Kayleigh Hughes
Consultant
Kayleigh joined SPI in 2019, and as a Consultant works across all of our projects, providing detailed and comprehensive research and data analysis.
Kayleigh has worked for a range of SPI’s international clients, such as the Australia and New Zealand Screen Association (ANZSA), Ausfilm, Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, the Georgia Screen Entertainment Coalition (GSEC), the Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI), the Motion Picture Association (MPA), and the British Film Institute (BFI).
With particular expertise in organising and maintaining large research projects, Kayleigh was responsible for a major project tracking COVID-19 production developments on a global basis, examining logistical changes and challenges to production across 130 territories and jurisdictions. Kayleigh was the lead researcher and responsible for maintaining the project and delivering daily client updates over the 18-months the project ran.
Her current projects include a Production and Infrastructure Capacity Audit for the Mid-West region of Ireland and a skills mapping and forecasting study for the British Film Institute (BFI). More recently, Kayleigh led economic impact studies in Poland, Australia and the US state Georgia. She also led a cultural impact study on the cultural dividend generated by Ireland’s Section 481 tax incentive. The first report of its kind, the study in Ireland used a mixed method approach to examine the impact that the Section 481 film and television production incentive has delivered for Irish society, for audiences in Ireland and around the world, and for professionals working in the Irish creative screen industry.
Prior to SPI, Kayleigh worked in academia in Australia and the UK. As an academic, Kayleigh lectured at several leading Queensland universities, including the Queensland University of Technology and Griffith Film School, as well as Ravensbourne University in London, on subjects relating to international screen studies, screen business practices and the global creative industries.
Kayleigh holds a PhD in Screen Studies from the Queensland University of Technology.