I’ve been talking a lot about Disneynature this past week on the blog and my social media and there is good reason. With the newest Disneynature film Monkey Kingdom hitting theaters April 17th, I couldn’t be more excited to share with you guys how awesome this movie is. I’ll be bringing you a full review of the movie this Friday but in the meantime I wanted to introduce you to Disneynature Ambassador, Dr. M. Sanjayan.
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Dr. M. Sanjayan is executive vice president and senior scientist for Conservation International. The global conservation scientist, writer and Emmy®-nominated news contributor focuses on the connection between nature and human well-being. He serves on Conservation International’s senior leadership team as executive vice president and senior scientist.
Before I get down to the interview with Dr. M. Sanjayan. I wanted to give you some fun facts about him. He is an incredible person with so much talent and love for the environment and animals. Check out some of his works and accomplishments below and see why.
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Fun Facts About Dr. M. Sanjayan
- Dr. Sanjayan holds a doctorate from the University of California and a research faculty appointment at the University of Montana.
- His work has been published in popular magazines and journals such as Science, Nature and Conservation Biology.
- He’s expertise has gotten him national media coverage from the likes of Outside, Time, Men’s Journal, National Geographic, AFAR, Grist and The New York Times.
- He is also the co-editor of Connectivity Conservation (Cambridge University Press).
- Sanjayan is the host of “EARTH A New Wild,” the 2015 PBS television series. Filmed in 29 countries and produced by National Geographic and Passion Pictures, the series reveals how humans are inextricably linked with wild nature.
- Sanjayan’s broad-reaching television experience also includes “Years of Living Dangerously,” the 2014 Emmy®-winning series that examines the human impact of climate change, as well as numerous documentaries, including “Planet Earth: The Future” (BBC), “Expedition Alaska” (Discovery Channel), and “Mysteries of the Shark Coast” (featured during shark week on Discovery Channel). Most recently, he hosted the critically acclaimed four-part series on energy, “Powering the Future” (Discovery Channel).
- You may recognize Sanjayan from CBS news as he serves as a science and environment contributor.
- Earned an Emmy® nomination in the investigative journalism category from his 2013 “CBS Evening News” report on elephant poaching in Kenya.
- Sanjayan is a Clinton Global Initiative Senior Advisor, a Catto Fellow at the Aspen Institute and a member of National Geographic Society’s Explorer’s Council—a distinguished group of top scientists, researchers and explorers who provide advice and counsel to the Society across disciplines and projects.
- Sanjayan writes for Orion magazine, The Huffington Post and Fortune China.
- Dr. M. Sanjayan posts frequently in the middle of his expeditions. You can follow him @msanjayan.
We had the chance to sit down with Sanjayan this afternoon during lunch at Sanaa in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It was such an incredible experience. From the get go you can see just how passionate Sanjayan is about protecting our wildlife. He has been a Disney Ambassador for about a year but has worked with Disneynature from the beginning. He has been very involved with Monkey Kingdom and even returned to Sir Lanka (where he grew up) during filming.
Dr. Sanjayan thinks Maya will resonate with viewers because she’s like them in many ways. Plus she is cute and recognizable. One of Dr. Sanjayan favorite parts of the movie was the underwater scenes with he loved. Seeing the monkey’s swim under water, he thought that was the most amazing thing.
One fun fact about the film that you may not realize is that it took almost 3 years to film Monkey Kingdom. And out of 1,003 days of filming it was reduced to 88 minutes! That just blows my mind but Sanjayan said that sometimes it would take days and even weeks to get the “right shot”.
Monkey Kingdom opens in theaters everywhere April 17th. Trust me when I say, that you won’t want to miss this film. It’s incredible and will leave you in awe at these amazing creatures. For more information on Monkey Kingdom you can visit Monkey Kingdom online and follow along on the rest of my adventure on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mellisaswigart and use the #MonkeyKingdomEvent hashtag.