Congress ’22 Unveils Presenters for What’s the Buzz

Congress ’22, presented by the World Congress of Science and Factual Producers (WCSFP), has revealed that its flagship session What’s the Buzz will be presented by four of the most prominent factual hosts in the U.K.

TV presenter and journalist Mobeen Azhar; explorer, palaeoanthropologist, evolutionary biologist and stand-up comic Ella Al-Shamahi; emergency medicine doctor and TV presenter Dr. Ronx Ikharia; and award-winning wildlife cameraman, presenter and public speaker Gordon Buchanan MBE will front the What’s the Buzz session.

Azhar has produced and presented access-based documentaries across BBC television, radio and online for nearly 20 years. His work for BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Three includes Secrets of an ISIS Smartphone, Scam City, The Battle for Britney: Fans, Cash and a Conservatorship, Hometown: A Killing, A Black and White Killing: The Case that Shook America, The Satanic Verses: 30 Years On, Plastic Surgery Undressed, The Best Pakistani Transgender Retirement Home and multiple editions of the flagship current affairs series Panorama. He is a regular host on BBC Radio 5 Live.

Al-Shahami specializes in the study of Neanderthals and fossil hunting in Palaeolithic caves, often in unstable, disputed and hostile territories. Her broadcasting career includes Lost Kingdoms of the Amazon for Channel 4, Waterhole: Africa’s Animal Oasis for BBC Two, the PBS and BBC science series Neanderthals: Meet Your Ancestors and National Geographic’s Viking Warrior Women. Most recently, she presented Tutankhamun: Secrets of the Tomb (Channel 4), What Killed The Whale (Channel 4) and Our Changing Planet (BBC), in which she presented the first chapter of the seven-year series documenting six of the planet’s most threatened ecosystems. Her brand-new podcast Why Do We Do That?, An Anthropologist’s Guide to the Modern World (BBC Sounds) launched in October 2022.

Ikharia is a multi-award-winning emergency medicine trans nonbinary doctor whose first children’s TV presenting job was Operation Ouch! on CBBC in 2012. In 2020, Ikharia worked on the BBC Three program The Unshockable Dr. Ronx and filmed their second series of Operation Ouch! Ikharia also presented the Channel 4 investigative documentary Is Covid Racist?, the BBC One documentary The Truth About Boosting Your Immune System and Channel 4’s Are Women the Fitter Sex?

Buchanan has 30 years of experience capturing wildlife in remote areas of the planet. He participated in the BBC Two series Animals with Cameras and has presented the Family & Me series since 2016. Other recent productions include Equator from the Air, Life in Polar Bear Town and Tribes, Predators and Me, all on BBC Two, as well as Life in the Snow and Super Cute Animals on BBC One. Other recent TV credits are Wild Burma, The Dark: Nature’s Nighttime World, Land of the Lost Wolves, Lost Land of the Tiger, Lost Land of the Volcano, Lost Land of the Jaguar and the popular Into the Wild series.

Congress ’22 is set to take place in Glasgow at the SEC Centre from November 28 to December 1, with the support of host sponsor BBC Studios Productions and signature partners Screen Scotland and Creative Scotland.

“We are honored to welcome four of the most prominent and passionate voices in the industry to front the Congress ’22 edition of What’s The Buzz,” said Paul Lewis, conference director for the WCSFP. “With their vast knowledge, strong sense of authenticity and deep commitment to excellence in science and factual storytelling, these four creative powerhouses will guide us through some of the year’s latest trends and give us a hint of exciting things to come.”