Lucy Cooke
Born1969/1970 (age 53–54)
East Sussex, England
NationalityBritish
Alma materNew College, Oxford (MS)
Occupation(s)Zoologist, author, television producer and director
OrganizationSloth Appreciation Society

Lucy Cooke (born 1969/1970[1][2]) is a British zoologist, author, television producer, director, and presenter.

Early life and education

Cooke was born and raised in East Sussex.[3][4] She has an undergraduate masters[5] in zoology from New College, Oxford, where she was tutored by Richard Dawkins.[6][7]

Career

Cooke began her career in television comedy production, and then moved into documentaries, later specialising in natural history.[8] Among others, she is credited as director and producer for Balderdash and Piffle, director for Medieval Lives and You Don't Know You're Born, and presenter of Springwatch.[6]

Cooke has presented a range of natural history programmes for the BBC.[9] In 2015 she presented Nature's Boldest Thieves and Animals Unexpected.[10] In 2016 she was a co-presenter on the four part series Ingenious Animals. She was a team captain on the BBC Quiz show Curious Creatures, which ran for two series from 2017 to 2018.[11] In 2019, she presented the Animal Planet series Nature's Strangest Mysteries: Solved.

In 2020, she presented Inside the Bat Cave, which was broadcast on the BBC.[12]

Cooke is the author of The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife,[13] which investigates popular misconceptions about animals, including sloths, hyenas, penguins, and pandas.[14] She had previously written three books about sloths: A Little Book of Sloth, The Power of Sloth, and Life in the Sloth Lane: Slow Down and Smell the Hibiscus, and presented a TED Talk on the subject.[6][15] She also founded the Sloth Appreciation Society.[16][17]

Cooke is also the author of Bitch: A revolutionary guide to sex, evolution & the female animal, published in 2022, which is also published as Bitch: On the female of the species.[18]

Personal life

Cooke was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, after which she adopted a healthier lifestyle.[1] She moved back to her hometown of Hastings, East Sussex in 2019.[4]

Bibliography

  • A Little Book of Sloth (2013)
  • The Power of Sloth (2014)
  • The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife (2017)
  • Life in the Sloth Lane: Slow Down and Smell the Hibiscus (2018)
  • Bitch: A revolutionary guide to sex, evolution and the female animal (2022), also published as Bitch: On the Female of the Species

References

  1. 1 2 Piskorz, Juliana (22 April 2018). "Lucy Cooke: 'I loved to drink, smoke and have a good time. Getting cancer at 45 marked an end to that'". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  2. Cooke, Lucy (4 November 2023). "The Biggest Myths About Motherhood in the Animal Kingdom". Time. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  3. "Lucy Cooke - Wild UK". BBC. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  4. 1 2 Reece, Alex (2 April 2019). "My Coast: Lucy Cooke". Coast. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  5. "The Oxford MA | New College".
  6. 1 2 3 "Lucy Cooke". Amazon. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  7. Boyd, Lou (9 May 2022). "Learn how Lucy Cooke is starting a gender revolution in the animal kingdom". The Red Bulletin. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  8. Renninger, Bryce J. (30 October 2012). "How Lucy Cooke Became The 'Steven Spielberg of [Cute] Sloth Filmmaking' and Helped Save Ugly Animals". IndieWire. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  9. Alfonsi, Sharyn (24 December 2023). "Sloths, the world's slowest mammal, turn survival of the fittest upside down". 60 Minutes. CBS. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  10. "BBC One - Nature's Boldest Thieves". BBC. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
  11. "BBC Two - Curious Creatures". BBC. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
  12. "Inside the Bat Cave". The Press and Journal. Retrieved 2021-11-05 via PressReader.
  13. Garcia-Navarro, Lulu. "Who Cares If They're Cute? This Zoologist Accepts Animals On Their Own Terms". National Public Radio. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  14. Lescaze, Zoë (25 May 2018). "What We Get Wrong About Animals". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  15. Cooke, Lucy. "Sloths! The strange life of the world's slowest mammal". TED. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  16. "Why we should all live like a sloth". BBC. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  17. "Sloth Appreciation Society". Slothville. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  18. Glausiusz, Josie (11 March 2022). "Bitch by Lucy Cooke review – a joyous debunking of gender stereotypes in nature". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.