Gender
Figure 1: Off-screen roles
Figure 2: On-screen roles
Figure 3: Genre off and on-screen roles
Figure 4: Genre off-screen
Figure 5: Genre on-screen
Figure 6: Senior and non-senior roles off-screen
Figure 7: Senior creative roles off-screen
Figure 8: Senior roles off-screen
Figure 9: Production roles off-screen
Figure 10: Scripted and non-scripted roles on-screen
Figure 11: Scripted roles on-screen
Figure 12: Non-scripted roles on-screen
Figure 13: Broadcasters off and on-screen
Figure 14: Off and on-screen roles (gender identity)
Figure 15: Genre off and on-screen roles (gender identity)
Figure 16: Senior and non-senior roles (gender identity)
Figure 17: Scripted and non-scripted (gender identity)
Figure 18: Broadcaster off and on-screen roles (gender identity)
Headlines
Compared to national workforce estimates (48.6% Labour Force Survey), women remain well represented in off-screen roles (53.6%). However, women are less well represented on-screen. They made 49.6% of on-screen contributions in 2025, a decrease from 52% of contributions in 2021, and slightly lower than population estimates (51% Annual Population Survey).
Off-screen
Overall, women are better represented than men in off-screen roles (Figure 2). However, women continue to be under-represented in many senior roles compared to their prevalence in the national workforce (48.6% Labour Force Survey) (Figure 7).
A wide gender divide continues in many production roles with many jobs being dominated by one gender. For example, 95% of Costume and Wardrobe contributions come from women, and 86% of Lighting contributions are made by men (Figure 9).
On-screen
Women and men are represented at equal levels on-screen, and in most on-screen role types. However, women are less well represented in non-scripted roles (49%) compared to scripted roles (52%) (Figure 10).
Transgender
People who identify as transgender are more strongly represented on-screen (0.9%) than off-screen (0.6%) (Figure 14). They are far less represented in senior roles (0.2%) than they are in non-senior (0.8%) roles (Figure 16).
Genres
Women are least well represented on Comedy programmes, particularly on-screen, making just 35% of contributions in 2025, down from 42% in 2024.
Women are best represented on Current Affairs programmes making 61% of contributions off-screen and 56% of contributions on-screen.
Off-screen, women’s representation has changed very little across most genres over the past seven years. However, significant increases are evident in Lifestyle (up 5.5 percentage points to almost 58%) and Current Affairs (up 4 percentage points to almost 61%) programmes. In these genres, women were represented at the highest rate in 2025.
Factual and Factual Entertainment programmes have seen the largest decreases in women’s off-screen representation. Nevertheless, women are still well represented in both genres when compared to the workforce as a whole (48.6%; Labour Force Survey 2025).
Women’s representation on-screen has changed considerably, however. While Entertainment programmes have seen strong growth in women’s representation – from 45% in 2019 to 51% in 2025 – other genres have seen large decreases. Over the past seven years, women’s on-screen contributions fell in Comedy (down 14.2 percentage points), Drama (down 9.5 percentage points), and Lifestyle (down 7.3 percentage points) programmes.
Despite making up 51% of the population, women are now making fewer than 50% of contributions on Factual (47%), Drama (46%), Factual Entertainment (44%), and Comedy (35%) programmes. However, women are still more strongly represented on-screen than men on Current Affairs and Children’s programmes (both around 56%).
Roles
Off-screen
Women continue to be less well represented in senior roles compared to non-senior roles. The percentage of contributions made by women in senior roles is the same in 2025 (50%) as it was in 2019, although this follows a dip to a low of 45% in 2022.
Women are significantly under-represented in three of the four senior creative roles:
Writers: Contributions fell from 38% in 2019 to 32% in 2022 before recovering to 41% in 2025.
Directors: Women still make only one quarter (26%) of all director contributions – a proportion that has changed very little year on year since 2019. This mirrors the gender divide in the gateway role of First Assistant Director where just 27% of contributions were made by women in 2025.
Producer Directors: This role has seen little change year on year since 2019, with contributions by women fluctuating between 36% and 39% (37% in 2025).
Producers: The wider dip in contributions by women in a senior role is reflected in the role of Producers. Contributions by women decreased substantially from 60% in 2019 to 46% in 2022, before returning to 60% in 2025.
