Stuart Neil Luke Murphy CBE (born 6 November 1971 in Leeds) was the Chief Executive of the English National Opera (2018–2023).
[9][10] His partner, David Clews is Creative Director of TwoFour, and directed the BAFTA-award-winning Educating Essex.
He re-joined the BBC to work for Jane Root in the Independent Commissioning Group, and later developed Radio One TV for Roly Keating, on UKTV.
He kickstarted parenting programming on TV, with Who Rules The Roost, Honey, We're Killing The Kids, Little Angels and The House of Tiny Tearaways both presented by Tanya Byron.
He joined Sky1 in May 2009 and commissioned a variety of drama, entertainment, and factual programmes including Got to Dance, Must Be the Music, A League of Their Own, Terry Pratchett's Going Postal, Strike Back, Mad Dogs, The Runaway, Little Crackers, Ross Kemp: Middle East Special, Pineapple Dance Studios, Louie Spence's Showbusiness, An Idiot Abroad, Trollied, Mount Pleasant, Spy, Stella, Starlings, among many others.
He was also given responsibility for launching Sky Atlantic, a new entertainment channel which is the home of the majority of HBO content in the UK.
[16] In March 2018, Murphy was appointed Chief Executive of the English National Opera, where he worked with Annilese Miskimmon (joined 2020) and Martyn Brabbins on ENO's leadership team, a position he held until September 2023.
As part of Murphy's 'seismic' mission to attract a younger audience to ENO, in December 2018 he announced free tickets for under-18s on Friday and Saturday nights in the balcony of the London Coliseum.
In an article attacking ENO's 2019 decision to limit reviewers to a single free ticket as "morally wrong", opera gossip columnist Norman Lebrecht said Murphy "makes his predecessors seem reasoned and adept.
[21] Murphy was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to opera.