Colleagues and friends have paid tribute to Laura Offer, a well-respected factual producer, who passed away after a short illness at the age of 41.
Offer was most recently showrunner of Paramount+’s Ice Airport Alaska and her resume includes a raft of premium documentaries across Disney+, Discovery and National Geographic.
She got her start in television as a researcher for shows such as ITV’s All Star Mr & Mrs before becoming an assistant producer on series including Sky’s Gadget Geeks, BBC2’s Stargazing Live: Back to Earth and ITV’s Who Wants To Be A Millionaire before moving into development.
She was a producer and director on a number of The X Factor spinoffs and the BBC’s current affairs show The Victoria Derbyshire Programme, before becoming a series producer.
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Her long list of credits including Discovery’s Outrageous Acts of Science, Dave’s Lazy Boy Garage, Investigation Discovery’s Body Cam, Discovery+’s Viagra: The Little Blue Pill That Changed The World and When Sharks Attack 360, which aired on National Geographic and Disney+.
Rare Television’s Greg Chivers and Christian Broadhurst worked with Offer as executive producers on Ice Airport Alaska. The pair called her an “exceptional” producer and a “great human being”. “Laura brought an energy and a light to the job that infected everyone around her. She took an established franchise into new territory, and her work is a testament to her abilities. Her quest to follow in the footsteps of her father who kayaked the rugged coast of Alaska became a shared mission for her crew on location. She was a champion and a mentor for young people coming up through the industry, and her passing leaves a huge hole in the lives of all her friends and colleagues,” they added.
Kate Nowicki was an edit producer who worked with Offer on series including Ice Airport Alaska. “One of the editors there said, ‘Laura was everything you want your showrunner to be’. And he is right. She cared about her team, she thought about their safety, gave them a voice, confidence in their work and a lot of grace. She championed people. You always felt safe, respected and part of a team with Laura – she was the lynchpin of every production she worked on. Laura was also funny, so funny – and had a wicked sense of humor. She was truly what made TV amazing to work in while understanding how tough it is. Basically, she was one of the good ones and I felt so lucky to have her as my friend and colleague. The outpouring of grief from people who knew her, in every capacity, is testimony to how much she was loved and respected and what a huge loss she it to the TV world and the world at large,” she said.
Offer worked on a number of shows with Arrow Media including multiple series of Body Cam and Shark Attack 360.
Stuart Pender, an executive producer at the company called her “one of the most engaging and warm-hearted people I have known”. “I was messaging Laura just days before her passing and the shock of her death has hit everyone who knew her, incredibly hard. An incredibly loyal and supportive friend with a very mischievous side, we would regularly chat and message in a friendship group, looking out for each other when we were finding work challenging. She instinctively knew the right words to say and always made sure nobody felt alone. On the series she worked on, her kindness, humor and compassion created an environment where everyone felt seen and valued. She will forever be part of the Arrow family, and I will miss her dearly,” he added.
Arrow Media’s Nick Metcalfe also worked with her. He said that she kept the wheels on Body Cam during season three, when it ran into the pandemic lockdown and wrangled the “the diaries of sharks and contributors and a challenging virtual studio” on two seasons of Shark Attack 360.
“You never want to find yourself writing these words about a colleague, and it’s a shock when it’s one so much younger,” he added. “I worked with Laura many times, and she was a fine TV producer. But that’s not what I’m going to miss the most. She was a decent human being with a brilliantly positive outlook. In the imperfect world of TV production, full of egos, it was a joy to work with her even when things got tough. Of course, she rolled her eyes about a flaky contributor, or a shoot which was falling apart, but she had a brilliantly wicked sense of humor, which would see her through and carry me and the team as well.
She will be profoundly missed,” he added.
Martin Cass was a producer who worked with her on both Body Cam and Shark Attack 360. Cass said that Offer was “rare, sharp and cutting yet warm”.
“Laura’s loss has hit many of us deeply and I think that speaks volumes to what an incredible person and colleague she was. I worked with her across three series and on development projects. Television can be a fleeting industry; jobs are shot, teams come and a lot of us bounce from one project to the next. But Laura stuck with you. She left an impression. Working with her was a joy. She gave you space to do your own thing, to be creative – and somehow managed to make you feel both trusted and supported at the same time,” he added. “Something I always admired about her was she never needed to take up space to prove a point or contribute – she’d listen, let things play out and then drop a one-liner that either nailed it or sparked exactly the right next thought. That is an art.”
Simon Percy, a director at Little Shadow, worked with Offer as his company did VFX for Shark Attack 360. He called her “unwaveringly supportive” and “absolutely, inappropriately hilarious”.
You meet few people in life who truly embody real values, but Laura was one of them. From the moment I met her, she was a wonderful force of nature. You always knew exactly where you stood with her. Play it straight and true, and you’d get the very best of her in return. She had that rare ability to bring order out of chaos, drawing the right people into the mix, stirring the pot, and always finding a solution,” he added. “Calm, outwardly confident, and endlessly capable, Laura carried a smile and an ease that made even the most stressful situations feel manageable. She had a sharp eye for quality and a generous in her collaborations. She knew what she knew and if she didn’t, she wasn’t afraid to ask. That honesty, humility, and hunger to learn made her stand out.”
Offer’s funeral is set to take place on Saturday and donations are encouraged to the British Heart Foundation, which was a charity close to her heart.