Oli Baldwin

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BSU Lecturer wins Emmy for Outstanding Sound in NatGeo's UnderDogs

Friday, 26 June, 2026

Commercial Music Lecturer, Oli Baldwin, has been awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Sound in National Geographic/Hulu’s show Underdogs.

Underdogs is a comedic and satirical TV show produced by National Geographic, celebrating the unique and unpredictable behaviours of the lesser-known animal characters in the natural world. It’s narrated by Deadpool’s Ryan Reynolds, and is available to watch on Disney+.

Delving into the show’s soundscape Oli reflected,

“It's very choppy because of the fact it's comedy. Every shot is just two or three seconds long. Filtering out what you don't need and making sure that the core stuff is there to keep it funny and engaging is the main task. The nature documentaries I do for David Attenborough are more focused on realism and making sure that it feels like you're in that space. Whereas Underdogs…it can be a bit bombastic and a hyper-real.”

Underdogs was entered into the ‘Documentary’ category of the 2026 Emmys, and won two awards in this category: ‘Outstanding Writing’, and ‘Outstanding Sound’. Although an incredible achievement, Oli recounts his ‘unexciting’ reaction to finding out he won.

“I’m normally fairly on top of things like nominations or we get told by the companies that we're working for. Admittedly, this one completely passed me by. The ceremony is in LA in a totally different time zone, so I got a message saying, “we won!”. And it was like, what did we win?”

He continued;

“It was just a really nice surprise. I was at home and so it gave us a good reason to head out and celebrate! For me, the nomination is the main major thing, because it means that what you've done is considered among the best in the world of that year.”

Since entering the world of nature documentaries in 2019, Oli has worked on several high-profile productions, including David Attenborough series for Netflix and Disney, with each project further deepening his passion for sound mixing.

“I love that I work on programs that are phenomenally valuable to the earth. I think that that has always fuelled me to make them as good as I can. I see that the more engaging you can make these programmes, the more people watch them, and the greater impact they have on sustainable behaviours and climate policies. I worked on Oceans With David Attenborough last year which was released for David's 99th birthday – that’s positively affected fishing policies around the world. Seeing the results from feels really good.”

Oli is currently a BSU lecturer in Commercial Music, working three days a week while balancing his freelance audio mixing for music and television. Having joined the university in 2024, he specialises in music production, but his experience in television and film has heavily influenced his teaching approach.

Rather than focusing solely on technical skills and software, Oli encourages students to think about narrative and emotion in their work. He believes successful music production relies on strong arrangements, clear storytelling and creating a comfortable studio environment that allows performers to give their best.

Oli’s background in audio engineering began after moving to Bristol to study Music Production at BIMM in 2013. Arriving a couple of months before his course started, he emailed studios across the city seeking experience and eventually secured an shadowing opportunity at J&J Studio, owned by Jim Barr.

Reflecting on the early stages of his career, he landed his first studio job despite having no experience with the industry-standard recording software Pro Tools. After telling studio owner Jim that he would learn the software if given the opportunity, he went on to assist producer Gordon Raphael, known for his work with The Strokes and Regina Spektor. The experience helped him build a local client base and led to a long stint at the studio, where he met producer John Parish, with whom he still works regularly. He said Parish's reputation helped others place their trust in him, adding that much of his television work has come from being seen as "a safe pair of hands."

On advice for young people looking to break into the post-production sector, Oli says:

“I would say a lot of these companies still have a fairly traditional structure where people start as a runner and they get trained. I think that being on reception and making tea at a company such as Films at 59 in Bristol is the way in for a lot of people. This is quite similar to my experience working in music studios. I would recommend that they reach out to as many of these companies as possible and try and make tea and then hang out in the kind of mixing studios and go from there.”

Just being nice, being flexible, being kind to people, being reliable, are the key things. I think if people recognise all those qualities in you and that you're really keen, you don't have to be experienced or even great at the job when you walk in. It's the personal stuff, the soft skills, that are most important here.”

If you're interested in a sound career of your own, check out our variety of music and sound courses here.