Grantee Spotlight: Zac Lazarou & Oliver Cummins
On the Edge Fund, Conservation grantee spotlight
18/06/2025
Knock, Knock, who’s there? Rainforests in the UK. Who knew? Meet the strange creatures and characters who call the UK’s temperate rainforests home. This 20-part comedy series is guaranteed to make you laugh, wonder and show you a side to rainforests you’ve never seen before.
Zac and Oliver both studied Zoology at the University of Exeter’s Cornwall campus, where they first became aware of Britain’s temperate rainforests. Visiting Cabilla during that time left a lasting impression. “We used to say how incredible it would be to make a film about it one day”. That sense of wonder never really left them, and now feels like the right moment to bring that long-held idea to life.
After studying zoology, both joined the National Film and Television School and have since produced a portfolio of award-winning shorts covering everything from African vulture conservation to gender bias in evolutionary science. They know how to craft engaging, visually inventive films that translate complex ecological ideas into compelling stories.
The Story
Twenty tangled tales from the forest floor to the canopy and beyond. Watch as one rainforest spills all its leafy secrets—uncut, unfiltered, and wildly overgrown.
Zac and Oliver will produce twenty 1-minute scripted comedy sketches from the unique perspectives of the temperate rainforest and its diverse inhabitants. Finding a fine balance between charm, wit and science, the flora and fauna give their tell-all stories, from their irks about their neighbours (bitchy birches), joys for pollination (smutty lichen) and the changes in their lifetime with the arrival of humankind (tractor overlords).
These unfiltered short stories will take us from the lichens atop the canopy to the lonely oak on the fringes of the forest. Each sketch stands alone, yet threads into a larger narrative, with subtle and not-so subtle breadcrumbs that reveal the beauty, absurdity, and ecological importance of Britain’s often-forgotten temperate rainforests.
Name:
Zac Lazarou
Oliver Cummins
Country of origin:
United Kingdom
Species of choice:
Key indicator epiphyte species for temperate rainforests
Conservationist:
