Cowshed Collective (Ryan O’Shea and George Cowin). Again…

There are companies that make only a brief appearance on the “Freelancers Beware” pages of this site. They come, get written up then disappear when they put right the problems they created for freelancers.

Then there are companies like Cowshed Collective.

Stand up the owners of that company, Ryan O’Shea and George Cowin, and take your bow because you have now earned your company a second outing on these pages (not very long after the last one), on account of your continuing and repeated failure to pay numerous freelancers in full and on time what they are owed.

Stories about this company and their joint MDs are now starting to fill up space on social media, so fed up have its workers become at being repeatedly screwed around by these two miscreants.

Not content with causing misery and financial hardship to those who worked on their Footasylum project and then Series 1 and then Series 2 of “Inside the Sidemen”, they are now carrying forward their fuckwittery to their current series, “Inside the Sidemen USA 1”.

Yet again the company is busy trotting out its “dog ate my homework” excuses for not paying on time. And added to this, the company is illegally failing to pay holiday pay to any of these workers as well as treating Runners and Assistants as being self employed, despite the clear HMRC regulations which forbid the company from doing so.

The company (there is nothing “collective” about the way these two behave) is by all accounts now testing the patience of their commisioners at The Sidemen and Netflix. There is plenty of other nonsense going on behind the scenes as well it seems and, while it is tempting to blame all this on sheer ineptitude (given the lack of experience these two have in running a company), it’s now gone way beyond that. Two years of them trotting out a parade of excuses each time it happens is way too long for them not to sort themselves out and behave like grown-ups.

At the end of the day it is of course the freelancers who find themselves holding the sticky end of the lollipop. It may be of absolutely no interest to these two that they are creating misery in the lives of the people who work for them but at least the freelancers in question can now let the wider public know how they feel.

Here is what just a few of them had to say (all verbatim):

“Cowshed have paid me late every time I have worked for them. Not only is there a 60 day wait period post-invoice, but when the period has passed, they do not pay until I threaten legal action with a third party. Their finance email gets no response without getting an external party involved and the phone line never picks up. The other members of production claim that it is not their department, so it feels impossible to get paid for the work you do on time.”

“When working for cowshed It was one of my first TV jobs so I was very naive and I feel they knew this. I had worked long days before in an intense workspace but this was by far the worst. We got treated very poorly and had to stay late multiple times for which we had to beg for the overtime pay”.

“When it came to actually being paid, I was not paid on time. I did query this but was shut down and then did eventually get paid. After this, I was then almost blacklisted and never spoken to ever again, yet asked back multiple times for work before the pay situation. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to work for them and I would also not like anyone to experience of the stress of chasing your own hard earned money. I would never ever work for them again”.

“every time I have worked for Cowshed I have had to fight to get paid, and when I have got paid it’s been significantly late. Alongside this, the show I worked on was an extremely toxic environment that genuinely effected my mental health in a negative way”.

“After I concluded my contract with Cowshed, I chased numerous amounts of times for my pay over the course of 4 months, which was just continuously ignored. This was incredibly frustrating, and I didn’t really know what to do as I have never come across a company who has done this. Being freelance and jumping job to job I had to keep reminding myself to chase this pay which just became a nuisance as I had other things going on”.

“As a freelancer I agreed to Cowshed's sixty day payment terms, something I'd never experienced before, for those payments to be made even later. I feel like one of the lucky ones because due to your intervention I was paid within 90 days. However I had to decide whether i wanted to call out the companies bad behaviour and lose a job on the upcoming season or play nice and wait to be paid on their timescale but have a job on the new season.

Eventually I decided to take your help in getting the money I was owed as I felt that they were using the next series as leverage to not pay freelancers. I am glad that I did as I have heard that treatment on the third series has been even worse and I fear the company will be unable to pay their outstanding freelance wages”. 

“When it came down to being paid on time, the company exceeded their payment term by a substantial amount of time and I had to take action in order to get the compensation I was owed. It was unprofessional and unneccessarily stressfull. Thankfully I did get my money in the end, but it didn't come easily”.

