About Me

Pete in the Great Smoky Mountains

Hi! My name is Pete Berg. I’m a documentary filmmaker, freelance TV producer / director, director of photography and drone pilot.

I grew up in a small town in Upstate New York with no stoplights and more cows than people. My parents make primitive spear throwing weapons called atlatls for a living, and I spent my childhood traveling around the country attending primitive arts shows, as well as camping and hiking (I was an Eagle Scout). I graduated from Ithaca College in May of 2007 with a degree in Television & Radio, and moved to California to get my start in the TV industry. I’ve been working in non-fiction television ever since.

Currently, I am a Co-Executive Producer on Secrets of the Zoo: Tampa (NatGeo Wild), as well as a Producer / Director for Moonshiners (Discovery).

Much of my work involves filming animals – from endangered to domestic – primarily for National Geographic. The Secrets of the Zoo franchise is a behind-the-scenes look at the zookeepers and veterinarians who care for zoo animals. I had the pleasure of filming four seasons at ZooTampa, as well as a season of Secrets of the Zoo: North Carolina. I’ve also produced and directed for a few shark documentaries – Shark Gangs (NatGeo Wild), as well as an episode of When Sharks Attack (NatGeo Wild).

Prior to that, I worked on several Docu series about veterinarians for NatGeo Wild. I spent three years Field Producing The Incredible Dr. Pol (NatGeo Wild), about an old-school farm vet in Michigan farm country, which has grown to become the network’s highest rated show. I also produced Love & Vets (NatGeo Wild) about a family-owned animal hospital in Atlanta; and The Adventures of Dr. Buckeye Bottoms (NatGeo Wild), which follows a Hawaii-based mobile veterinarian on the islands of Kauai and Maui.

My other main project in recent years is Moonshiners (Discovery), a show following outlaw liquor makers in Appalachia. I work as a Producer-Shooter on this series, with a tiny crew embedded in the backwoods of the Smoky Mountains. Since 2018, I’ve produced and directed on over 100 episodes of this hit docu-drama (seasons 8 through 12). I’ve also worked as a Producer on Moonshiners spin-offs Master Distiller (Discovery) – a studio competition show where distillers compete to make the best liquor; and American Spirit (Discovery) – a travelogue series that re-discovers long lost liquor recipes.

Some of my other documentary and Reality TV projects include Brad Meltzer’s DECODED (History Channel), JAIL (Spike), American Underworld (Discovery), Flip That House (TLC), Greenovate (Planet Green), Hope For Your Home (TLC), Deadliest Place on Earth (Animal Planet), The Lazy Environmentalist (Sundance) and pilots for A&E, Bravo, HBO and CBS.

In 2008, I co-founded an adventure coordination company called Reality Rush, which organizes events based on reality shows like Survivor, Big Brother and The Amazing Race for team building retreats and corporate get-togethers.

Travel is my passion. To date, I’ve visited over 40 foreign countries, and hope to one day visit every country in the world. I once spent 6 months backpacking through Asia (from Japan to India), and also once drove 10,000 miles from England to Mongolia in a tiny little Fiat, whilst distributing rubber duckies. I attended the Olympics in Beijing (2008) and London (2012). Between 2013 and 2014, I visited all 50 states in one year. Later that year, I completed the Mototaxi Junket, driving a “sofa bike” across the entire length of Peru for charity. In 2016, I spent six months living in Australia on a Working Holiday Visa; when I wasn’t traveling all over the continent in a campervan, I also found time to produce a special for Animal Planet called Deadliest Place on Earth. In 2019, I drove a motorized rickshaw across the entire subcontinent of India in the Rickshaw Run. Back on the North American continent, my second home is my 1991 Volkswagen Bus named “Marty.” Together, we’ve had many #VANLIFE adventures.

When I’m not filming on location or traveling for pleasure, I live in Los Angeles.

In my spare time, I work on my own documentaries, perform live sketch comedy, and run a dozen websites about topics including old school computer programming, microfiction, viral videos, stone age weapons. My interests include climbing trees, teh internetz, freight hopping, and the Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota.