Our team comes from all across
OUR LOONEY PLANET
Ian Wright • Host
• Born: Ipswich, England
• Family: All born in England
My road to Our Looney Planet
Apart from wanting to be a hospital porter at the age of 15, I have never had an ambition (job wise) in my life.
At 18, I moved from my hometown of Ipswich to London and enrolled into a 3 year art & painting course, which didn't really enhance my financial outlook on life, but because I was happy painting & drawing all the days long—I figured I would make way somehow.
I joined a community centre at Hoxton Hall which was an Edwardian Music hall in East London way before the yuppies moved in. Here I learned lots of new skills, and soon I was running art/drama/video and kids workshops while cooking and running the kitchen cafe. There I met the best art teacher of all time, we fell in love and we still are, and that was over 30 years ago.
Hi I'm Ian Wright, I have the best job in the world and it's OK to hate me!
It's not just because I’ve travelled to the four corners of the earth, visiting the best places on the planet, meeting the most extraordinary people, eating the best food, skydiving out of planes, risking life and limb but getting to do the most amazing things, and someone pays me for it... Yippie!
But before your anger wells up to boiling point remember that I'm the real victim here. Because now, of course, I have no friends. Could you imagine being my friend... what a nightmare. Most people travel abroad possibly once a year and don't stop going on about it—And me? I go away about 10 times a year, so can you imagine the 100's upon 1000's of tedious travel stories I have got to bore you with... a lifetime's worth.
And in a way, that's why I'm doing this podcast, shockingly there are a few people out there that haven't heard my travel tales... And that's a disgrace.
So, it's great to think that soon, all of you people out there will have the pleasure of hearing me regale my wonderful travel tales to YOU... I thank you, it will truly be an honour!
And, there is no escape!
Learn more at ianwrightarts.com
Justine Shapiro • Host / Executive Producer
• Born: Johannesburg, South Africa
• Family: My parents were born in South Africa: My mom in Cape Town and my dad in Bloemfontein. Lana, my maternal grandmother was born in Rokiskis, Lithuania, and my grandfather was born in Latvia. On my dad’s side, my grandmother, Mathilda was born in Dublin, Ireland, and my paternal grandfather was born in Lithuania. MATLANA is named for me grannies.
My road to Our Looney Planet
In 1974, when I was 11, I was given a book that made me feel that my insatiable curiosity was actually normal: Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do, by Studs Terkel. Encouraged by Mr. Terkel I was forever asking anyone who would give me the time of day about their their job, their family, their hair, favorite flavors, dreams, and hurts. I dreamt that one day I would get a job that would allow me to enter into another person’s day to day: Perhaps I’d become a journalist like Studs, or anthropologist, or documentary filmmaker, or an actress.
I got cast as one of the kids in a community theater production of Dylan Thomas’ Under Milkwood. From age 11 until I turned 30, my whole life was about theater; during school, after school, through college, summer stock, and for two extraordinary years living in Paris and studying with Philippe Gaulier. I moved to Los Angeles in 1989 to see if I could actually get paid to act, and in between auditions I waited tables, taught ESL, and did foley for Twin Peaks. I managed to book a few TV and film roles and while the money was great I missed theater rehearsals. I missed the collaborative process of creation. LA was not a great place for theater so in searching for something that would feed my soul I found documentary films and I wanted to learn how to make them so, in 1993, I moved up to Berkeley California which was (and still is) the heart of documentary film production. I was interning on a documentary called Nagasaki Journey, my acting career happily in the rear view mirror, when out of the blue I landed the job hosting Lonely Planet.
From 1995-2014, in-between filming Globe Trekker episodes, I produced an directed documentary films. I received an Oscar nomination and won two Emmys for PROMISES, a documentary featuring seven Palestinian and Israeli children living just 20 minutes apart. After 9/11, I created a pilot for a series called Global Moms, exploring how children are raised around the world: I filmed the first episode in Iran in 2007 and 2008 along with my (then) six-year-old son. This film, now called Our Summer in Tehran, features three Iranian families.
In 2020, during The Covid, me and other veterans of the Globe Trekker TV series pitched the idea for a reboot TV series to no one who would listen. Our proposed series, Globe Trekker Now, took me and Ian back to the countries we filmed in 30 years ago so that we could retrace our steps. Lacking a social media presence, Ian and I were deemed irrelevant. Chastened but not deterred, we forged ahead and in 2024 we decided to channel our dreams of a reboot into a podcast and its worked out great. Not only has the podcast format allowed us to reconnect with our fans, but it’s a relatively affordable medium that also allows us to revive what we loved most about travel: Conversations with people from all walks of life.
Learn more at justineshapiro.com
Liliana Cortés • Series Producer / Social Media Manager
Born: Bogotá, Colombia
Family: My parents were both born in Bogotá, Colombia. My dad’s family is from Bogotá and my mom’s family is from Medellín.
