HBO Max EMEA Content Chief Antony Root to Retire

“I plan to pursue a range of different interests – some educational, some professional and some personal,” the exec says.

Antony Root Courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery

Antony Root, executive vp, original programming and production at HBO Max Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), is leaving the Warner Bros. Discovery unit at the end of the first quarter, the company said on Wednesday.

“After 11 hugely successful and award-winning years leading original programming and production for HBO Europe and later HBO Max EMEA, executive vp Antony Root today confirmed he will retire from his role at Warner Bros. Discovery at the end of March 2023,” the company said.

During his tenure, Root has commissioned and overseen “more than 1,000 episodes of original premium programming across scripted, documentaries and unscripted,” it noted. “In addition to supporting the growth of the HBO and HBO Max streaming services in Europe, many productions received national and international award recognition, including The Pack and Blinded by the Lights in Poland; Burning Bush and Wasteland in Czechia; Golden Life in Hungary; the Oscar-nominated documentary Collective in Romania; Patria and 30 Coins in Spain; Beartown, Beforeigners and Kamikaze in the Nordics.”

Root said that he has been “extremely fortunate to enjoy a long executive career in our industry, but I am now eager to move on to the next phase of my life.” He added: “I plan to pursue a range of different interests – some educational, some professional and some personal.”

Priya Dogra, Warner Bros. Discovery’s president & managing director, EMEA, said: “Antony is a true giant of the European TV Industry, and during his career at HBO, he has commissioned and executive produced some of the most iconic series of recent years across the Nordics, Central Eastern Europe and Spain. Antony built and managed talented teams and left an indelible mark on the quality of productions from HBO in Europe. Some time ago, Antony agreed to postpone his planned retirement and to continue to lead his team and the various ongoing projects through the merger. With that work complete, I would like to wish him all the best as he retires from his executive career.”

Root noted the timing of his retirement ahead of the planned launch of a combined streaming service by Warner Bros. Discovery, created by the 2022 merger of Discovery with WarnerMedia. “Leading a European production group within the HBO family has been an honor and privilege, and I will be forever grateful for the opportunity,” he said. “When I joined in 2011, we were producing in only four countries in Central Eastern Europe, and the focus was on single documentaries and local adaptations of international scripted formats. Within a few years, we were developing and producing our own locally-created series and expanding our original production footprint to the Nordics, Spain and more recently France. Now, with the new, combined service set to launch, it’s time for me to bring my executive career to a close and pass the baton onto others.”

Root started his career in theatre before joining the BBC where he worked on drama series. He then moved to ITV and subsequently to Working Title Television in 1989, before being appointed head of drama at Thames Television. In 1996, Root joined Granada Television as head of drama. In 1998, he became head of international drama, making him the first Granada executive tasked with developing and producing drama programming for networks outside the U.K. In that role, he oversaw three movies for A&E in the U.S., progressing to the role of president of Granada Entertainment USA in L.A. In 2005, Root returned to the U.K. to take up the position of senior vp, European production for Sony Pictures Television. Later, he joined HBO Europe.