About Francis Hellyer

Theatre tickets, online

Francis studied at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and began his career at the BBC.

In 1999 Francis co-founded London Theatre Direct with Emmanuel Ciolfi[5]. The company introduced interactive seating plans and API connections to West End ticketing. Trafalgar Entertainment’s chief executives have described it as “one of the UK’s first exclusively online ticket agencies”[1].

In February 2014 London Theatre Direct began accepting bitcoin, reported by CoinDesk as the first ticket agency in the world to do so[2]. London Theatre Direct was acquired by Trafalgar Entertainment in 2019[1]. Francis remained a director until August 2022[6], and that autumn Trafalgar marked the co-founders’ farewell. Its staff newsletter credits London Theatre Direct as the first company to introduce live interactive seating plans for all London theatres, and quotes Francis: “Over the past two decades, we worked incredibly hard, and technology and innovation were always at the very heart of everything we created.”[7]

A West End street corner at night, a theatre facade lit with a large poster for Les Misérables — The West End at night, 2012. Photo: Steve Collis, CC BY 2.0

tickadoo

Francis founded tickadoo with the team behind London Theatre Direct. It launched in July 2024 and sells official tickets for theatre, attractions, tours and experiences[3]. He launched it with Emmanuel Ciolfi, and it opened in test markets in London, New York and Las Vegas[8]. As founder and chief executive, he announced in August 2026 that tickadoo had acquired BritishTheatre.com[9].

Film

Francis is executive producer and host of Tech To The Future, a short documentary directed by Sandro Monetti about science fiction becoming science fact. It was previewed at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival[4]. Its production company, Tech To The Future Ltd, is now Audiama Studios[6].

His other film credits include executive producer of The Gospel of Us (2012) and producer of Don’t Turn Out the Lights (2023) (IMDb).

Audiama

Francis is chief executive of Audiama, an audio drama company[10]. He was executive producer of its production Lonely No More, an eight-part, full-cast science fiction drama written and created by Sebastian Baczkiewicz and directed by Jessica Dromgoole[11]. Big Finish released it in January 2026[12].

Metaverse, the podcast

From August 2021 to June 2023 Francis hosted Metaverse, a podcast of conversations with futurists, founders, scientists and storytellers. All 31 episode write-ups are kept on this site.

Writing and community

He has written for the Rolling Stone Culture Council on deepfakes, banking and turning disruption into opportunity. As a member of the Forbes Business Council[13] and the Fast Company Executive Board he writes on AI, live entertainment and leadership. See Writing.

He is a member of the BAFTA Academy Circle and a BFI patron, and invests in and mentors early-stage companies.

Monaco

Francis lives in Monaco[6][13], where he is Chapter Chair of YPO Monaco and French Riviera. On 20 May 2023, during the Cannes Film Festival, the Monaco and French Riviera chapters hosted “The Future of Film” with YPO’s Sports and Entertainment Industry Network. Monaco Life’s report pictures Francis there with Colin Burrows, Valentina Castellani-Quinn and Sandro Monetti, the director of Tech To The Future[14].