Although women remain slightly less well represented than men in Executive Producer (44%) and Series Producer (47%) roles, women continue to dominate Head of Production roles. In 2025 women made 89% of Head of Production contributions.
Women also currently make a larger proportion of contributions in Commissioning Editor roles (58%) than men, despite a decline in the proportion of female contributions year on year since 2019.
Huge gender gaps exist in many other production roles. Men heavily dominate Lighting (86%), Camera (84%), Set Crafts (83%) and Sound (83%). Women dominate Hair and Make-Up (98%), Costume and Wardrobe (95%), and Legal and Business Affairs (71%).
The Craft and Technical department, which includes roles such as Production Designer and Stage Manager, is the only department that comes close to having a fifty-fifty split (52% men, 45% women).
Overall, the data strongly points to a workforce with occupational segregation based on gender both at senior and non-senior level.
On-screen
Overall, men and women are represented in fairly equal measure on non-scripted programmes.
Women are currently marginally better represented than men in scripted programmes. However, the proportion of contributions made by women has been declining – from 60% in 2019 to 52% in 2025 – and is now in line with population estimates (51%).
In most years, women have been better represented than men in both Lead Actor and Supporting Actor roles. However, last year saw a notable decrease in contributions made by women in Lead Actor roles, from 55% in 2024 to 50% in 2025. The gender split is now roughly fifty-fifty in both roles.
Representation of women in Main Contributor roles has fallen, however – from 51% of contributions in 2021 to 47% in 2025. Contributions made by women in the Contributor role have increased from 45% in 2022 to 51% in 2025.
Broadcasters
Overall, women are making a greater proportion of contributions on Sky programmes than on programmes by other broadcasters – 57% of on-screen contributions (the highest of all broadcasters) as well as 55% of contributions off-screen. Women are also making a greater proportion of off-screen contributions on Channel 4 and ITV programmes (both 56%).
Women are making fewest contributions on UKTV programmes (45% off-screen and 42% on-screen). Women are therefore under-represented on UKTV programmes compared to population (51%) and workforce (48.6%) estimates.
Transgender
People who identify as transgender are better represented on-screen than off-screen.
In 2025 people who identify as transgender made 0.9% of on-screen contributions and 0.6% of off-screen contributions. This is on a par with the overall national population estimate (0.5% England & Wales Census 2021).
Over the past seven years, on-screen representation has remained fairly consistent. However, the proportion of off-screen contributions by people who identify as transgender has increased from 0.2% in 2019 to 0.6% in 2025.
On Children’s, Comedy, and Drama programmes, there is strong representation by people who identify as transgender both on and off-screen.
On-screen, people who identify as transgender are most represented on Factual Entertainment programmes (1.8%).
On Entertainment programmes on-screen representation (1.2%) is relatively high, but off-screen representation (0.3%) is much lower.
People who identify as transgender are also less well represented on Lifestyle programmes, making just 0.2% of contributions off-screen and 0.3% contributions on-screen.
When compared to the national population estimate (0.5%; England & Wales Census 2021), people who identify as transgender are under-represented in senior roles (0.2%) but more strongly represented in non-senior roles (0.8%).
In 2022, people who identify as transgender made an equal proportion of contributions in senior and non-senior roles. Since then, representation in senior roles has fallen, while representation in non-senior roles has doubled. In part, this may be because senior roles are more likely to be occupied by older crew members (41% aged 50 plus) compared to non-senior roles, which are a younger demographic (23% aged over 50).
Overall, on-screen representation by people who identify as transgender is strong (1% non-scripted; 0.8% scripted) compared to the national population benchmark (0.5%).
However, the data points to a shift in representation over the past seven years. Transgender representation used to be higher in scripted programmes (1.3% of contributions in 2019, falling to 0.8% in 2025). But in non-scripted roles, representation has increased from 0.6% contributions in 2019 to 1% in 2025.
It is important to note that in scripted roles, the data relates to the actors playing a role and not the characters they portray.
Overall, BBC has the strongest representation of people who identify as transgender – 0.8% of off-screen contributions and 1% of on-screen contributions in 2025. Channel 4 has the strongest representation on-screen (1.3%) but one of the lowest representations off-screen (0.3%).
People who identify as transgender are under-represented in UKTV programmes relative to national population estimates (0.5%). Off-screen, they account for 0.2% of programme contributions. On-screen, data has been redacted due to insufficient sample size.