Back to directory

Bio

Katalyst Productions Founder Sharron Ward is a Conservationist, a speaker, writer, photographer and filmmaker. She is an Emmy and Royal Television Society award-winning Director and Producer. She is also a cinematographer and often self-shoots many of Katalysts’ documentaries. Her films have been nominated for a British Grierson, a One World Media Award, 2 Amnesty Media Awards, a Sandford St Martin Award, an Asian Media Award & other films she has helped produce and direct have won a BAFTA & a One World Media Award. In a career spanning around 30 years, she has directed and produced a number of high-profile, compelling and award-winning documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, MTV & VH1 Europe and The Guardian in the UK as well as for other broadcasters and streaming platforms globally. Sharron's films now focus mostly on the climate crisis, conservation, wildlife, natural history, sustainable travel and adventure. Compelling characters are at the heart of her story-telling and she often follows inspiring, heroic characters telling a micro story which reveals a bigger, macro picture. Sharron's mission is to make cinematically beautiful films that inform, inspire, educate and advocate for change by communicating positive solutions to combat the climate emergency - especially focussing on our oceans (moana), on our wildlife, on bio-diversity and on the land (the whenua) especially our forests and trees. And by also communicating how and why this change is so urgent. We’re on the tipping point, we are at Code Red for Humanity - we’re already breaking boundaries – so how far we all go as humanity is up to us. One of our other projects in Aotearoa NZ is to help nurture, support and hire indigenous & female filmmakers - specifically Māori & Pasifka talent, to truly reflect the diversity of the industry and to better inform international nat history storytelling so that it is not only culturally diverse, but culturally appropriate and sensitive. As Sharron's main passion and interest is in the climate crisis, marine conservation, biodiversity and the conservation of wildlife, she has relocated to Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf, NZ – a biodiverse region that is home to critically endangered Brydes Whale, shark, orca, several whale species, and many critically endangered and rare seabirds, penguins and dolphins to help advocate for their conservation.