Director Rachel Butler started her career with the BBC in Australia in 2010, initially as a researcher. She back to the UK a year later and she has since specialised in the underwater ‘blue chip’ series – ‘Great Barrier Reef’, ‘Shark’ and more recently ‘Blue Planet II’. Originally from Guernsey and with a fascination for the oceans since a young age, Rachel has also worked as a marine biologist and dive instructor for many years before her TV career. For Blue Planet II / Oceans: Our Blue Planet she has spent over 600 hours underwater and almost a year on location working sequences that include the ingenious tusk fish, filming the ‘boiling sea’ & walrus babies in Svalbard. When Rachel’s not in, or on the ocean she’s invariably back in Bristol working at the BBC Natural History Unit trying to find the next great underwater story.

James graduated as a Biologist and has worked at the BBC’s Natural History Unit ever since. As Executive Producer, he has overseen some 35 films, working with multiple co-producers around the world. James conceived Blue Planet II in 2013 and has spent the last four years working with a talented team of film makers and scientists, in pursuit of new and extraordinary stories from beneath the waves. Beyond television, he recently made a short film, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, which premiered at the opening of the United Nations Ocean Conference.

Mark’s long career for the BBC Studios Natural History Unit has seen him produce and series produce numerous critically acclaimed underwater series. As producer on the original Planet Earth for BBC and Discovery, Mark oversaw its two underwater episodes ‘Shallow Seas’ and ‘Freshwater’. Mark series produced Ocean Giants, a three-part series on whales and dolphins, and produced two intrepid episodes for South/Wild Pacific. Now, having series produced on Blue Planet II, Mark is co-directing Oceans: Our Blue Planet; Blue Planet II’s accompanying 3D giant screen production.

Neil Nightingale is Creative Director of BBC Earth. Neil co-directed BBC Earth’s 3D blockbuster Walking With Dinosaurs. He is executive producer of BBC Earth’s giant screen projects Tiny Giants, One Life, Earthflight, Incredible Predators and Cuba, as well as the recently released theatrical film Earth - One Amazing Day. Under his leadership, the NHU created major series on television that included Planet Earth, Life, David Attenborough’s Life In Cold Blood and Life In The Undergrowth, British Isles - A Natural History, Wild China and Big Cat Live, as well as inventing successful long running formats like Deadly Sixty and Springwatch.

Myles Connolly has filmed in more than forty countries during his thirty-year career and filled a number of production and post-production roles along the way including producer, writer, picture editor and VFX supervisor. Myles has worked extensively in the feature documentary and IMAX genres on more than fifty films including some high profile projects like Everest, The Living Sea, Samsara, Enchanted Kingdom and Flight of the Butterflies. Working alongside some of the best talent in the film business, his efforts have helped garner numerous awards, including four Cine Golden Eagles, the Grand Prix du Festival at the Theater du La Geode in Paris, the Best 3D/Immersive award at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival and two Academy Award nominations in the Short Documentary category.

Ray Dalio is the Founder, Chairman and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Bridgewater Associates, a global leader in institutional portfolio management. About fifteen years ago, Ray and his wife Barbara established the Dalio Foundation, through which they support organizations at all levels of development, from start-ups in need of seed capital to well established institutions that can bring big and/or novel ideas to fruition. The Dalio Family also supports an eclectic mix of causes that reflect family member philanthropic passions. Ray and his son Mark, who is a nature filmmaker, are particularly passionate about the oceans. They believe that the oceans are the world’s largest, most important, and least well supported natural resource, and they believe that they can "move the needle" in supporting ocean exploration and science, and stimulating excitement with the visualization that ocean exploration is as or more important and exciting than space exploration.

An Emmy Award-nominated, 20-year veteran of the film industry, Jennifer Hile has filmed and produced media in more than 25 countries on all 7 continents. She has produced content for major networks including National Geographic, BBC, PBS, A&E, and TLC, as well as short films showcased in the Oceans Hall at the Smithsonian Museum and commercial/digital work for clients like Google and Microsoft. Jennifer is currently the Executive Producer and Head of Production at OceanX Media. For Oceans: Our Blue Planet, Jennifer logged several months at sea aboard the MV Alucia, including exploring the brine pools on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, the “boiling sea” shoot in Costa Rica, and one-month spent on ice filming in Antarctica. At the start of her career, Jennifer sailed a 25-foot sloop across the Indian Ocean and up the Red Sea to document the beauty and animals of the sea. Her work with OceanX is a continuation of her lifetime commitment to ocean exploration and conservation.

Mark Dalio is the Founder and Creative Director of OceanX Media, a production company with a mission to create world-class media that educates and inspires people to connect with the oceans. His vision for OceanX Media is to use vivid cinematography and digital media to tell the compelling stories of scientific discoveries and exploration on the vessel Alucia as it moves around the world. Mark's inspiration for this vision began in 2012, when Alucia documented the first ever footage of the Giant Squid. The images of this significant ocean discovery captured the attention of audiences around the world, which Mark felt fully demonstrated the ship’s unique power to capture groundbreaking ocean media. Since founding OceanX Media, Mark has featured the work of Alucia the vessel in the PBS Nova Special Creatures of Light, David Attenborough's show Great Barrier Reef and BBC’s landmark series Blue Planet II.