Lucy Cooke
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Lucy Cooke | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1969/1970 (age 55–56) East Sussex, England |
| Alma mater | New College, Oxford (MS) |
| Occupations | Zoologist, author, television producer and director |
| Organization | Sloth Appreciation Society |
Lucy Cooke (born 1969/1970[1][2]) is a British zoologist, author, television producer, director, and presenter.
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]
