Miranda Krestovnikoff inspires pupils to pursue their passions

Miranda Krestovnikoff inspired Year 12 pupils this week with a talk on her unexpected career journey…

Miranda began the talk by disclosing that she did not have a plan for what she wanted to do when she finished school so decided to simply continue to follow her interests. She went on to study Biology at the University of Bristol where she also joined a diving club.

Following her interests in wildlife and intrigue in TV, for a work experience she became a film assistant on a documentary filmed about toads. From this Miranda found a love for the television industry and its ability to create an engagement between people and nature.

This experience then went on to lead Miranda to a job as a researcher, but she decided to uptake a director’s course on how to direct presenters to gain the skills she thought she would need to work in television. However, during her class they were one presenter short so Miranda ended up volunteering as a presenter for a practical. Little did Miranda know that this coincidence would shape her future; she had a revelation that she wanted to be a television presenter to combine her passion of telly and science to engage the public with the natural world.

With her skills in diving, and newfound love of presenting Miranda landed a job creating wildlife documentaries in America and then for British documentaries such as Shipwreck and Coast which won a Bafta. The networking she did from each documentary led her to another, which soon led her to create over 400 films for The One Show.

Along the way Miranda experienced some remarkable adventures including diving under the ice in Russia, swimming with sharks, finding seals in the UK, and even holding a puffling (a baby Puffin).

Miranda’s inspiring story demonstrated to pupils that they don’t necessarily need a plan, they should instead look to continue pursuing their passions. From taking opportunities to do what they love and networking with others in these areas, their life paths will fall into place and take them to be where they need to be. It was a great reminder that opportunities will come, and that life doesn’t always take the path that you would have first expected.

Many thanks to Miranda for visiting our Sixth Former’s and prompting them to pursue their passions.

You can follow Miranda at; @MirandaKNature or mirandak.co.uk