{"id":20072,"date":"2026-07-28T17:44:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T12:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=20072"},"modified":"2026-07-28T17:44:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T12:44:27","slug":"bbc-studios-natural-history-unit-seeking-ceo-jonny-keeling-steps-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=20072","title":{"rendered":"BBC Studios Natural History Unit Seeking CEO; Jonny Keeling Steps Down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/bbc-studios\/\" id=\"auto-tag_bbc-studios\" data-tag=\"bbc-studios\">BBC Studios<\/a> is seeking a new head for its world-famous <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/natural-history-unit\/\" id=\"auto-tag_natural-history-unit\" data-tag=\"natural-history-unit\">Natural History Unit<\/a> (NHU), maker of <em>Planet Earth III <\/em>and <em>The Americas, <\/em>with <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/jonny-keeling\/\" id=\"auto-tag_jonny-keeling\" data-tag=\"jonny-keeling\">Jonny Keeling<\/a> segueing to Creative Director.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tBBC Studios will begin the recruitment process immediately, with Keeling continuing in post until the transition takes place in 2027.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tKeeling has been running the studio since 2021 and will remain with BBC Studios, focusing on programme-making, creative leadership and some NHU projects. His past five years have seen the NHU make shows for the BBC, streamers and U.S. networks including <em>Frozen Planet II, Planet Earth III, Asia, Mammals, Kingdom, Dynasties II <\/em>and <em>The Americas<\/em> with Tom Hanks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tHis new role will see him work closely with Mike Gunton, the veteran NHU Creative Director, who has an enviable list of natural history credits. He will remain part of the NHU\u2019s senior leadership team <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2025\/01\/bbc-natural-history-boss-sreya-biswas-nhu-1236263701\/\">alongside Sreya Biswas<\/a>, Director of Programmes, Juli Porter, Director of Commercial and Operations, and Maria Norman, Head of Production.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tUpcoming, the NHU has <em>Blue Planet III, Hidden Planet, Green Planet II\u00a0<\/em>and <em>Lion.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tKate Ward,\u00a0BBC Studios\u2019 MD Unscripted, Global Content, said: \u201cI would like to thank Jonny for his impact and enormous contribution as Head of The Natural History Unit over the past five years. I\u2019m delighted that in stepping into this new role we will have one of the leading creative talents in the genre return to full time programme making, and in doing so continue to cement the NHU\u2019s reputation and impact for clients and audiences globally.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tKeeling added that he is \u201cexcited to take up this new opportunity to focus on mentoring the next generation of filmmakers, ensuring we continue to win new commissions and delivering the most ambitious and compelling wildlife stories to inspire and delight millions around the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BBC Studios is seeking a new head for its world-famous Natural History Unit (NHU), maker of Planet Earth III and The Americas, with Jonny Keeling segueing to Creative Director. BBC Studios will begin the recruitment process immediately, with Keeling continuing in post until the transition takes place in 2027. Keeling has been running the studio&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/446641-1.jpg?w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}