Steve Backshall

Steve Backshall is a multi-BAFTA-winning naturalist, writer and TV presenter, best known for his phenomenally popular CBBC wildlife show, Deadly 60. All-round action hero, Steve has done it all – dived with great white sharks, abseiled down waterfalls, scaled volcanoes, and handled some of the deadliest animals on Earth. Here’s hoping a mean Foxtrot should be a walkabout in the safari park for this modern-day adventurer…

Born in Bagshot, Surrey, Steve grew up on a smallholding surrounded by rescue animals. Among his closest pals as a child were the family’s asthmatic donkey and the grass snakes who called a manure heap home! Both his parents worked for British Airways so Steve was able to stoke his passion for exotic places in childhood and later, as a young adult, found himself backpacking solo around Asia, India and Africa, studying martial arts in Japan, and avoiding crossfire in East Timor.

After studying biology at the Open University in 2000, Steve hot-stepped it to South America and soon became National Geographic’s ‘Adventurer in Residence’, presenting and shooting his own natural history programmes amid the teeming wildlife of the Colombian jungle. His first BBC role came in 2003, working for the BBC Natural History Unit on The Really Wild Show.

Steve’s big break came with his CBBC series Deadly 60, in which he comes face to face with some of the natural world’s most impressive predators including jumbo squid, tarantulas, scorpions, tigers and leopards. Three series in, Deadly has spawned various spin-offs, including the series Deadly 60 Bites, Live ‘n' Deadly, and Deadly Art, as well as books and online games.

Off-screen, Steve is a rock climber and mountaineer, competing in marathons, adventure races and endurance sports; he is passionate about ice-climbing, kayaking and cycling - and as if that wasn’t enough - he’s also president of several wildlife charities, and holder of a Gold Blue Peter badge and honorary PhD!

With Steve’s vast experience keeping his cool when faced with some of nature’s most fierce and formidable creatures how will he fare under the piercing gaze of our judges?