Tessa Watts

Born: 25th October 1945, Bedfordshire, UK

Died: 13th May 2014

British music video producer. Tessa was a childhood nickname and Watts is from her marraige to Michael Watts.

Started in the music industry as a secretary to promoter [a=Harvey Goldsmith]. Then became PR at [l=Transatlantic Records], moving to Radio Luxembourg and settling at the fledgling [l=Virgin] Records in 1976, as head of PR. Her appointment to Director of Video Production led to seminal videos such as Sledgehammer by [a=Peter Gabriel], with claymation animation by [a=Nick Park] (of Wallace & Gromit fame), and Don't You Want Me Baby by [a=Human League]. She worked with future Hollywood directors [a=David Fincher] on Freedom! '90 by [a=George Michael] and [a=Michael Bay]. She once estimated that she worked on over 1,500 music videos.