Wildlife presenter Dan O’Neill talks being gay, swimming with sharks & the ‘incredibly queer’ animal kingdom
Curiosity Stream, the new wildlife docu series, GIANTS, takes humanity’s obsession with size into the animal kingdom. Each episode finds O’Neill heading into the wild to find the biggest beasts that walk our planet – from sharks, to elephants, lions, saltwater crocodiles and anacondas – oh my!
Ahead of the show’s premiere, Queerty sat down with O’Neill to discuss LGBTQ+ representation in the outdoors and what prompted him to come out, his experiences shooting in countries where it’s illegal to be queer, and which animals happen to be gayest of them all (literally)…QUEERTY: I watched a few episodes of GIANTS last week.
I’ll admit, I’m personally terrified of snakes and crocodiles, so I skipped those episodes. But one of my favorite parts was just watching you interact with the animals and kind of all the excitement and wonder that you exuded.
What inspired you to want to study animals?O’NEILL: I think it (happened) at a really early age. I remember when I was a kid, probably like five or six years old, this bird got caught in the classroom.