"I worked one exhausting week for Cowshed Productions — and spent the next three months chasing the paycheck I earned. Despite confirming my invoice details with the production manager and line producer (who assured me 'it shouldn’t take longer than 2 weeks, a month at most'), I was left sending over 20 ignored emails while juggling a move, a health crisis, and basic survival.

They missed their own 60-day deadline by 10 days, only paying up after outside intervention. Cowshed wasn't waiting on funds — they just chose to string me along. The lack of communication and respect was astounding. If you’re thinking about working for them, here’s my advice: if you enjoy unpaid labor and being gaslit by silence, go for it. If you value your time, effort, and dignity — run".

“Inside was the hardest and worst production I’ve ever had the displeasure of working on. Ryan imposed unrealistic expectations on everyone, with decisions were being made at the last possible second which meant no department had adequate time to turn things around which led to frustration from him and said frustration being taken out on those trying to make the best out of the bad situation.

The rule that everyone must invoice and no one can be PAYE which is in clear violation of HMRC rules is absurd and was a clear point of contention throughout the team. No one was comfortable with the rule no matter who you spoke to.

Challenges were being abandoned at the eleventh hour with little regard for the time and effort that had been put in to turning it around, which led to illegal hours being worked by all crew involved, including junior members of staff. And now to hear that freelancers aren’t being paid on time, it’s the final nail in the coffin for many. At no point is this the fault of any of the freelancers, especially the production team. You could always see them running around trying to sort out the mess that cowshed left behind. Avoid this company like the plague. No one should have to go through what I went through”.

“I worked for Cowshed Collective in 2024 and it wasn’t a positive experience. After the shoot I invoiced on time but my payment did not come through when it was meant to. Not being paid on time was extremely stressful and detrimental to my mental health. I had a mortgage to pay and didn’t know if I was going to be able to pay it.

This was the only job I had that month and which caused increased concern as I didn’t know when I would receive payment. Knowing that other members of the team also hadn’t received payment for their services caused more concern and fear about if I would ever get paid for the work I threw my heart and soul into”.

”Working for Cowshed was one of the most stressful experiences of my career. Despite fulfilling my role professionally, I had to chase relentlessly for months on end just to be paid what I was owed. I contacted everyone I could — from the owner of the compant, production management to accounting — and was ignored or dismissed time and time again.

I would be promised payment tomorrow, then tomorrow I wouldnt be paid and the circle of ignoring and deflecting began. The anxiety and financial strain it caused me had a serious impact on my personal life. I would strongly advise anyone considering working with them to think twice”.

“While working with Cowshed Collective, I encountered delays in receiving payment, which made managing freelance finances challenging. As someone solely reliant on freelance income, this added an extra layer of stress. I hope highlighting these experiences can help others make more informed decisions”.

“My contract at cowshed specified I would be paid after 30 days. They didn't pay me for 2 and a half months. In that time I emailed them frequently and got little to no response. Due to Cowshed's late payment and total lack of communication I was forced to take out a loan in order to pay for the deposit on the flat I was moving into. Due to their negligence and intentional withholding of payment my offer on a flat could easily have fallen through and left me homeless”.

”We initially weren’t provided any equipment / laptops to be able to do our jobs despite being on site for the duration of the job, so we had to fight for this. Our contracts stated we were only allowed one day off for the entirety of the job, and this day would be decided by the company (this included working weekends).

Multiple employees were hired knowingly by the company without any relevant experience for the role but were expected to produce multiple well crafted shows in a time frame that wasn’t feasible, meaning they worked well beyond their means. After not being paid on time, the team, including one of the owners, repeatedly ignored emails / phone calls for months on end until being threatened with legal action”.

Runners were offered a flat £120 day rate under Schedule D, meaning they had to invoice for their work. Last-minute changes from commissioners were rarely challenged, resulting in runners regularly working over 12-hour days, effectively earning below minimum wage. Attempts by production to escalate these issues to company decision-makers went unanswered.

Additionally, during rigging, decision-makers questioned the need for having a medic on site and considered it unnecessary to hire riggers to move set pieces to and from storage. As a result, untrained runners were left responsible for lifting heavy wooden structures without proper manual handling training or medical supervision, which is not only a non common practice in the industry, but does also break the health and safety act.

