A man with short dark hair and a beard wearing a light-colored button-up shirt outdoors during dusk or dawn, with a blurred natural landscape in the background.
A man operating a camera on a tripod on a grassy field near the water, with mountains in the background and a bird flying in the foreground.
A man in a beige suit holds two awards with deer antlers design at an event with 'Jackson Wild' branding background.
A man dressed in outdoor gear, including a yellow jacket and backpack, holding a professional video camera with a microphone, standing in a mountainous landscape with colorful hills in the background.

Ryan Wilkes is a documentary cinematographer and director focused on exploring the natural world and our place within it. With a PhD in Bioengineering and experience as a materials scientist, he approaches subjects with both artistic and scientific curiosity. He shares his work with an audience of over 190k followers on @itsryanwilkes.

Ryan has filmed on all seven continents and his cinematography can be seen in many documentaries made for major networks such as CBC, PBS NOVA and ARTE, including Emmy award-winning Hunt for the Oldest DNA. He produced, directed and filmed the short documentary, The Bird in My Backyard, for CBC which won awards at Jackson Wild, Wildscreen, the Banff Mountain Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Short Documentary at the 2025 Canadian Screen Awards. A Jackson Wild Media Lab alumnus and recipient of the Jackson Wild Rising Star Award, Ryan is also a member of the Canadian Conservation Photographers Collective and an Associate Member of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers.

Ryan is a published photographer and has received several awards for his wildlife photography. He has twice won Canadian Geographic’s Canadian Wildlife Photography of the Year competition (2022 Aquatic Life and 2024 Flora & Fungi).

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