Bears

Biography of Director Keith Scholey & Alastair Fothergill:

Keith Scholey is currently a director of Silverback Films Ltd and Executive Producer of the Discovery Channel series North America and Animal Planet/Discovery International series Castaways. He is also a joint director of the Disneynature cinema film Bears.

Born and raised in East Africa, he qualified as a Zoologist with both a degree and PhD from Bristol University. In 1982 he worked as a wildlife stills photographer, a passion he continued throughout his television career. He also began working with the BBC Natural History Unit as a researcher and subsequently became a producer making many films for the Natural World as well as for special series including David Attenborough’s award winning The Private Life of Plant. In 1993 he became editor of Wildlife on One and created series such as the ‘Wildlife Specials’ and ‘Big Cat Diary‘.

In 1998 he was appointed the Head of the Natural History Unit and as editor in chief oversaw series including David Attenborough’s Life of Birds and The Life of Mammals, Blue Planet, Andes to Amazon, Cousins and Wild Africa. In 2002 he was appointed Controller of Specialist Factual, responsible for BBC Natural History, Science, History, Arts, Business and Religious in house productions. Natural History productions made during this time included Springwatch, David Attenborough’s Life in the Undergrowth and Planet Earth. In 2006 he was appointed the Controller of Factual Production, responsible for all BBC ‘in house’ Factual television production across England and also the Deputy Chief Creative Officer for Vision Productions.

In 2008 he left the BBC to pursue an independent career in natural history cinema and television production. During this time he directed the Disneynature cinema film African Cats as well as being the Executive Producer of Discovery’s North America.

Dr. Scholey has been received many awards including Emmies, Baftas, RTS’s, Wildscreen Pandas and Jackson Hole Awards.

Alastair Fothergill was educated at Harrow School and the Universities of St. Andrew’s and Durham.  He joined the BBC Natural History Unit in 1983.  He has worked on a wide range of the department’s programmes, including the BAFTA award-winning The Really Wild Show, Wildlife on One, The Natural World and the innovative Reefwatch, where he was one of the team that developed the first live broadcasting from beneath the sea.

Alastair went on to work on the BBC1 series The Trials of Life with Sir David Attenborough. In 1993 he produced Life in the Freezer, a six-part series for BBC1 celebrating the wildlife of the Antarctic, presented by Sir David Attenborough.  While still working on this series, he was appointed Head of the BBC Natural History Unit in November 1992, aged 32.

In June 1998 he stood down as Head of the Unit to concentrate on his role as Series Producer of The Blue Planet, a landmark series on the natural history of the world’s oceans.  In 2001 Alastair become Director of Development for the Natural History Unit.

In 2002 he co-presented Going Ape, a film that took Alastair to Africa’s Ivory Coast.  He has produced Deep Blue, a cinematic movie of the world’s oceans and he was one of the presenters and Executive Producer of the innovative live broadcast Live from the Abyss. In addition to his work with the BBC Natural History Unit, Alastair co-directed two cinematic movies for Disney as part of their Disneynature label, African Cats and Chimpanzees.

In November 2012 Alastair left the BBC to set up his own production company Silverback Films. Silverback Films is making a new landmark series for BBC 1, The Hunt, which looks at the relationships between predators and their prey and is due for broadcast in autumn 2015.

Alastair is a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society who awarded him their gold medal in 2012. He has honorary doctorates from the Universities of Durham and Hull. Alastair lives in Bristol with his wife Melinda and two teenage sons.