Born on September 15, 1955 in Burbank, California,[1] Reitherman is the son of German-American Disney animator Wolfgang Reitherman,[2] one of Disney's Nine Old Men, and Janie Marie McMillan, and provided the voices of Mowgli in The Jungle Book and Christopher Robin in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.

[1] After graduating from Berkeley, he had stints as a river guide, field biologist, naturalist, expedition leader and biological consultant.

Starting out as a freelance cameraman in 1983, Reitherman has gone on to produce documentaries broadcast by PBS, National Geographic Television, The Discovery Channel, the BBC and Canal Plus.

He served as cameraman, producer, writer and director, in the 1990s in shows like In the Wild, Nature, and Big Bear Week.

[citation needed] Reitherman was also part of a Members Only Preview for the behind-the-scenes exhibition titled Walt Disney’s The Jungle Book: Making a Masterpiece during a special talk alongside Andreas Deja, Darleen Carr and Floyd Norman which took place on June 22, 2022.