Orla Doherty is an Irish producer with the BBC Studios Natural History Unit. She is known for producing The Deep and co-producing Our Blue Planet episodes for the BBC's Blue Planet II.
Orla Doherty | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Irish |
| Occupation | Producer |
| Employer | BBC Studios Natural History Unit |
| Notable work | BBC Blue Planet II episodes: The Deep and Our Blue Planet |
| Awards | Vogue's Women Shaping 2018 |
Early life and career
editDoherty's family comes from Donegal, Ireland.[1] She has a degree in chemistry.[2] She began working in television for DEF II, a part of BBC Two.[3] At 30 she tried scuba diving for the first time during a trip to Thailand, which led her to move away at 31 to start studying coral reefs for a non-governmental organization, the Planetary Coral Reef Foundation.[4][3][2][5] She spent most of the next 10 years on a ship studying the reefs in the Pacific Ocean.[3] Upon her return, she began working for the BBC's Natural History Unit, and in 2013 she joined the production team of the BBC's Blue Planet II.[2] In 2018 she produced the documentary Oceans: Our Blue Planet.[2] That same year, she was named one of Vogue's Women Shaping 2018.[6] In 2019, she became co-executive producer on the documentary series Mission OceanX.[7]
Blue Planet II
editDoherty worked as a producer for Blue Planet II for four years.[3] In total she spent two and a half years filming, divided over 17 expeditions.[1] She produced The Deep episode, for which she spent 500 hours in a submarine under water, going as deep as 1000 meters.[2][8] She was one of the first people to go that deep in the Antarctic.[9] She was among the team that filmed a whale fall for the first time in the Atlantic Ocean.[8] She also co-produced the final episode of the series, named Our Blue Planet, which showed the effect of plastics and pollution on the ocean.[8] For this episode, she filmed scientists from all over the world.[10]
References
edit- ^ a b McLaughlin, Rachel (16 November 2017). "The daring Donegal woman behind jaw-dropping Blue Planet II scenes". Donegal Daily. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
- ^ a b c d e Lee, Jenny (23 February 2019). "BBC producer Orla Doherty on bringing Blue Planet II – Live to Ireland". The Irish News. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
- ^ a b c d "One woman and the sea: The Irishwoman behind the breathtaking 'Blue Planet II'". Independent.ie. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
- ^ "Meet the Crew – 2000–2008". Planetary Coral Reef Foundation.
- ^ "Orla Doherty". The Edinburgh International Television Festival. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
- ^ "The Vogue 25: Meet The Women Shaping 2018". British Vogue. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
- ^ "BBC – BBC Studios Natural History Unit to make major six-part ocean life documentary series for National Geographic – Media Centre". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
- ^ a b c "Orla Doherty on science in the sea and Blue Planet 2". www.nhm.ac.uk. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
- ^ Potenza, Alessandra (19 January 2018). "How Blue Planet II captured never-before-seen views of the ocean". The Verge. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
- ^ "BBC – Meet the team – Media Centre". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 26 December 2019.