The show, which has been sold to dozens of countries as Man vs Wild or Ultimate Survival, sees the host dropped into different danger zones which he is apparently forced to overcome using his wits and his long adventuring experience. This series’ international success led in 2006 to the job for which Grylls is most famous: presenting Born Survivor for eleven seasons and counting, first on Channel 4 and then the Discovery Channel. This saw the explorer and eleven other candidates take on the French Foreign Legion’s desert training course in the Sahara.
The adventure led to Grylls’ first TV hosting job, with the four-part Escape to the Legion. In 2003 he and four equally intrepid seamen crossed the North Atlantic in a lifeboat-style rigid inflatable, recorded in his second book Facing the Frozen Ocean. Two years after climbing the world’s highest mountain, Grylls circumnavigated the British Isles on a jet ski, raising money during the 30-day trip for the RNLI, of which he has since become a patron. He wrote about the experience in his first book, called Facing Up, which first brought him to widespread public attention and he appeared in an anti-drugs campaign for the Army, as well as a TV advert for Harrods.īear Grylls and Gareth Southgate (Image: ITV) Three months after this incident, in which he broke three of his vertebrae, he had climbed Mount Everest aged just 23. Grylls became a military survival instructor and was posted to North Africa – but a parachuting accident in 1996, in which his chute failed to properly open, put an end to his military career.īut Bear’s thirst for adventure did not waver. Educated at Eton College, he helped found the school’s first mountaineering club.Īfter achieving a degree in Hispanic studies at the University of West England, Bristol he joined the Territorial Army and qualified for 21 SAS, a part-time special forces unit which made use of his considerable skills as an outdoorsman. Teenage Grylls also learned to climb and skydive, as well as studying martial arts. READ NEXT - Bear Grylls visits Swindon restaurant
He learned to sail with his father, Conservative politician and former Royal Marines Commando Sir Michael Grylls, who was a member of elite boat club the Royal Yacht Squadron. When not exploring tropical jungles, arid deserts and arctic tundra, Britain’s most famous adventurer resides in rural Wiltshire.Įdward Michael “Bear” Grylls was born in London in 1974, before being raised in Northern Ireland and on the Isle of Wight, where he first discovered a love of the outdoors.