Vanessa co-founded Wildstar Films in 2018 after 25 years of working for the BBC’s Natural History Unit where she ran large teams on series such as Frozen Planet and won key business including Planet Earth 2.

After studying Human Sciences at Oxford University, Vanessa joined the BBC’s Natural History Unit where she made over 15 films for 5 award winning landmark series – Planet Earth, Frozen Planet, Life of Mammals, Land of the Tiger and the Human Animal – as well as for major long-running strands The Natural World and Wildlife on One and acclaimed series Animal People and Postcards from the Country. Her films have been highly awarded by EMMY, BAFTA, RTS, Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, Missoula International Wildlife Festival and Wildscreen.  She is also a BAFTA and Grierson nominated Director.

She traveled from the North to the South Pole with Sir David Attenborough whilst producing and directing the opening episode of Frozen Planet, a series for which she won a Primetime Emmy as the Series Producer. Vanessa became an Executive Producer at the BBC for Great Bear Stakeout, Life in the Air and Planet Earth 2.

After leaving the BBC, Vanessa worked as a Consulting Executive Producer with Nutopia helping to develop the series vision for One Strange Rock, she then moved to Botswana with her husband and son to live in the bush for 2 years where they made Elephant for Disneynature.