I've worked for more than 20 years in TV,  specialising in Factual Entertainment - especially VFX-heavy series and Presenter-led Documentaries / Structured Reality, in the UK and the USA.  

From 2018-2023, I was the showrunner for Life on Our Planet - a ground-breaking VFX project produced by Silverback Films in collaboration with Amblin Television. Executive Produced by Steven Spielberg and narrated by Morgan Freeman this game-changing series tells the greatest story of them all - the story of life. From its humble beginnings in the primordial soup almost 4 billion years ago through the ages of fish, amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs and mammals.

Combining incredible VFX (created by Industrial Light & Magic) with world class natural history, this is a series that has to be seen to be believed - not least because this is not some sort of predictable walk through the past. Instead, it’s a story of chance and chaos; of opportunity and disaster; of evolution and revolution. It’s nature’s very own Game of Thrones… where instead of the Starks and the Lannisters, there’s the reptiles and the dinosaurs!  Great dynasties, all locked in battle where the winners inherit the earth, and the losers succumb to extinction.

As showrunner my role was to oversee, well, everything. The story, the team, the VFX, the schedule, the budget, the pandemic and everything in between!

This was the most complicated, challenging, ambitious project I have ever worked on…and I think it shows. Indeed, it was nominated for the first of its many awards even before it aired - a first for me for sure! Getting the chance to work with Spielberg and have him congratulate me on the quality of the final films was definitely a career goal ticked off!

Airing in 2017, The Twinstitute was a brand new science commission for BBC2 in which doctors Chris and Xand van Tulleken use identical twins to scientifically test whether certain health choices are true or false.  Running at 6 x 30, this was Trust me I’m a doctor reinvented for a new audience and a new you.

I was the Show-Runner and Series Editor. This dual role saw me come up with the series style, find the iconic filming location and devise the 20 experiments that made up the series. Given various challenges along the way, this was a particularly demanding show to put together which makes the fact that it’s turned out to be a real show-stopper all the more worthwhile.

In early 2017 I was the showrunner for Deadly Dinosaurs with Steve Backshall. "Deadly" is one of the most important of all formats for CBBC - indeed, 85% of UK households have tuned into Deadly at some point, and that's also reflected globally.

Deadly Dinosaurs was a series that takes the Deadly brand to a new level as Steve Backshall interacts with the latest CGI graphics, as well as taking part in some epic stunts.  I was specifically head-hunted by the BBC for this project so that I could inject the brand with a new lease of life and as Spinal Tap(ster) would say, turn it up to 11. This is Dinosaurs meets Top Gear and it's epic.

Up until 2018 I still consulted on this behemoth of a science series - partly because it's a brand that I will always be passionate about and why not - it's the second most watched factual show in the world!

Before my role as a creative consultant, I worked as Executive Producer and Show-runner  from 2005 - 2015. During that time I was responsible for the creation and implementation of 220 hours of television featuring more than 700 original ideas.  In the decade I was at the helm the show was watched across the globe more than 4 billion times. That sounds wrong but isn’t!  

As EP / Showrunner,  I was involved in every aspect of production including;  overseeing and creating all content,  staffing,  budget,  digital marketing,  social media strategies,  scripting, mentoring, scheduling, quality control,  final approvals,  compliance,  S&P,  promotion,  merchandise,  sales, museum design, safety, funding and talent relations.   

Over the years, I have also worked worked on a myriad of other factual entertainment series for US markets, including:  

• SuperCar Mega Build: Returning for a second series in 2017,  Supercar Megabuild is National Geographic's highest rating car show.  This season saw a cast overhaul with the show now fronted by Shane Lynch,  Dan Barruffo and Alex Prindiville. I was the showrunner for this 8-parter which involved everything from directing,  writing,  scheduling,  staffing,  talent management, compliance and more.  

• White Rabbit Project. White Rabbit Project is Netflix's first factual commission and hit screens in late 2016. I was a key part of the development team, shot the original pilot and was consulted through production.

• Surviving Exodus: A tie in with Ridley Scott's 2014 epic "Exodus: Gods and Kings". Hosted by Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul, I headed up the development of this project broadcast as a simulcast on all of Discovery's channels.

• MythBusters:  “The Search"  is a  reality competition series made for Science Channel and Discovery International.  I created it, developed it, pitched it and then ran it. The show aired in 2017 and was the highest rating new series on the network since 2011 - aided by the LIVE finale.

• Head Rush: A kids' TV show in which Kari Byron explains cool science. This was woven into President Obama's STEM initiative such that it was commercial free for its duration.

• ProtoType This: The rather ambitious goal of this show was to try to build the gadgets of the future. I was a consultant on the series throughout the entire process - pre-pro, production and post.

• Weaponizers: How to describe this unique show? Top Gear meets Top Gun? Or maybe BattleBots on steroids! Each week two teams would go head to head turning a random vehicle into a lethal killing machine.

• Monster Bug Wars: Bugs go head to head in this tongue-in-cheek B-movie inspired natural history series.

From the late 90s,  I spent 6 years at the world-renowned BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol.  During that time,  I worked across a number of different projects but the undoubted highlights are listed below.  These highlights saw me partner with some great people,  learn a huge amount about image quality,  understand the need for better story-telling in nature film-making,  and realise a life-time ambition in working with and directing the icon that is Sir David Attenborough. Projects I worked in include:

• British Isles:  A Natural History with Alan Titchmarsh
• David Attenborough's "The Life of Mammals"
• Wildlife on One
• Andes to Amazon
• Planet Earth
• Europe: Cradle of Civilisation 
• Bears on the Black Run