Vanessa co-founded Wildstar Films in 2018 after spending 25 years at the BBC's Natural History Unit, where she led large teams on numerous projects, including the acclaimed series Frozen Planet and Planet Earth 2.
Prior to establishing Wildstar Films, Vanessa spent 25 years at the BBC's Natural History Unit, where she studied Human Sciences at Oxford University. During her tenure, she produced and directed 15 films for five award-winning landmark series, including Planet Earth, Frozen Planet, David Attenborough's Life of Mammals, Land of the Tiger, and The Human Animal.
Vanessa's work at the BBC earned her numerous awards, including Emmys, BAFTAs, RTS's, TCAs, Jackson Wild awards, and Wildscreen pandas. She is also a BAFTA and Grierson nominated Director.
In her most notable project at the BBC, Vanessa traveled from the North to the South Pole with Sir David Attenborough while producing and directing the opening episode of Frozen Planet, a series for which she won a Primetime Emmy as the Series Producer. Vanessa also served as an Executive Producer for several BBC series, including Great Bear Stakeout, Life in the Air, and Planet Earth 2.
After leaving the BBC, Vanessa worked as a Consulting Executive Producer with Nutopia, helping to develop the series vision for One Strange Rock. She then relocated to Botswana with her husband, Mark, and son, Cameron, where they lived in the bush for 2.5 years. During this time, they made Elephant and a companion documentary, In the Footsteps of Elephant, for Disneynature.
Since establishing Wildstar Films, Vanessa has worked with her team to deliver five series for National Geographic and Disney+, including Queens, America the Beautiful, America's National Parks, Epic Adventures with Bertie Gregory, and Animals up Close, which has been commissioned for another season. She is currently working on two major landmark series for National Geographic and Disney+, Underdogs with Ryan Reynolds and Maximum Effort, and Sentient with Darren Aronofsky of Protozoa Films.
Alongside her work on these projects, Vanessa has been producing and co-directing Tiger for Disneynature, as well as co-producing an environmental companion documentary, Tigers on the Rise, both of which are set to release on Disney+ on Earth Day 2024.
Since Fremantle acquired Wildstar Films in 2022, Vanessa has used the sale proceeds to launch the Wildstar Academy, which aims to continue the training of female and diverse wildlife filmmakers that she started with Queens. Vanessa is a regular mentor for National Geographic's Field Ready Program and is deeply committed to helping train and support more filmmakers from underrepresented groups to build a successful career in wildlife.