My road to Our Looney Planet
I am a bilingual journalist and documentary filmmaker. My work spans from Colombia to the United States. I’ve covered rural communities, survivors of armed conflict, and the Latinx community in the USA.
Prior to getting my master’s degree in journalism from the UC Berkeley, I studied political science and international relations. As a journalist in Colombia, I spent many years interviewing survivors and the families of victims who endured the 60-year armed conflict between the FARC and the government. Currently I am a 2025 fellow at Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program: My investigative work uses data to examine corporate environmental practices, climate justice, and police misconduct.
While reporting local stories, from the northern island of San Andrés to the southern region of the Colombian Amazon, I discovered that what I love most about my work is connecting with people from diverse backgrounds, traditions, and beliefs.
It’s this curiosity, a genuine desire to understand local communities, and listen to the conversations that arise in them, that led me to Our Looney Planet.
Learn more at The UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
Thomas Lorne • Producer / Editor
Born: Milwaukee, WI, USA
Family: My parents are both from Milwaukee. My mom’s family immigrated from Eastern Europe (Lithuania, Croatia, etc.). My dad’s family came from Central/Northern European countries (Norway, Germany, etc.).
My road to Our Looney Planet
I’ve had my hands in every artistic discipline you can imagine—short of dance, which no one needs to see.
Over the years, I’ve studied and worked in the fields of art, writing, music, comics, theater, graphic design, sound design, app design, podcasts—and probably a host of other things I’ve blocked from memory. But film has always been my first love. It’s what led me to an MFA in filmmaking and brought me to California—where I’ve worked on a variety of documentary projects. What excites me most is uncovering the universal themes within our individual stories.
On one of those projects, I was lucky enough to meet Justine—and together we started developing the idea for what would become Our Looney Planet. Helping create this show has been a rare opportunity to bring together all the skills and passions I’ve developed over the years—including my love for travel and a deep interest in our shared human story.
When I’m not working, you’ll often find me in Mexico or somewhere else in Latin America, where people are kind enough to tolerate my slowly improving Spanish. Gracias, compañeros.
Learn more at ThomasLorne.com
Gregory Scharpen • Producer / Editor
Born: California
Family: My father hailed from Minnesota, my mother from New England. Alone among their siblings, they ended up moving as far away from their hometowns as they possibly could and still remain on the continent. I’m essentially 100% German from my father’s side, and thoroughly entangled European mutt on my mother’s side.
My road to Our Looney Planet
For decades now, I’ve had parallel threads of work as a documentary film editor, radio broadcaster, theatrical sound designer, and “experimental” (read: unlistenable) musician. I was the main/series editor on the Emmy-winning series Have You Heard From Johannesburg, and the most recent films I’ve cut include Democracy Noir and the short film Post Atlantic. I am the resident sound designer for the Bay Area new play theatre company Central Works, having designed for nearly 80 world premiere plays to date, as well as dozens of other productions up and down Northern California. I’ve been broadcasting on Berkeley’s KALX radio 90.7fm for three decades and counting, both as a dj and as a producer/host for the interview programs Artsinreview, Film Close-Ups, and Women Hold Up Half The Sky. In amongst all of that, I perform and record under the umbrella moniker of Thomas Carnacki (frequently in concert with other like-minded sonic eccentrics), with the most recent of several releases being the sibling albums of Cadavre Iaolé and Rencontre Fortuite. Carnacki music has appeared in HBO films, internationally-touring dance pieces, theatre pieces, and the occasional uneasy dream. I spend a not-insignificant amount of time being trapped under a cat (though still not enough for my liking.)
Having worked near Justine for a number of years, it was probably inevitable that we’d finally land on a project together, and I’m dead chuffed (as Ian probably wouldn’t say) that this is that project. I have traveled as far South as Cape Town, as far north as Östersund, and from Bangkok to Helsinki, with innumerable stops in between.
Stephen Lennhoff • Producer
Family: My parents. Well. My parents and grandparents on both sides were US born. You'd have to go back to my great grandparents - Father’s side from Germany and Ireland. Mother's side - English and Scottish. Some of them actually travelled across the USA to Oregon in a covered wagon and they kept a journal to prove it!
My road to Our Looney Planet
From the age of about 8 I kind knew there was more to life than the suburbs of Washington D.C., but it was on a year of college study abroad in Florence, Italy, that my passion for travel and art was irrepressibly ignited. After graduation, I moved to the UK to attend the London International Film School, and made my first drama short, Highway Hotel, inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper. Yes, it was kind of pretentious, but it allowed me to pursue a TV career in the UK, where I managed to get in on the ‘new thing’, directing music videos. Bizarrely, despite knowing nothing about heavy metal, I managed to direct videos for bands like Black Sabbath and Dr. & The Medics, including for the number one hit single Spirit In The Sky (sorry, had to get a plug in there) and produce news stories for a still fledgling MTV, which opened the door to UK broadcast television.
