Jahawi Bertolli

Jahawi Bertolli is a National Geographic Explorer, an iLCP Associate Fellow and an American Society of Cinematographers Fellow. Growing up in Kenya, Jahawi nurtured a deep curiosity and love for the natural world. As such, his work highlights themes of environmental and marine conservation, portraying the beauty, power and vulnerability of the wild. His current focus is on sharing African ocean and conservation stories in an innovative way—through the eyes of those directly in touch with the environment. He also explores the ancestral music of ancient cultures in his National Geographic-supported project First Rock.

Jahawi is a CBBC Planet Defender, appearing in a TV series made by the BBC Natural History Unit. He is also the former cohost of the Ecoflix series The Pulse and the PBS YouTube series In Our Nature. His own short film Bahari Yetu was a Global Voices Finalist at the Jackson Wild Media Awards and on the Official Selection list at the 2021 International Wildlife Film Festival. Jahawi received the Howard Hall Award of Excellence in the 2021 Ocean Geographic Picture of the Year competition and was offered a Vulcan Visiting World Filmmaker Scholarship to attend the Jackson Wild Summit. His work has been displayed in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC and the UN Headquarters in New York. Jahawi is also a trustee and vice chairman of the Lamu Marine Conservation Trust. In his free time, he loves to surf and free dive.