Bear Grylls

British writer, adventurer and TV presenter Bear Grylls is renowned for his extreme survival series. The former SAS trooper has braved wild conditions, living off his wits to make 12 television series, including Born Survivor: Man vs Wild from 2006 to 2011 and more recently, Bear's Mission, in 2018.

He has appeared in survival series both in the UK and the USA and has completed eight major expeditions, including climbing Mount Everest in 1998, crossing the North Atlantic in 2003 in an 11-metre long inflatable boat and paramotoring over the Himalayas in 2007.

He also climbed remote peaks in Antarctica in 2008 to raise money for children's charity, Global Angels, and travelled 2,500 miles on an inflatable boat across the icy Northwest Passage in 2010.

Early life

Born Edward Grylls in June 1974, the adventurer attended a boys' independent boarding school (Ludgrove School), followed by Eton College. He has made no secret of the fact he was bullied when he was 13 by a youth who was five years older.

The bully was physically stronger than Grylls and inflicted many "thumpings" on him, according to the star. Eventually, Grylls took up karate - later becoming one of the UK's youngest second dan black belts - and learned how to defend himself.

He studied in Tokyo, Japan, in his early teens, when he became the youngest member of the Karate Union of Great Britain. He learned his craft from a karate grand master, Sensei Yahara. Grylls trained hard, finding it very demanding.

It paid off when he was awarded his black belt three years later - and of course, the bullying had stopped by this time. Grylls has told his story to help other youngsters who are being bullied. He has written articles in the media as a life coach to advise others on how to deal with bullies, describing them as "essentially cowards".

Career

After leaving school, Grylls joined the British Army in 1994 and became a trooper with 21 SAS for three years, training in unarmed combat, winter warfare, desert warfare, climbing, survival, explosives and parachuting. He went on to become a survival instructor and was posted to North Africa to train other troops.

His SAS career ended after a freak accident, when his parachute failed to open in Kenya. He broke his back and could no longer serve in the Armed Forces, although he went on to recover. Later, Gyrlls described it as one of his most "hellish moments".

However, his military training and physical fitness led to his current career as a television presenter, which began when his daring ascent of Mount Everest was used in a TV commercial.

As an honorary lieutenant commander in the Royal Naval Reserves and an honorary lieutenant colonel in the Royal Marines Reserves, Grylls has led a major anti-drugs campaign for the Ministry of Defence.

Television

Grylls has appeared on various chat shows, such as The Oprah Winfrey Show, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and the Late Show with David Letterman. He has written several books about his achievements, including Facing Up about his ascent of Mount Everest and Born Survivor: Bear Grylls.

A television series, Born Survivor, was commissioned by Channel 4 in 2006, which saw Grylls being dropped into the most inhospitable places on the planet and surviving as a result of his own survival skills. A host of further survival series followed, keeping viewers gripped thanks to his lively presenting style and often outlandish advice.

Widely known for some of his more bizarre survival tips and antics, a video of his top ten moments on YouTube has received 15.2 million views - showing his immense popularity.



He demonstrated the tips himself and among the most innovative - and toe-curling - was his demonstration of drinking liquid extracted from elephant dung. He also ate deer droppings, urinated on his t-shirt and wrapped it around his head to fend off the heat of the desert, ate snakes and drank rattlesnake urine collected in its skin.

The bush tucker trials in I'm a Celebrity had nothing on Grylls' real-life exploits, as he ate various insects. He even gave himself an enema in one episode!

Apart from his flourishing TV career, he is also a motivational speaker and gives speeches to schools, churches, corporations and other organisations across the world.

Climbing expeditions

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