Clare Bonsor: Bringing Talent to Talk

Be open minded and receptive to the opportunities life brings your way. That’s good advice for anyone. Talent producer Clare Bonsor adamantly agrees with this and her successful career attests to the benevolent possibilities. Of course, this idea doesn’t preclude hard work. Bonsor has navigated her path through many different productions and transformations of the entertainment world. She is perennially on the cutting edge of the personalities in the public eye and the manner in which access to them is delivered. As the professional that TV and webcasts rely upon to deliver the famous faces that viewers crave, Clare has worked with the most well-known names of film, music, television, and more. Her peers refer to her as the “fixer” but Bonsor still prefers the moniker talent producer, it’s much less ostentatious and more appropriate for someone like herself who prefers to be just out of the spotlight while remaining close to it.

Clare’s first foray into working with the famous was on the fashion desk at the Evening Standard Magazine. Following six years of fashion shoots, she began working for Emma Hardy, the Head of Talent at Princess Productions. Her work as talent producer at Princess Productions included programs T4 (Channel 4) and Got to Dance (Sky 1) as well as print publications like Evening Standard Magazine and Wonderland. During this period her acclaim for procuring talent for television began to demand the majority of her focus. She went where the work was calling her. Her time with The Queen Latifah Show saw her working with Hollywood icons like Morgan Freeman and Sharon Stone. When she brought Nicki Minaj to the show, the music artist turned the tables on Bonsor. She recalls, “Nicki asked me to record an Instagram video on her account, with her interviewing me in a British accent and me responding with mine straight to camera.” Minaj has more than thirty-nine million Instagram followers, making Bonsor herself a certified internet celebrity that day. Perhaps superseding this surreal moment was when Harry (the Harry Connick Jr Show) was nominated for the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Entertainment Talk Show during Bonsor’s tenure there.

Online web-based entertainment has seen a massive surge in recent years. The popularity of original web and streaming content indicates that this is likely to be an equal to traditional broadcast and cable television if not its successor. Talent and talent producers alike have been pulled to this emerging and expanding venue. American media conglomerate Meredith Corporation (officially the largest magazine company in the world and boasting $1.6 billion in revenues) enlisted Clare as Talent Producer for their latest venture People TV. The celebrity focused mindset of People magazine finds a manifestation online with original programming such as PeopleTV Chatter, PeopleNow, PeopleTV Paws and Claws, PeopleTV Survivor, The Jess Cagle Interview, and others. Bonsor’s years of establishing positive working relationships with the representatives of A list celebs made her an asset to the majority of productions on People TV. While at People TV, Clare has worked with: Will Ferrell on Entertainment Weekly, Jimmy Fallon, Glenn Close, Jane Fonda, and Ricky Gervais on The Jess Cagle Interview, Rose Byrne, Brooke Shields, Rebel Wilson, Rose Byrne on InStyle Dirty Laundry, and countless others. Internet content is not overlooked when it comes to recognition. Clare confirms that she is excited that Entertainment Weekly: Couch Surfing (which she has contributed to) has just been nominated for a Cablefax Program Award in the category “Best Show or Series — Talk Shows.”

Clinging to the motto of following the possibilities, Bonsor’s most recent work as talent producer has taken her into an arena essentially unknown to her before…sports. Working with Sports Illustrated TV (available on Amazon Channels), Clare is a part of the original programming talk show format that complements the licensed movies and documentary films which appeal to the sports enthusiast and viewer. Contrary to what one might think, she finds this “duck out of water” circumstance invigorating stating, “No, I’m not a sports person but due to the contacts, experience, and a lot of research I’m able to find talent that is relevant to each show. Maybe it would be an easier role if I was a sports fanatic but I work on the premise that sports knowledge can be learnt. It’s just another phase in my professional evolution, and I’m excited about it!”