About Ron Carroll
I started in a Liverpool newsroom. Years later I’d helped build shows watched by millions across three continents, and I’d finally written the book I always meant to write.
I developed the format for Netflix’s Blown Away and served as showrunner. I led North American versions of Undercover Boss and The People’s Couch — known to UK audiences as Gogglebox.
Along the way: a Canadian Screen Award, a British Royal Television Society Award, Telly Awards in America. I'm also a longstanding juror for the International Emmys.
Now I’m back in the North West of England, writing nonfiction and working with producers and brands on both sides of the Atlantic.
A dazzling 16%
When I was seven, I unwrapped a toy typewriter on Christmas morning, and that was it. The world opened up.
My bedroom became a bustling newsroom, complete with breaking stories, and invented scandals.
A few clunky keystrokes later, I was at university. I graduated to an electric typewriter and presented my English dissertation with the confidence of a newsroom pro. The grade? A dazzling 16 percent. My professor scrawled in furious red: “This is an appalling piece of journalese.” He wasn’t wrong. But he wasn’t right either. I wasn’t writing essays. I was already writing for readers.That instinct — writing for real people, not academic approval — still drives everything I do. Back then, it felt like failure. Now I see it for what it was: proof I was already on my way.