---
name: "Keith Scholey"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/keith-scholey"
fi1m_id: "keith-scholey"
imdb_id: "nm0774582"
tmdb_id: 227452
wikidata_id: "Q6384993"
roles: ["Producer","Director"]
born: "24 June 1957"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "producer"
average_over: 0
updated: "2026-09-24T01:50:13.817040+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Keith Scholey

## Identity

Keith Scholey

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/keith-scholey
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** keith-scholey
- **IMDb ID:** nm0774582
- **TMDB ID:** 227452
- **Wikidata ID:** Q6384993
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Scholey, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6384993, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0774582/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/227452

Producer and director. Born 24 June 1957 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

## Details

- **Work:** Producer, Director
- **Born:** 24 June 1957, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Scholey, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6384993, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0774582/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/227452

## Streaming the US now

- **Netflix:** [*David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet*](https://film.one/film/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet.md) (80)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Keith Scholey

> Keith Scholey makes environmental loss understandable without making it feel small. We value the clarity of *A Life on Our Planet*, though its confidence in recovery needs a fuller account of how we get there.

David Attenborough speaks quietly, and the wildlife images carry much of the force of what he says. In *David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet* (2020), Keith Scholey, Jonathan Hughes and Alastair Fothergill organise environmental loss around the span of their subject's life. We were upset by that comparison, because changes too large to grasp became losses one person could remember. It is persuasive, carefully organised filmmaking, worth seeing despite the haste with which it approaches the practical questions.

Scholey's earlier features put animal behaviour at the centre: he co-directed *African Cats* (2011) and *Bears* (2014). The former draws stories from unpredictable behaviour in the field; the latter continues his attention to large mammals and their habitats. With *Our Planet* (2019), for which he was series producer, conservation and threats to habitats become more explicit. Across these different roles, his strength is making the behaviour of animals and the pressures on their habitats understandable without demanding specialist knowledge.

The three directors keep *A Life on Our Planet* to 83 minutes without reducing the losses to a checklist. The personal account makes that brevity possible, giving us someone to follow through material that could otherwise feel remote. That economy becomes a problem when the film asks us to believe that recovery is possible: questions about who can make changes at scale, and what prevents them, receive too little attention. We wanted the differences in people's ability to act made clearer. The reassurance arrives before the practical explanation has earned it.

*Ocean with David Attenborough* (2025) continues the concern with protection, this time at sea. It is a subject that suits Scholey's habit of connecting wildlife observation to the condition of the wider environment. For an introduction to his work, start with *A Life on Our Planet*. Go for its account of what has been lost, and be prepared to ask harder questions about putting things right.

## Biography

Keith Scholey is a British producer and director of nature documentaries for television and cinema, and a former television executive. Born on 24 June 1957 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, he graduated from the University of Bristol with a degree in zoology in 1978 and later completed a PhD in zoology there.

He began working as a researcher at the BBC Natural History Unit in 1983 on David Attenborough's series *The Living Planet* and rose to become Head of the Unit. In 2012, he co-founded Silverback Films with Alastair Fothergill. Scholey has directed or produced Disneynature films including *African Cats* (2011), *Bears* (2014) and *Dolphin Reef* (2018), and served as director and executive producer on the Netflix film *David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet* (2020). He has also been executive producer on series such as *Our Planet* (2019) and *A Perfect Planet* (2021).

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet* (2020), Fi1m 80, Director, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet.md)

## Complete filmography (28)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *The Dinosaurs* (2026), series, Executive Producer
- *Parenthood* (2025), series, Executive Producer
- *Ocean with David Attenborough* (2025), Director, Executive Producer
- *A Deeper Dive with David Attenborough* (2025), Director
- *Sea Lions of the Galapagos* (2025), Co-Director, Producer
- *Guardians of the Galapagos* (2025), Producer
- *Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story* (2024), Executive Producer
- *Life on Our Planet* (2023), series, Executive Producer, Producer
- *Polar Bear* (2022), Executive Producer
- *The Mating Game* (2021), series, Executive Producer
- *The Earthshot Prize: Repairing Our Planet* (2021), series, Executive Producer
- *Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet* (2021), Executive Producer
- *A Perfect Planet* (2021), series, Executive Producer
- *David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet* (2020), Executive Producer, Director — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/david-attenborough-a-life-on-our-planet.md)
- *Sir David Attenborough and Sir Michael Palin in Conversation* (2020), Executive Producer
- *Diving with Dolphins* (2020), Director
- *Dancing with the Birds* (2019), Executive Producer
- *Penguins* (2019), Producer
- *Our Planet* (2019), series, Executive Producer, Other
- *Our Planet: Behind the Scenes* (2019), Producer
- *Dolphin Reef* (2018), Director, Producer
- *Growing Up Wild* (2016), Director, Producer
- *Bears* (2014), Director, Producer
- *Deadly Islands* (2014), series, Executive Producer
- *African Cats* (2011), Producer, Screenplay, Director
- *Humpback Whale: The Giant of the Oceans* (1997), Executive Producer
- *Big Cat Diary* (1996), series, Producer
- *The Private Life of Plants* (1995), series, Producer

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/keith-scholey