Steve Backshall MBE
Adventurer, natural history TV presenter, public speaker and author
Background
Steve Backshall is a BAFTA award-winning wildlife expert, who inspires people of all ages with his enthusiasm for the natural world, and his love of challenge and adventure.
Film work
Killer Crocs with Steve Backshall aired on Channel 5 in February 2024, and Ice Age: A Frozen Planet for Channel 5, which he presents alongside Michaela Strachan is due out shortly.
2023 was an incredibly busy year for Steve with the release of Whale with Steve Backshall for Sky TV, Deadly Mission Shark for CBBC, which inspires children to become shark ambassadors, and Steve and Aneeshwar Go Wild for CBeebies. He is also co-presenting Our Changing Planet for BBC One – a ground-breaking seven-year diary, documenting the fight to save our planet’s most threatened ecosystems.
In 2022, Steve came face to face with some of the world’s deadly creatures for Deadly Predators - a new version of the award-winning Deadly 60 franchise. In 2021 Shark with Steve Backshall for Sky Nature saw Steve dive with great white sharks, hammerhead sharks, tiger sharks and more, to help debunk the myth that all sharks are dangerous. The same year saw a new series of Expedition with Steve Backshall following the success of the ten-part TV Expedition series (broadcast on UKTV Dave) and Fantastic Foxes: Their Secret World for Channel 5.
Previous TV credits include Blue Planet Live (BBC One), Deadly Dinosaurs and Monster Mountain (CBBC), the hugely successful Wild Alaska Live (BBC One, PBS) and Hedgehog A&E with Brian May (Channel 5). Steve received critical acclaim for his canoeing expedition on one of the world's wildest rivers, the Baliem in New Guinea, for Down The Mighty River with Steve Backshall (BBC Two). Prior to this, Steve featured in the two-part series Extreme Mountain Challenge (BBC Two) and Fierce (ITV). In 2016 Steve co-presented Big Blue Live (BBC One, PBS) from Monterey, California. He also completed an expedition to Venezuela on behalf of the BBC and appeared on Strictly Come Dancing (BBC One).
Steve fronts the CBBC Deadly series, which includes Deadly Pole to Pole, Deadly 60, Live and Deadly, Deadly 360, Deadly on a Mission and most recently, Backshall’s Deadly Adventures. In 2011 Steve received a BAFTA for Best Children’s Television Presenter for his work on Deadly 60. The series itself won a BAFTA for Best Factual Series.
Steve’s extreme adventures include Lost Land of the Tiger, Lost Land of the Volcano and Lost Land of the Jaguar (BBC One). He explored a sinkhole for the Emmy Nominated epic Expedition Borneo (BBC One) and trekked to the heart of America’s most inhospitable terrain for Expedition Alaska (Discovery). Closer to home, Steve has presented Britain’s Lost World, Extreme Caving, Inside Out, The One Show, The Nature of Britain and The Really Wild Show.
Tours
Following sell-out tours across the UK in both 2022 and 2023, Steve is back in October and November 2024 with his hugely popular show, Ocean. This live event is a fantastic opportunity for fans of all ages to dive deep into the wonderful world beneath the waves.
TOUR dates and tickets
Previous tours include the Wild World Live UK Tour, a Deadly 60 Live Tour of Australia and Deadly Days Out, a (BBC) series of events that brought live animals to locations across the UK.
Books
Steve is a prolific author, having written 13 books. These include Wildlife Adventurer’s Guide, Looking for Adventure, Ocean, Expedition, and Mountain. His latest book Deep Blue (published Sept 2023), is a fascinating blend of memoir, travel, and marine and environmental science. His four-part children’s adventure series The Falcon Chronicles consists of Tiger Wars, Ghosts of the Forest, Wilds of the Wolf and Shark Seas.
Wildlings: How to raise your family in nature was co-written with his wife, double gold Olympic medal winner Helen Glover.
Speaker
Steve is an all-action hero whose leisure pursuits include mountaineering, kayaking, scuba diving, martial arts and endurance running, which together with his unsurpassed wildlife knowledge, make him a compelling and motivational speaker for a multitude of audiences.
Interests
Steve supports a number of charities in the UK and abroad. He is an ardent conservationist and believes that getting kids outside at an early age is vital to encourage them to love nature and the environment.
Pictures courtesy of: BBC Natural History & Factual Productions Ltd, Adam White, Martin Hartley.