Network notes

Wildlife presenter Dan O’Neill was told he was too gay for TV

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Dan O’Neill is a wildlife filmmaker, TV presenter, and PhD candidate biologist who recently shared his experience encountering antigay discrimination in the workplace.

In a first-person piece for the U.K.’s i news, O’Neill explained that, “like most LGBT+ people, I’ve been called names all my life. I’ve been advised by people in my industry to ‘play down’ my sexuality — and I have done.”

He went on to give some details, recalling how “once, I was in a meeting at a production company in London to pitch ideas for a new program. I guess I was getting excited about an idea and talking about it in an excitable way. I found out afterwards that one of the leaders of the meeting said: ‘He’s gayer than we expected.’ I never got a call from them again.”

The experience stuck with O’Neill, and for a long time he worried about how his demeanor might be affecting his opportunities.

Luckily for him–and for everyone–he eventually realized that being true to himself would ultimately lead to a more fulfilling life, personally and professionally. Now he hopes to inspire the next generation of kids interested in a career in biology and filmmaking.

“I loved David Attenborough documentaries, ” he said, “and wanted to be a biologist and wildlife presenter when I grew up. But there was nobody like me on screen — that I knew of. As the saying goes, you can’t be what you can’t see — and so I couldn’t see a possible future for me in that field.”

O’Neill can be seen most recently in Snow Leopards: Ghosts in the Snow airing on BBC.

Here’s some more from his very adventurous looking Instagram:

 

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