Olly Lambert is a freelance documentary filmmaker who lives in London.
He studied English Literature at Durham University, and briefly worked in the theatre before starting out as a researcher and Assistant Producer in documentaries. He worked with directors including Rebecca Frayn, James Runcie, Ian Macmillan and Susannah White on a variety of films for Channel 4 and the BBC.
In 1999, he was commissioned to make his own film for Alt:TV, Channel 4’s fledgling strand for new directors. The resulting film, Four Weeks to Find a Girlfriend, was a personal journey into the horrors of modern dating, and was shortlisted for a BAFTA (Best New Director, Factual) and nominated for a Grierson Award (Best Newcomer).
Since then, he’s made single films for Channel 4, the BBC and Sky1, including four documentaries for Channel 4’s flagship series Cutting Edge (including the Confessions of a Traffic Warden and A Very British Storm Junkie), as well as a number of a critically acclaimed single films (including The Tea Boy of Gaza for the BBC, Battle Hospital for C4, and Ben: Diary of a Heroin Addict for Sky1).
After his film Above Enemy Lines, he was interviewed for Morgan Matthews' acclaimed documentary The Fallen, chronicling the lives lost in Afghanistan and Iraq.
His series on the Middle East with Ross Kemp was nominated for the Grierson Award for Best Documentary Series 2010, and was also shortlisted for a BAFTA. He recently finished Series Directing The Family for Channel 4, and has won a number of international awards, including the Foreign Press Association award for “Journalist of the Year” in 2007.
Olly has a broad knowledge of the Middle East and is an experienced self-shoooter. He has developed a reputation for tackling big, complicated stories for a wide audience, and bringing an intimacy and sense of humour to traditionally tough subjects.
Click here to download his latest CV, or here for a CV focusing on his hostile environment training and experience.