Vanessa Berlowitz

Vanessa Berlowitz is a multi-award-winning (BAFTA and Emmy) Producer and Director of over 20 wildlife and human documentaries across multiple major landmark series for the BBC Natural History Unit.

She joined the BBC Natural History Unit 24 years ago and went on to work extensively with Sir David Attenborough, producing and directing films for his internationally renowned series Planet Earth, Frozen Planet and Life of Mammals. She also made films on Land of the Tiger and Desmond Morris’ Human Animal series as well as long-running strands such as The Natural World, Wildlife on One, Animal People and Postcards from the Country.

As well as winning an Emmy as Series Producer of Frozen Planet, she has won numerous awards at international film festivals including Bafta, Jackson Hole Film Festival, Wildscreen, Missoula International Wildlife Film Festival and was also nominated for the highly coveted Grierson Award.

Vanessa has always been passionate about innovation and new technology – on Planet Earth she pioneered the first use of stabilised aerial camera systems in documentary and is known for pushing technology forward on each of her projects. Vanessa went on to become a lead Executive Producer for the BBC, developing and winning a number of high innovation projects for BBC1 including Great Bear Stakeout, Life in the Air, Attenborough’s Giant Dinosaur and Planet Earth 2.

After leaving the BBC, Vanessa accompanied her film-making husband, Mark Linfield, and their 9-year-old son on a 2 year sabbatical to Southern Africa where they have been making a feature length documentary on elephants for Disneynature.

A published author of books and journals, Vanessa is also an experienced speaker to international audiences on Creativity in the Media, Technology in Film-making, Her Work on David Attenborough’s series, Challenges of Working in Extreme Location, Importance of Diversity in Media, Women in Media/Business and Diversity at work – something Vanessa is passionate about.