Wildlife cameraman · Sudan
Hamza Yassin
Hamza Yassin (born 1990) is a Sudanese-born British wildlife cameraman, photographer and television presenter, based in Kilchoan in the Scottish Highlands. Trained in zoology and in biological imaging and photography, he films and photographs British wildlife for the BBC and others, and became a household name in Britain when he won Strictly Come Dancing in 2022.
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Hamza Yassin was born in Sudan in 1990 and moved to Britain with his family at the age of eight, not speaking English, and grew up in Northampton. Fascinated by animals since childhood, he studied zoology with conservation at Bangor University and then took a master's degree in biological imaging and photography at the University of Nottingham — the training of a wildlife cameraman.
In his early twenties he moved to Kilchoan, on the remote Ardnamurchan peninsula in the Scottish Highlands, to photograph and film its wildlife: otters, eagles, deer and seabirds. He worked as a cameraman on nature programmes and then appeared in front of the camera, on The One Show, Countryfile and Animal Park, and as Ranger Hamza on the children's channel CBeebies.
In December 2022 he won the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing with the professional dancer Jowita Przystał, beating Helen Skelton, Molly Rainford and Fleur East in the final. Another finalist had the higher judges' score, and reports say the public vote carried the pair. Yassin, who has said his dyslexia helped him in the competition, became one of Britain's best-known presenters. Wildlife photography remains the core of his work.
How to read this page: he is on a list of photographers because he works with a lens, and his bigger public life is on television. We have not found a published collection or exhibition of his photographs, so the place to see his work is the programmes he films and presents. See our list of African photographers.
