How the Producer Behind ‘Fleabag’ and ‘Baby Reindeer’ Finds the Next Hit

At this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which concluded its 79th edition recently, the marketplace was overflowing with more than 4,200 productions ranging from a burlesque take on Shrek to an improvised performance based on the Disney Channel film Cadet Kelly. For producers hunting for the next breakout phenomenon, the festival remains a vital hunting ground. Few have a better track record of early discovery than Francesca Moody, the 38-year-old London producer behind global television sensations Fleabag and Baby Reindeer.

Despite her success, Moody advises against attempting to reverse-engineer a commercial triumph. Speaking from a temporary office in Edinburgh during the festival, she told NPR that her approach is driven by personal taste and intuition rather than market analysis. She cautioned that selecting projects solely because they appear likely to transfer to the West End or become TV adaptations often undermines their quality.

“I think ultimately it’s all about my personal taste, because I’m a producer who is really led by their gut,” Moody said. “As soon as I deviate from that and I pick something because I think it’s going to be super commercial… it just won’t be as good. She described this intuitive pull as a “fizzy feeling,” a sensation she experienced when she first encountered Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag in late 2012.

At that time, Waller-Bridge had only drafted roughly a single page of the script for what would eventually become a cultural touchstone. Impressed by the raw potential, Moody secured a venue at the Fringe despite the project being far from complete. The subsequent six months were fraught with anxiety; with rehearsals a week away, the script remained unwritten except for scattered Post-It notes. Moody reportedly locked Waller-Bridge in a room to force the writing forward. Colleague accounts suggest Moody was so stressed she had to retreat to a closet to hyperventilate.

The show premiered in Edinburgh with mixed reviews and a rough edge, including an ending that was written on the train to the festival. However, Moody believes that imperfection is intrinsic to the Fringe’s value. “The Fringe is this place for messy, complicated, unfinished, scrappy stuff because it’s those bits that you’ll find the magic in,” she noted.

Moody’s path to producing began as a compromise after she told her parents she wished to act. They suggested an internship on the organizational side of the Fringe, where she distributed flyers and moved sets. She has attended every year since. After drama school, she began producing, eventually mounting her first show, The Ducks, at age 23. In 2018, she launched Francesca Moody Productions.

Her second major hit, Baby Reindeer, originated from a script sent by friends. Moody became so engrossed in reading Richard Gadd’s monologue on a train from Norwich to London that she missed her stop. She produced the show, which premiered at the Fringe in 2019 and later became a Netflix series.

This year, Moody backed three distinct productions: the horror sketch comedy Crybabies: The Scaring, the one-woman drama Roleplay, and Garry Starr: Classic Penguins. Roleplay, written by and starring Hannah Reilly, sold out its entire run before the festival began. While the association with Moody’s previous hits brought attention, Reilly acknowledged the pressure artists face when linked to such successful predecessors. “This work will never be viewed in a vacuum,” Reilly said, noting some audiences approach the show expecting it to surpass Fleabag and Baby Reindeer.

However, Reilly also praised Moody’s creative guidance, stating that the producer encouraged her to embrace the darker elements of the story. Moody admits that not every production succeeds commercially; her 2023 satire Berlusconi: A New Musical was both a critical and financial failure. Nevertheless, she maintains that focusing on future adaptations or box office returns is detrimental to the storytelling process.