologies.
Professor Peter Richardson is an internationally recognised researcher and principal investigator in the field of cinematic visual effects for film and virtual production, with a sustained output of original work which has achieved recognition worldwide.
He is co-investigator and a member of the leadership team of CoSTAR National Lab, a £51.1M investment from the UKRI Infrastructure fund and delivered by AHRC to create a national R&D lab for creative technology based at Pinewood Studios, opening in 2026.
With a 15-year career in the film and television industry as a director / producer across many forms and genres, he operates at the leading edge of industry developments collaborating with leading companies.
These include Studio AKA, ILM, M3 Denmark, Sony, Creative Technologies, Rock Star Games, Final Pixel, Film Fynn, Dimensions, Space Digital, D-Neg, Warner Bros, Sky Studios, Netflix, Framestore, Epic Games, Magnopus, ITV Studios and many other immersive and creative digital companies.
He has held key roles in game-changing projects across the creative and emerging technology sectors in the UK and Europe.
Throughout his career, Peter has continued to direct and produce original works in film, immersive and interactive performance.
Under their leadership, StoryFutures will continue to foster high value partnerships between academia, industry, and creative practitioners. This will strengthen collaboration, grow next generation talent and expand the impact of StoryFutures Business Unit (SBU) across the UK creative industries to fuel economic growth. The co-directors will also work closely with the CoSTAR National Lab leadership team.
The work of the SBU will be aligned with the strategic direction and values of Royal Holloway, harnessing its position as a leading creative industries university.
Supporting Royal Holloway’s commitment to developing the next generation of creative industry talent, StoryFutures will continue to open opportunities for students, doctoral researchers and early career creatives to work hands-on with cutting-edge technologies and industry partners.
The co-directors bring extensive expertise in innovative use of emerging technologies and the adoption of convergent technologies by creative industry professionals.
Ruth Livesey, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Research and Innovation at Royal Holloway said: “We are delighted to welcome Professor Richardson and Professor Murphy to these pivotal leadership positions.
“Their combined vision and experience will be instrumental in driving forward our mission to support the creative sector through cutting-edge research and collaboration, and to help develop the next generation of creative talent.”
