Ian McGee - Writer and Producer
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| Ian McGee. |
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Email: imcgee@nhnz.tv
Ian began his career as an entomologist, measuring the heads of caterpillars for his Master of Science degree at Massey University in New Zealand. He arrived in Dunedin to work with Television New Zealand's Natural History Unit as the researcher for a 1990 series presented by renowned botanist David Bellamy entitled Moa's Ark. In the subsequent four years Ian was Researcher and Assistant Producer for other natural history series including Wildtrack, a weekly children's program, and Islands, a two-part documentary looking at the unique development of island habitats of the Pacific.
Ian was lured back to teaching at Otago University's Zoology Department for a brief time before becoming Writer and Producer of two children's puppet natural history series made by Taylormade Productions: Tiki Tiki Forest Gang and Tiki Tiki TV.
In 1996 he returned to Natural History New Zealand where he help produce several documentaries, before becoming Producer and Writer for the Animal Planet series Twisted Tales. The documentaries collected numerous awards including: a Gold Medal from the New York Festivals and 11 awards at the 22nd International Wildlife Film Festival Missoula, Montana, including Best Series.
In 1999 Ian was nominated and subsequently won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in a Craft in News and Documentary Programming – Writers for Twisted Tales: The Bat. The following year, Ian and co-writer Quinn Berentson were again nominated for an Emmy Award in the same category for their writing of Twisted Tales: The Rat.
After completing 26 episodes of Twisted Tales in 2001, Animal Planet approached Ian to write and produce the series of one hour documentaries called The Most Extreme. The series went on to become one of the channel’s top rating shows and ran for six years, with 76 episodes, a two hour special, and another Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Achievement in a Craft in News and Documentary Programming - Graphic and Artistic Design.
Ian has worked on numerous other shows including The Ant That Ate America, B-Movie Monsters, and the observational documentary series Scarfie Days following the lives and loves of 12 students at Otago University.