From Edinburgh to LA, America's Got Talent creative producer Harriet Cuddeford's credits include K-Pop stars BTS

It’s been some journey she admits, reflecting, “When I was at school, I didn’t realise there were all these amazing creative careers. I thought I should be a lawyer, which is crazy to look back on now, I really can’t imagine the lawyer me. It was only when I moved to London to study and started going to music gigs that it dawned on me there was a whole music industry I could work in.”

Harriet attended the Compass School in Haddington and then St Mary’s Music School in the Capital until a scholarship took her to Fettes College. Yet while she enjoyed music, there was nothing in her family background to suggest the creative career that lay ahead.

“My mum is a vet and my dad was a lecturer at the Vet school at Edinburgh University as well as being a consultant in horse nutrition - definitely not showbiz,” she says. “But creativity, especially playing music, was encouraged at home by my mum. Back then, however, the idea I could work in something that I love was mind blowing.”

As a Creative Producer on AGT, Harriet works across all the live shows that take place in Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre, home of the Oscars. It’s her job to work with each act to ensure their performance fills the theatre’s famous stage, enabling the talent to impress the judges. Everything you see on stage, from the clothes they wear to the set pieces, the lighting, special effects, video content and choreography is drawn from Harriet’s imagination.

It’s a skill her time at St Mary’s Music School and Fettes helped to hone.

“I played a lot of music at both schools so I learnt a great deal about performance. It also really fostered my creative abilities. The deep love and understanding of music I developed in these environments gave me so much passion for music and is integral to my ability to create music performances for television.

“When you create a performance with an artist, you need to understand and feel the song and marry what you are creating visually with the music, essentially making a visual interpretation of a song.”

Both schools also instilled a strong work ethic, says Harriet, whose first forays into the music business came through work experience spells at NME, Rough Trade record label and a music management company looking after the likes of Franz Ferdinand and Kaiser Chiefs.

“At both St Mary’s and Fettes College we had a tough schedule and were expected to work very hard,” she recalls. “This without a doubt shaped my work ethic and trained me to withstand an unusually intense schedule. On a show like America’s Got Talent, I have to deliver creative content for two huge shows a week over a few months.”

It was at the age of 24 that Harriet got her introduction to the world of Simon Cowell, when she landed a job as a TV Development Assistant with his company Syco Entertainment - where she now holds the title Global Creative Director.

“I couldn’t believe it, as a kid I had always loved pop music and bands like Westlife, who had come from Simon and Syco,” she enthuses. “It felt amazing I was now working at the company that signed the band I used to go and watch at the SECC when I was little. I had grown up obsessed with music television, so the fact I was now working on X Factor, was amazing.”

She continues, “Simon wanted me to learn about how we made our shows so I started going down to the X Factor Live shows every week, helping him note the performances in the dress rehearsal. I learnt so much from him about creating performances for TV. I became really passionate about it and started working on all our different TV shows, and eventually, with all our music artists.”

During her 10 years at Syco, Harriet has directed many big names, “There was an amazing moment when we did the first season of America’s Got Talent: The Champions and Susan Boyle came back on the show,” she recalls.

“I wasn’t at Syco when she had her big break on Britain’s Got Talent so I really felt the pressure to compliment her immense talent with something beautiful creatively. She did an amazing job, the performance looked great and she got the golden buzzer. Both she and Simon were thrilled. I also had the honour of creative directing a performance for the K Pop band BTS and when I produced the AGT Christmas Special, Heidi Klum decided she wanted to perform a song with one of her favourite singers, a lovely guy called Sal who had previously done really well on the show.

“We wanted the performance to be cheeky and fun so I suggested Heidi fly in riding a giant candy cane while singing Santa Baby. Heidi is such a good sport, she always wants to have fun and she loved the idea so she said yes to doing it. How many people get to fly the world’s greatest super model on a giant candy cane?”

Pinch me moments like these happen all the time, laughs Harriet, adding, “With the bonkersness of AGT, it’s really hard not to have pinch me moments every week because it can be so gloriously surreal.

“For example, I’ve created an Indian temple in front of which an 8ft tall Indian man is lying down while his friends are smashing watermelons with giant hammers, right by his head, and I’ve surrounded him with giant flames. It’s hard not to think, ‘Wow, is this actually real?’”

Surprisingly, Harriet says she enjoys a much more relaxed pace of life living in LA than at home, apart from when on a production week.

“Having endless sunshine is incredible, it really affects your mood in a positive way,” and thoughtfully, she muses, “In life you do gravitate towards what you are meant to do. It’s taken me 12 years to get to this point and I’m very grateful. It has been so much hard work but it is worth it.

"I want to encourage anyone who is at school and feels a passion for anything creative to go for it. It doesn’t matter if you’re from a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. All the resources are online now, you can learn how to create and how to go for your dream career. Just be bold, put in the work and put yourself out there. You can achieve anything you decide to do, you just need to dream big enough. Visualize it, work hard and it will come. Don’t give up. Someone is going to give you a shot.”