Alastair Fothergill

Alastair Fothergill on Silverback Films
Alastair Fothergill Instagram

Alastair Fothergill, have had a long and highly acclaimed career and has been at the forefront of natural history programming for over 30 years. He studied zoology at the University of Durham and made his first film, on the Okavango, while still a student. Alastair is now a director and co-founder of Silverback Films. Recent productions include Sir David Attenborough’s "A Gorilla Story", "Wild Isles" and "Our Planet" for Netflix. Alastair is behind 5 of the top 10 grossing natural history cinema films ever. 

He joined the BBC Natural History Unit in 1983 working on a wide range of the department’s programmes and was appointed Head of the Unit in November 1992, aged 32. Alastair’s collaborations with Sir David include "The Trials of Life", "Life in the Freezer", "The Blue Planet", "Frozen Planet", "Planet Earth" and its companion feature film "Earth".

In November 2012, Alastair left the BBC to set up his own production company Silverback Films. He was the Executive Producer of a new landmark series for BBC 1, ‘The Hunt’ , and Producer of a 3D Giant Screen version of the series, ‘Incredible Predators’. He is the Co-Director of Disneynature’s ‘Monkey Kingdom’ released in 2015 ,‘Penguin’ released in 2019.  And ‘Penguin’ released April 2022.

Alastair is a fellow of the Royal Television Society and of the Royal Geographic Society, who awarded him their gold medal in 2012. He has honorary doctorates from the University of Durham, Bristol, Hull and York St. John. In 2017 Alastair was the BBC Grierson Trustees’ Award winner and he was awarded the OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2019 for his services to Film. Alastair is also an ambassador for WWF UK.

We are proud wo announce that Alastair will join us on Expedition Antarctica in November 2026 as a special  lecturer. On board, he will share fascinating insights from his many film projects around the world, particularly from the Polar regions.