It was an exciting time of experimental TV, and I was lucky enough to direct shows for the UK’s new ‘iconoclastic’ Channel 4, which allowed me to work with many fascinating cultural figures of the day, including Germaine Greer, Erica Jong, Miles Copeland and Bishop Desmond Tutu. It was a revelation and inspired me to explore life through short documentaries for Channel 4’s ground-breaking, OUT series; like Skin Complex, which looked at the use of Skinhead imagery among gay sub-cultures. Around that time, I was lucky enough to meet Ian Cross who was developing a ‘new kind of travel series’ and ended up directing over 20 episodes of Lonely Planet and Globe Trekker, and countless spin offs. From that first series in 1994 to its final 20th anniversary ‘’round the world’ series in 2014, I’ve filmed with many of the show’s presenters including of course Justine Shapiro and Ian Wright, in locations as varied as Syria, Paraguay, Northern India, Southern Italy, the Eastern Caribbean, Bangladesh, Borneo, San Francisco, Botswana and Namibia and even the most remote inhabited place on earth – Easter Island.
Since then, I have continued to travel and direct a wide range of film and tv, from hard hitting documentaries about the IRA to celebrity driven travel, comedy and drama, but I could never forget or match the extraordinary, life enhancing, mind expanding experience of working on Globe Trekker. It changed my perspective on everything and turned out to be a precious and indelible training ground for living. I never wanted it to end so when I heard about Justine and Ian’s new podcast Our Looney Planet I couldn’t wait to get involved.
Negar Ajayebi• Producer
Born: Tehran, Iran
Family: My parents were both born in Tehran, as were their parents – with the exception of my maternal grandfather who was born in Tabriz, Iran.
My road to Our Looney Planet
I first fell in love with stories through the scratchy sound of cassette tapes. Growing up in Iran, we had a box full of them—children’s stories I listened to over and over again. I didn’t know it then, but those tapes were probably my first teachers—showing me the power of pacing, tone, and how a well-placed pause can say more than an entire sentence.
I went on to study journalism, earning both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Iran, and soon began working as a reporter. Ever since, I’ve been producing audio stories—news, podcasts, short-form documentaries. I’ve interviewed people in living rooms, classrooms, street corners, and Zoom calls across continents.
And then came Our Looney Planet. It’s a place that feels like a sweet spot between story and adventure, chaos and reality. A space where the narrative isn’t just about where we go, but how we go—curious, open, and sometimes a little lost. I joined as a producer to help shape these stories—not just the polished ones, but the real ones. The ones that remind us why we travel in the first place.
Learn more at journalism.berkeley.edu/negar-ajayebi
Craig Paull• Bookkeeper
Born: I was born in Chicago, IL, USA
Family: My mother was born in Chicago. My father was born in Chicago. My maternal grandmother is from Iran and grandfather was born in Chicago. My paternal grandmother is from Poland and my grandfather is from Ukraine.
My road to Our Looney Planet
After beginning my career as a CPA, I moved into producing film and video as well as photography, now I'm returning to my roots as an accountant and taking on bookkeeping roles. My experience in both worlds allows me insight into the accounting needs of creative projects.
Bri Castellini• Funding Strategist
Born: Seattle, WA
Family: My paternal great-grandparents immigrated to New Mexico from Abruzzo, Italy, and my French immigrant maternal great-grandparents had spent a generation or two in Canada before making their way to the states by way of Maine. My father was born in New Mexico, my mother in Ohio.
My road to Our Looney Planet
I grew up in rural Colorado, in a town four hours and a mountain range from any major city, and I have seasonal allergies. As such, popular local activities like hiking, mountain biking, and rock climbing were torture, so I had to develop different [see: indoor] interests. Writing was one of them, which evolved into screenwriting and filmmaking near the end of college getting my BA in Creative Writing in Oregon, at which time I moved to New York City (great for the first year, progressively harder every year after) to pursue my MFA in Writing and Producing for Television. While in New York, I fell in love with independent filmmaking, and the collaborative nature of that form of creativity. I made a zombie web series, an absurdist mental health web series, a short film about anxiety and my own recently discovered asexuality, and a short horror film about capitalism and multi-level marketing schemes.
I've dabbled on the edges of the traditional film industry as a digital community manager, social media strategist, crowdfunding consultant, and educator, working for start ups as well as grad programs as well as more recognizable studios. I traveled the world (Budapest, Antwerp, Rome, Paris) for speech and debate in college, then the country (Chicago, D.C., Bay City, Detroit, Denver, and more) as a workshop leader for indie filmmakers. I met the folks at Our Looney Planet as a result of six years working in crowdfunding and audience building, introduced by a colleague, and this indoor kid can't wait to travel the world with them in their vodcast.