"It took 6 months to receive payment for my work which included £100s of my own money that had been spent on expenses. After 14 emails chasing the accounts team I was finally paid".

I’ve now worked for Cowshed as a Runner three times; once on a shoot for “Locked In”, a 21 day straight, 13 hour day shoot where all our per diems for the rig and de-rig, as well as congestion charges etc, had to be paid upfront, totalling over £200 that I had to foot upfront- I then waited on their painfully long 60-day turnaround for payment, only to not be paid anyway. The first time I got paid was two weeks after the fact, after emailing virtually every day and having to threaten legal action.

After that, I’ve done two more daily shoots with Cowshed, the last was paid two weeks late again, but this time around- it’s 6 weeks after my payment is due and I’m still waiting on it despite numerous emails- most of which are simply ignored. It seems to be that this is the expectation with Cowshed, you wait double the time as anywhere else- and then don’t get paid anyway. Their responses (when you get them) are painfully vague.

I was aware of the negative nature of Cowshed before I even joined the Production for the US version of Inside. I knew what was happening from a colleague who worked on the show and what was happening from the unprofessionalism of Ryan along with other things surrounding the show. From the sounds of it there has been drama start to finish and even post contract the drama still is happening.

On my first day the set wasn't finished being constructed when it was supposed to be all built before rehearsal day even came about and during the rehearsal day, I knew a few people who worked in TV were there for the day and the conversations that I had with them and we all agreed that there was a tense atmosphere surrounding the production. I then was asked to join the production fully for RX week.

From the off, everyone was walking around on eggshells, there was no communication leaving everyone confused about what was happening, the production office and even execs weren't told multiple important pieces of information first before anyone else in regards to games being cut and eliminations happening, when somehow the entirety of Gallery knew before anyone else.

The de-rig was one from hell, there were points where myself and multiple other people wanted to walk out due to how frustrating it was to watch as Ryan kept on ignoring us when concerns were raised by anyone on the team

Ryan's and Cowshed's unprofessionalism and ineptitude has me dumbfounded beyond belief.

As a freelancer working with Cowshed Collective, I want to express my concern regarding the late payment of my invoices. Being freelance means I rely heavily on timely payments to meet essential financial commitments like rent and bills. When payments are delayed beyond the already lengthy 60-day contract terms, it causes significant stress and leaves me feeling vulnerable.

Freelancers uphold their end of the agreement by delivering work on time, and it is only fair to expect the same professionalism in return. Late payments from Cowshed Collective are not just inconvenient — they have real-world consequences on the lives of those they depend on for creative work. It is essential that the company prioritises paying freelancers promptly, respecting both the agreements in place and the people who contribute to their success.

When my contract came through they highlighted their payment policy would take up to 60days from the invoice date, which I felt was unnecessarily long but I accepted, knowing after those 60 days I’d get some money to help settle financial worries. I sent my invoice through the day after I finished the job in late May and didn’t get any response. After chasing they confirmed they’d received my invoice and reminded me of their payment policy. However when the 60 days passed and I hadn’t received any money I sent an email chasing for an update and received nothing. 

I spoke to multiple other crew members who were all in the same position. No one from Cowshed accounts responded. I had to email one of the senior crew who were no longer attached to the show to try and get some information as I had rent and bills to pay and very little money in my account. I was relying on this payment to help cover living costs but was left in the dark as to when that money would come through. 

I eventually got paid in mid August - 3 months after my initial invoice got sent. Cowshed handled the whole situation so poorly, no apology was issued or accountability was taken. It was disgusting how little they informed or updated crew especially those depending on that income to survive. No other company needs 60+ days to issue payments, their policy needs to change and I know a lot of crew are starting to refuse to work for Cowshed due to treatment of pay.

(Many thanks to all the freelancers who contributed statements).

All in all then, it’s pretty clear that it’s well overdue for this company to sort itself out. Or get themselves out of the game in which they are clearly incapable of playing by the rules.

In the meantime, the warning still stands:

Cowshed Collective. Ryan O’Shea and George Cowin: Freelancers Beware.