Tiger Island
Kingdom
Big Cats 24/7 Series 2
Asia
Big Cat series 1
Springwatch
Planet Earth III
The Americas
BBC Studios Natural History Unit (NHU) is the best-known and most loved producer of natural history content in the world, responsible for some of the most globally successful factual content of the past 10 years.
With ground-breaking technology and innovation we reveal to audiences around the world the extraordinary wonders of nature through excepti onal storytelling, jaw dropping imagery and cutting-edge science.
Founded in 1957, the NHU’s programmes have come to represent the gold standard for natural history filmmaking, winning multiple awards and honours. Our BBC output includes everything from breath-taking landmarks (Frozen Planet II; The Green Planet; Seven Worlds, One Planet; Dynasties II; Blue Planet II; Planet Earth II), to returning series and technically challenging live shows (Springwatch; Blue Planet Live) and award-winning children’s series (Andy’s Safari Adventures).
With an increasingly diverse portfolio of content, including Prehistoric Planet - the ground-breaking AppleTV+ Original series bringing ancient Earth’s habitats and inhabitants to life like never before, we now produce programmes for broadcasters and platforms all over the world. Current titles in production include Planet Earth III for BBC, The Americas for NBCU, and Ocean Xplorers (WT), a co-production with OceanX Media and James Cameron, for National Geographic Disney+.
Programmes made by the NHU denote quality, innovation, craftmanship and world-class storytelling....
KEY Titles
Announced
OUR TEAM
Jonny Keeling
HEAD OF NHU
Jonny Keeling took up the position of Head of the NHU in January 2022. Previously, Jonny had worked at the BBC for 25 years producing and directing wildlife and adventure documentaries. During this time, he produced some of the Unit’s most successful content, including BAFTA and Emmy award winning series like Seven Worlds, One Planet, Planet Earth and Planet Earth II, and headed the Children’s unit within the NHU. In his new role, Jonny oversees all content produced by the NHU, in particular the BBC’s latest landmark wildlife series, Planet Earth III and the recently announced Asia. ...
Maria Norman
HEAD OF PRODUCTION, NHU
Maria connects the editorial and complex business divisions that define the NHU. She ensures the con tinuous alignment of development and delivery with genre plans. Maria is central to the NHU’s mission to provide a fully-inclusive place to develop a career. Her NHU portfolio embraces the whole range of content: Live; Landmarks, Digital, Children’s and Feature-Documentary. ...
John Bryans
HEAD OF PRODUCTION, NHU
John has more than 20 years of experience leading teams in Natural History, Factual formats, Documen taries and original Short Form. Working with Maria, John leads and supports the strongest team of Production talent in the industry. ...
Mike Davis
Executive Producer
Mike is a BAFTA-winning Executive Producer at BBC Studios who has worked across its Science, Natural History and Specialist Factual units. Recent NHU credits include Making Life on Earth: Attenborough's Greatest Adventure (BBC One/PBS) and David Attenborough's 100 Years on Planet Earth (BBC One). In a career that started over twenty years ago at world-renowned animation studio Framestore, where he worked across feature films and series like the original Walking with Dinosaurs, Mike has gone on to become a highly respected creative producer with a specialism in science and natural history and expertise in ambitious storytelling and technological innovation. His past credits include the BBC One series Great Barrier Reef with David Attenborough and Morgan Freeman-narrated Netflix series Our Universe, the award-winning Natural History Museum Alive 3D for Sky and giant screen, and compelling single films like David Attenborough Meets President Obama and Belsen: Our Story (both for BBC). ...
Mike Gunton
CREATIVE DIRECTOR, NHU
Central to maintaining the NHU’s position as the world’s number one natural history production compa ny, Mike has a global reputation for story telling excellence and innovation. He has developed and produced many award-winning and critically acclaimed series: Galapagos, Yellowstone, Madagascar, Life, Africa, Shark, Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur, Life Story, Planet Earth II, Dynasties and The Green Planet. Mike is a fellow of the Royal Television Society. ...
Ben Clarke
HEAD OF COMMERCIAL & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, NHU
Based in Bristol, Ben leads the commercial team managing the NHU’s end-to-end deal pipeline. Ben dra ws on 20 years' experience in the media industry in strategic and commercial roles with Deloitte, Ofcom, BT TV and now BBC Studios. ...
For Press and Publicity Enquires please contact - Jo-Anna.parkinson@bbc.com
Project Songbird
In 2022 BBC Studios Natural History Unit launched Project Songbird, a new talent initiative to develop and support aspiring natural history filmmakers around the world. The initiative is part of BBC Studios’ ongoing commitment to nurture, diversify and attract new production talent, and is advancing the NHU’s drive towards a more sustainable and inclusive global wildlife filmmaking industry.
In places where the NHU is filming, the initiative funds opportunities for locally based production talent to access in-country training, offers field experience working with NHU teams on location, and invests in local talent to attend UK-based training courses. Building further on in-country collaborations, there is also an allocation of funds to ensure local language versions of NHU productions are made available for local viewings in communities who would otherwise have no means of accessing this content.
The investment is building on BBC Studios Natural History Unit’s long-standing commitment to provide production and craft training, including over 50-years of camera bursaries that have launched the careers of some of the industry’s leading wildlife camera talent – and the unit’s successful 14-year collaboration with the University of West England to deliver the BBC-accredited MA in Wildlife Filmmaking, featuring mentoring and masterclasses provided by NHU staff.
Since launching Project Songbird has supported training for over 35 talented filmmakers in more than 16 countries, created and screened local language versions of NHU content in six languages, and funded four full scholarships on the BBC partnered Wildlife Filmmaking MA at the University of the West of England. The initiative has also sponsored the expansion of Wildscreen Festival to improve access for global filmmakers, with events held in Kenya (2023), Tanzania (2024) and Botswana (2025).
Here are the latest profiles for the talented Project Songbird recipients
