Welcome to the official Steve Backshall website
Picture: Adam White
Steve has been passionate about the wild world ever since he could crawl. Growing up, he counted the animals that lived around him as his best pals – from the asthmatic donkey to the grass snakes in the manure heap!
After leaving Exeter University with a degree in English and Theatre Studies, Steve studied martial arts in Japan attaining his black belt. Over the following years Steve wrote for the Indonesian Rough Guides and during his travels became conversant in the local language, drank blood with uncontacted tribes, nearly got caught in fatal crossfire in riots in East Timor, came nose to nose with Komodo Dragons and attempted to walk solo across Irian Jaya (a woeful failure)!
Armed with an idea for a television series, Steve headed out to Colombia. Whilst living in the jungle he wrangled snakes and ended up in a Colombian jail (through no fault of his own)! National Geographic Channel International bought the resultant video and Steve was taken on as ‘Adventurer in Residence’, producing, filming and presenting adventure and natural history programmes. Steve has circumnavigated the globe time and again, venturing into the Sinai desert , completing the Israeli paratroopers selection course, catching anacondas, vipers and cobras and (perhaps the best job ever) making “The Ten Great Dives of the World”, for the long-running series ‘Earthpulse’.
Latest news
Picture: Adam White
Steve's TV work
Steve is one of the busiest presenters on television, mainly working for the BBC’s Natural History Unit. He has had his own season of programmes on Eden television channel alongside legends David Attenborough and Bruce Parry. Before that, he was ‘Adventurer in Residence’ at the National Geographic Channel.
In 2003, Steve moved to the BBC’s Natural History Unit, where he took his place on the long running children’s wildlife programme ‘The Really Wild Show’. The following three years were awash with wildlife highlights; sharing a beach with 75,000 nesting olive ridley turtles, having a baby mountain gorilla take him by the hand and having a red-eyed tree frog leap into his face.
Next, Steve joined the Natural History Unit’s fledgling expedition team, making the first ascent of a jungle peak and dropping into a vast sinkhole in the Mulu mountains in ‘Expedition Borneo’. In ‘Lost Land of the Jaguar’ he made the first ascent of Mount Upuigma in Venezuela, slept on the vertical cliff face and found unknown species of animals on the summit. He also abseiled to the bottom of the Kaiteur Falls in Guyana to the soaked wonderland below.
In ‘Lost Land of the Volcano’, Steve was the first outsider to enter the Volcano Mount Bosavi – where the team discovered as many as 40 new species, including the largest rat in the world! Steve also took part in a brutal caving expedition opening up new passage in Mageni Cave in New Britain.
Other series included ‘Expedition Alaska’, where he was almost swallowed by humpback whales and was swept into the guts of a glacier, ‘Wilderness St Kilda’, ‘Extreme Britain – Caves’, ‘Springwatch Trackers’ and Nature Reports for the One Show. And if that wasn't enough, in ‘The Venom Hunter’ he endured the stings of hundreds of bullet ants (the world’s most painful stinging invertebrate) in an initiation ceremony.
Deadly 60
Big blue live
Big Blue Live – Steve's most recent filming trip took him to Monterey Bay in California.
expeditions
Mount Asgard Baffin Island – "What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy, that is what life means and what life is for."
Swimming With A Great White Shark
Swimming With Monsters – If you want to swim with sharks and no cage, it's safest not to chum the water.
Greg's Deadly Animal Challenge
Steve scares Greg James of Radio 1 fame, by blindfolding and making him hold some of his deadly 'friends'!
World's biggest ant
Deadly 60 – Deep in the Panama jungle, a nervous Steve allows a fearsome bullet ant to crawl over his hand.
Flying With An Egyptian Vulture
Deadly 60 – Steve takes to the skies with Kevin, a rescued Egyptain vulture, to get a bird's eye view.
Expedition Guyana
Climbing a table-top mountain in Expedition Guyana – the first humans to reach the summit.
Steve fronts the BBC kids' series Deadly 60, travelling the world to learn about the most inspiring predators.
Awesome King Cobra
Deadly 60 – In Thailand, Steve comes face to face with the longest venomous snake in the world, the King Cobra whose bite could kill an elephant.
Expedition Guyana
Lost Land Of The Jaguar – Five times the size of Niagara, Steve abseils to the base of Kaieteur Falls.
Grizzly Bear Cubs Practise Fishing
Deadly 60 – Steve watches as a grizzly bear mother takes her two cubs salmon fishing for the first time.
Wildlife Documentary Society
The start of Steve's wildlife filming early in his career and his take on wildlife films that are made today.
Secret Wilderness Japan
Secret Wilderness Japan – exploring the stunning, yet little known wilder side of Japan.
BBC Knowledge
BBC Knowledge Interview Steve talks about his historical hero Alfred Russel Wallace.
2020
Deadly Animal Showdowns
Shark with Steve Backshall
2019
Expedition with Steve Backshall
Saving Britain's Hedgehogs with Steve Backshall and Brian May
Undiscovered Worlds with Steve Backshall
Blue Planet Live
2018
Deadly Dinosaurs
Steve Backshall Vs The Monster Mountain
2017
Alaska Live
Meet the Hedgehogs
Down the Mighty River
2016
Fierce
Extreme Mountain Challenge
2015
Big Blue Live
Would I Lie To You
Nature's Greatest Dancers
Countdown
Comic Relief: Operation Health
2014
Deadly On A Mission: Pole To Pole
Personal Expedition: Mount Asgard
Strictly Come Dancing
2013
Deadly Pole To Pole
Super Giant Animals
Swimming With Monsters
2012
Deadly Pole To Pole
2011
Deadly 60 III
Live & Deadly
2010
Deadly 60 II
Natural Born Hunters
Lost Land Of The Tigers
Live & Deadly
2009
Deadly 60
Lost Land Of The Volcano
2008
Lost Land Of The Jaguar
The One Show – Natural
Britain's Lost World
Outdoor Britain Extreme Caving
Spring Watch Trackers
Secret Wilderness Japan
Expedition Alaska
Venom Hunter
Inside Out
2007
Inside Out
Nature Of Britain
Expedition Borneo
The Really Wild Show
Inside – King Cobra
Outside of television
Picture: Keith Partridge
Outside television, Steve started studying for his biology degree in 2000 with the Open University, attained his diploma in Natural Sciences and has completed one of his finals courses, though is struggling to find time to complete the degree! He has published several books, Venom, Deadly 60, The Wildlife Adventurer’s Guide, and Looking For Adventure. His fiction novel, Tiger Wars was the first in a series of four adventure stories, which was published in May 2012. He has also completed a 23 date UK tour throughout June and July 2012 promoting 'Tiger Wars'. Steve's 2015 Wild World Tour begins in November.
Steve has completed many endurance events; finished in the top third of the field in the Marathon Des Sables, the top ten of UK’s Tough Guy, 5th in the Welsh 1000m peaks marathon and completed the Devizes to Westminster kayak race. Steve’s outdoor sports CV includes having climbed the sixth highest mountain in the world (Cho Oyu 8201m) as well as many other ascents around the globe. He is absolutely passionate about rock and ice climbing and all disciplines of kayaking and cycling.
Events
Radio
Steve's books
Steve’s first love was writing. He began his career began working for the Rough Guides and freelance travel writing for publications including The Independent and The Times.
