Michael Davie leads a busy life. At 28 years old, Davie has lived and traveled more extensively than most, jump-starting a filmmaking career along the way. His passion is documenting the lives and stories of marginalized peoples around the world.
Originally from Zimbabwe, Davie’s family moved to Australia when he was four and he intermittently attended school in Indonesia and the South Pacific. University studies in English literature, journalism and drama fueled a passion for writing, while rock climbing satisfied his adventurous side. Davie’s less-than-exotic first job as a local television correspondent found him reporting on mouse plagues and chickpea festivals in Queensland.
An integral addition to the team at National Geographic Television & Film, Davie has set his sights on non-traditional stories, expanding Ultimate Explorer’s field of coverage. His first film series, Renegade Africa, was a personal homecoming of sorts, as Davie spent seven months hitch-hiking from Cape Town to Cairo examining socio-political aspects of contemporary Africa. He rode shotgun with task force cops, climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, uncovered government complicity within the Tanzanian heroin trade, worked with land mine victims and investigated sexual abuse amongst street children in Zimbabwe.
The conflict in Yugoslavia prompted trips to Albania and Kosovo early in the summer of 1999 to investigate the lives of young people living in a war zone. Davie traveled through camps interviewing young refugees and aid workers about their experience and their hopes for a brighter future. All of this was captured in War Diary and War Child, which earned the young filmmaker his first Emmy Award.
Davie presented several of one-hour films for National Geographic Channel-UK’s EXPLORER’s Journal. He also documented the first American descent of the Blue Nile River with National Geographic photographer, Neveda Wier.
In addition to reporting for Ultimate Explorer, Davie is producing and corresponding in National Geographic Channel’s World Diary - a series of one-hour films tackling hard-core social issues relating to the preservation of the human species. Michael’s first episodes as correspondent for World Diary investigate post-apartheid poverty and crime in South Africa, and the culture of violence against women in Pakistan.
