John Downer

A passionate zoologist, John has been making groundbreaking nature documentaries for the BBC for over 30 years. He made his name by abandoning the traditional style of nature documentaries and pioneering a highly inventive subjective approach. Using new technology and dramatic story-telling techniques he continues to find new ways to immerse the audience in the animal world.

His innovative approach to filmmaking has brought him numerous international awards for genre-changing series such as Supersense, Weird Nature, Earthflight and Penguins – Spy in the Huddle. Never afraid to experiment, his first music video, for Peter Gabriel, even won a Grammy. He makes regular appearance on US television shows including 60 Minutes, the Jay Leno Show and Ellen.

He is currently working on two major BBC/PBS series that push the boundaries of wildlife filming even further by using an array of revolutionary animatronic spy creatures to film in the heart of the animal world.