Exclusive - The Global Ensemble Drama hires Int’l Emmy winner Vegard Stenberg Eriksen

The seasoned Norwegian TV executive and producer is due to join the production team of the fast-expanding TGED December 1^st.

Eriksen will be joining TGED from Redpoint Productions where he served as CEO and executive producer notably of the anticipated NRK series So Long, Marianne. Before that, he worked for Monster Scripted as head of drama, overseeing projects such as Viaplay’s Furia, Netflix’s The Girl from Oslo. Then during his 12-year tenure as executive producer at NRK, he was associated to several high-end dramas such as the International Emmy-winning Mammon S2 (co-created with his brother Gjermund Stenberg Eriksen), and recent smash hit Exit.

Eriksen is the latest high-profile TV executive snapped by TGED, which has been ramping up its structure and activities in the last couple of years.

“The Global Ensemble Drama took a big step in 2023 and hired seven new high-end producers from five different countries to our team. We also got Petter Testmann-Koch as our new CEO, opened offices in Sweden, Denmark and the UK, and have used this fall to get everyone on board,” underlined to us the company’s founder Per-Olav Sørensen. “It's a big leap to take, and in many ways, we have been moving in a different direction than everyone else in this business in 2023, by doubling our team,” added the seasoned writer/director and regular Netflix content provider (Home for Christmas, The Playlist, Quicksand).

Exit executive producer Testmann-Koch who moved to TGED last summer from his CEO role at Fremantle Norway, said about Eriksen: ”Vegard was the man who understood and commissioned Exit when I pitched it to NRK back in 2016, so with my personal experience with Vegard, I am confident that he will be a very important addition to The Global Ensemble Drama. He has an energy and a very special will power on behalf of the stories and the storytellers. I’m therefore confident that we will soon see the results of this on screen.”

Eriksen for his part underlined TGED’s brave strategy, “in a demanding time for the industry”, which is to go “against the flow with a clear faith in the possibilities and not the limitations.”

Currently productions on TGED’s slate include Netflix’ series Midsummer Night created, directed and written by Sørensen, with co-writer Sofie Forsman (Young Royals). The warm and emotional family drama starring Pernilla August, Dennis Storhøi, Amalia Holm, Sofia Tjelta among others, is currently in post-production, "in the phase of picture lock for the five episodes,” says Sørensen. The premiere on Netflix is slated for 2024.

Looking ahead, Sørensen said: “The goals for 2024 are already set. We want to get our fantastic new team up-to-speed. We have clear ambitions for what to produce and develop in 2024 and 2025, and we still want to explore the possibilities for international co-productions and long-term strategic collaborations.”