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Randy Olson
Randy Olson is a film maker with roots in marine sciences, where he earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University (1984). He attended film school at the University of Southern California, following his resignation from a professorship at the University of New Hampshire. His student film at USC was a 20-minute musical comedy, “You Ruined My Career,” one of the Top 100 Student Films in the history of USC Cinema School. Olson went on to team up with in marine biologist, Jeremy Jackson of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Their collaboration led to production of the short film, “Rediagnosing the Oceans,” and the creation of the Shifting Baselines Ocean Media Project, founded with movie producer Gale Anne Hurd and marine biologist Steven Miller. This project has worked to increase public awareness about the tremendous shifts in productivity and biodiversity that have occurred in the ocean’s natural communities and has included short films and commercials in which Olson has partnered with comics talents Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Henry Winkler, Tom Arnold, and the Groundlings Improv Comedy Theater. Olson has directed two feature documentaries. The first, “Flock of Dodos” draws on his “evolutionary biology background and his Kansas upbringing,” focusing on controversy around evolution and intelligent design. His most recent production, released in July 2008, is a feature mockumentary/ documentary “Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy.” Like “Flock of Dodos”, Olson mixes humor with scientific discussion, this time around the topic of global warming.