Calm leadership, wherever the shoot lands.

Todd Needham is a Production Executive and Television Line Producer with 25+ years of experience producing unscripted television, documentaries, feature films, specials, and digital content from development through final delivery.

Throughout his career, Todd has overseen more than $275 million in production budgets, managing the financial and physical production of large-scale projects throughout the U.S. and internationally. His experience includes building and managing budgets and schedules, tracking actuals and forecasts, reviewing cost reports and hot costs, managing contingency, negotiating crew and vendor deals, overseeing production teams, and taking projects through final actualization and delivery.

Todd has managed large crews, multi-location and remote field productions, locations, equipment, travel, insurance, vendors, and production compliance. He works closely with Executive Producers, showrunners, directors, networks, studios, production accounting, and creative teams to balance creative goals with budget, schedule, safety, and the realities of physical production.

He is also experienced with industry unions and guilds, including SAG-AFTRA, and understands the production-side requirements surrounding performer agreements, deal terms, payroll and fringes, work rules, documentation, and compliance.

Kentucky Production & Incentive Budgeting

Now based in Kentucky, Todd can help producers, production companies, and studios adapt existing film and television budgets for production in Kentucky. He can update those budgets to reflect local crew, labor, payroll fringes, vendors, equipment, locations, travel, and other production costs while incorporating applicable Kentucky film incentive assumptions and qualifying expenditures.

With extensive experience in Movie Magic Budgeting, Todd is also expanding his working knowledge of Roll Credits, Wrapbook, and GreenSlate — platforms increasingly used for production accounting, payroll, onboarding, cost tracking, and incentive-related workflows.

Working with producers, production accountants, payroll companies, and incentive specialists, he can help translate an existing budget into a realistic Kentucky production plan, identify potential savings, and provide an experienced Line Producer's assessment of what it will actually cost to bring a project into the state.

Todd began his career on the network side, spending eight years working in original programming for USA Network and Viacom's MTV/VH1 before moving into freelance production. Over the next two decades, he produced and managed projects for Discovery, History, A&E, Bravo, CBS, Hulu, NBCUniversal, and Paramount+.

His credits include Race to Survive, Swamp People, Storm Chasers, The Challenge, Undercover Boss, Project Runway, 60 Days In, Dual Survival, Making the Band, and Are You My First?

Todd is known for calm leadership, practical problem solving, strong relationships with crews and executives, and the ability to keep complicated productions on budget, on schedule, and moving forward when plans change.