Serengeti: Creating A Wildlife Series, With Emmy Winners Simon Fuller And John Downer

Places I Remember with Lea Lane

You might not expect a producer of pop culture phenomena like 'American Idol' and 'So You Think You Can Dance' to create a dramatic wildlife documentary series. But when Emmy-Award-winning producer Simon Fuller met Emmy-award winning doc director John Downer, a "perfect partnership" began.
-- The result is the Serengeti series, set on the plains of Tanzania, with Serengeti 2 currently available on Discovery+.
-- Simon and John generously share inside info on how they created the series -- from the camera work to the difficulties of working with story lines, climate change complications and finding and staying with story lines with wild animals we get to know by name.
-- They also talk of their exceptional crew, including the voiceover artistry of Academy Award-winning and Emmy nominated actress Lupita Nyong’o.
-- They each end with a special personal memory of the Serengeti. A wonderful podcast!
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All six episodes of Serengeti 2 are available on discovery+. Viewers can join the conversation on social media by using #SerengetiII and following Discovery on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter for the latest updates.
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Simon Fuller is a British entrepreneur, artist manager, film and television producer. He has managed talent that includes David and Victoria Beckham, Annie Lennox, Steven Tyler, Amy Winehouse, Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson and The Spice Girls. He is in partnership with the duo Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony.
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John Downer started his professional life in 1981 at the BBC Natural History Unit, later creating John Downer Productions. He pioneered a number of techniques for wildlife filmmaking, in particular by putting cameras on birds, and by filming birds from the air using various airborne filming platforms.
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Podcast host Lea Lane blogs at forbes.com, has traveled to over 100 countries, written nine books, including Places I Remember, and contributed to guidebooks. She's @lealane on Twitter; Travelea on Insta; on Facebook, it's Places I Remember by Lea Lane. Website: placesirememberlealane.com. Please follow, rate and review this weekly travel podcast!