Sophie Darlington

Sophie Darlington (born c. 1967) is a freelance British wildlife camerawoman and producer-director who grew up in England, Ireland and Iran.

In 1986 her interest was piqued by Peter Matthiessen’s The Tree Where Man Was Born, and she visited a safari lodge just outside Tanzania’s Ngorongoro. There she met up with and was inspired by two of the BBC Natural History Unit’s cameramen.

In 1990 she met wildlife film maker Baron Hugo van Lawick in the Serengeti National Park and started working as a student camera operator. Since then she has spent some 20 years filming creatures, travelling to far-flung corners of the world.

"African Cats", a visual record of animal life in the Masai Mara National Reserve, under the direction of Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey, and the camerawork of Sophie Darlington and Simon Kerry, has been acclaimed as one of the best wildlife films ever produced. Making full use of technology, the crew spent two and a half years capturing scenery and animals in unprecedented detail.