Press & Media Kit
Everything you need to write about Dr WELI: ready-to-use bios at three lengths, key facts, quotes, headshot links, and direct press contact. Updated 2026-05-24.
50 words
Dr Weliton Menário Costa (Dr WELI) is a Brazilian-Australian behavioural ecologist (PhD, ANU) and global pop artist based in Sydney. His flagship Kangaroo Time won Science Magazine's Dance Your PhD in 2024 and travelled across 250+ media outlets. He is the founder of WildWooHoo.
100 words
Dr Weliton Menário Costa (Dr WELI) is a Brazilian-Australian behavioural ecologist (PhD, ANU) and global pop artist based in Sydney. His Kangaroo Time, built from his PhD research on eastern grey kangaroo socialisation, won Science Magazine's Dance Your PhD 2024 and was featured across 250+ outlets including NPR, Smithsonian, The Guardian, BBC, ABC and Globo. In 2025 he was named in the Falling Walls Engage Top 30 worldwide. He is the founder of WildWooHoo — a transdisciplinary studio drawing parallels between animal and human societies through music, audiovisuals and educational materials.
400 words (long form)
Dr Weliton Menário Costa (Dr WELI) is a Brazilian-Australian behavioural ecologist and global pop artist working at the intersection of music, film and science communication. Born in rural Brazil and based in Sydney, he holds a PhD in animal behaviour from the Australian National University, where his research on eastern grey kangaroo personality and group decision-making forms the scientific foundation of his creative practice.
In 2024, his music video Kangaroo Time won the overall prize at Science Magazine's Dance Your PhD contest. Built around the chorus of his original pop song and shot in the same Australian paddocks where he studied kangaroo behaviour for his thesis, the work translated peer-reviewed behavioural ecology into a culturally resonant music release. It travelled across 250+ media outlets globally — NPR, Smithsonian Magazine, The Guardian, BBC, ABC, Globo and the Triple J network — and is now studied in Australian classrooms as an example of research translation through the arts.
In 2025, he was named in the Falling Walls Engage Top 30 worldwide for his work bridging behavioural science and public culture. The recognition came in the same year his teacher-PD program Transforming Science Into Compelling Art was shortlisted for the same prize, and his live-music program Cabra da Peste received support from Inspiring Australia ACT and ACT Science Week.
Dr WELI is the founder of WildWooHoo, a transdisciplinary creative studio with the tagline the animal kingdom - including us. The studio's pipeline includes the upcoming EP Benevolence (three songs translating climate change into reconnection and care), the in-development animated children's series Kanga-Kangaroo (co-created with Daniel Bury), a children's book line, the live performance program Cabra da Peste, an ongoing photography project, and the Kangaroo Time Kids school workshop format.
He speaks, performs, teaches and creates in English, Portuguese and Spanish. His work has been programmed by universities, public-science institutions, festivals, schools and corporate audiences across Australia, Brazil, Europe, the UK and the United States.
Contact: hello@drweli.com · drweli.com · wildwoohoo.com
Use these on first attribution. Always credit as Dr Weliton Menário Costa (Dr WELI), founder of WildWooHoo.
High-resolution press photography and brand assets available on request to hello@drweli.com. State your outlet and the planned publication date.
Email: hello@drweli.com — direct line for press, interviews and headshot requests.
Studio commissions and partnerships: hello@wildwoohoo.com
Open calls and collaborator pool: wildwoohoo.com/open-calls
Response time: usually within 48 hours. Australian press hours preferred.
