Malaika Vaz is a wildlife filmmaker, television presenter and National Geographic Explorer. An adventurer at heart, she has travelled across some of the most hostile terrain on all seven continents, including hiking in the Antarctic, riding across the Mongolian steppe into Russia, or even diving with tiger sharks in remote areas of the ocean. As part of her work, she collaborates with organisations like WildAid and the Wildlife Trust of India on wildlife trafficking investigations and conservation initiatives. She talks to us about her recent work investigating the impact of extractive business on communities and wild ecosystems. 

Malaika is the Founder and Creative Director of Untamed Planet – an award-winning production company focused on producing natural history, conservation and investigative TV series and feature documentaries for global broadcast. Malaika directs, produces and hosts films on subjects like wildlife trafficking, endangered species conservation and environmental equity for major networks including National Geographic, the BBC, Discovery Channel and Al Jazeera. She has served on the Expert Advisory Council for the Royal Foundation’s Earthshot Prize, is Brand Ambassador for the Global Peace Dividend Initiative, consultant on the Wildlife Trust of India's Manta conservation initiative and frequently works on conservation and anti-trafficking initiatives with international and national conservation organisations.

Malaika is passionate about lesser-known endangered species. In 2018, she worked on a TV series called “On the Brink” where she travelled across India exploring endangered animals, together with researchers and explorers trying to find ways of protecting them.  Also, as a National Geographic Explorer Malaika produced and presented a 3-part series on human-wildlife coexistence titled “Living With Predators” that focuses on how local communities live alongside India's big cats. Other documentaries include a film on elephant trafficking for young audiences with the BBC NHU’s series ‘Planet Defenders’ and a report on how habitat protection can reduce zoonotic disease spread for Al Jazeera’s global networks.  Her documentary on the illegal trafficking of manta rays across SE Asia was nominated for the Green Oscars and won an award at the prestigious Jackson Wild Media awards. She is currently working producing a film series that explores the relationship between environmental pollution and equity in Mongolia, Bangladesh, and China.