Mike Gunton


Michael de La Roche Gunton is a British television producer and a senior executive at the BBC Natural History Unit, the world's largest production unit dedicated to wildlife film-making. In November 2009 he became the Unit's first Creative Director.
As Creative Director of BBC Studios Natural History Unit, he is responsible for bringing new and pioneering stories about the natural world to global audiences, including the BAFTA and Emmy winning Planet Earth II, which was viewed by millions worldwide. In 2018, his ground-breaking animal behaviours series, Dynasties, won a number of awards and was acclaimed by Sir David Attenborough as inventing a new genre in natural history film making. A fellow of the Royal Television Society, he also speaks internationally and is an ambassador for natural history making, BBC Studios and the natural world.  
He was the executive producer of Life, a nature documentary series which revealed the adaptive survival strategies of animals around the world, and as the co-author of the accompanying book. He co-directed a feature film version of Life, and was the executive producer of a major BBC One series on African wildlife, broadcast in 2013.

Film and TV credits

Prehistoric Planet - executive producerThe Green Planet - executive producerDynasties - executive producerPlanet Earth II - executive producerLife Story - executive producerHidden Kingdoms - executive producerAfrica - executive producerOne Life - co-directorMadagascar - executive producerThe Great Rift: Africa's Wild Heart - executive producerLife - executive producerYellowstone – executive producerGalápagos – executive producerLife in the Undergrowth – executive producerEurope: A Natural History – executive producerJourney of Life – executive producerNile – executive producerBritish Isles: A Natural History – executive producerNatural Worldseries editorSteve Leonard's Extreme Animals - executive producerSteve Leonard's Ultimate Killers - executive producerAnimal Peopleseries producerViolent Planet - series producerTales from the Riverbank - series producerNatural Neighbours - series producerThe Trials of Life – producer