Kim MacQuarrie is an author, documentary filmmaker,

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

, and conservationist whose works include the best-selling '' The Last Days of the Incas'' (2007) and ''

The Living Edens ''The Living Edens'' was a Public Broadcasting Service series that aired from 1997 to 2003. Narrators included Peter Coyote and Linda Hunt. It was partially funded by ''Reader's Digest'' in exchange for various marketing rights. Episodes The ser ...

''. His documentary film work has brought him 4 national Emmy awards. MacQuarrie is known for his fine narrative treatments of the history of indigenous cultures, such as the fall of the Inca Empire, as well as his work in conservation. He has published five books and his work has appeared in worldwide publications such as ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...

'' and ''

National Geographic Traveller ''National Geographic Traveler'' is a magazine published by NG Media in Armenia, Belgium, the Netherlands, China, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Latin America, Israel, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and the UK. The US ...

''. He has produced and or directed dozens of documentaries for television channels such as

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

, FX,

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

and others.

Biography

Personal life

MacQuarrie was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and attended Valley High School in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

, Nevada. As an undergraduate, he studied abroad in Paris for a year and a half. As a graduate student, he studied abroad in Lima, Peru for a year at the Universidad Católica and lived in that country for four years. His life partner is Ciara Byrne.

Writing career

MacQuarrie's first book, ''Peru's Amazonian Eden:'' Manu ''National Park and Biosphere Reserve'' (1992), covers the flora, fauna, history and anthropology of

Manú National Park Manú National Park ( es, Parque Nacional del Manú) is a national park and biosphere reserve located in the regions of Madre de Dios and Cusco in Peru. It protects a diverse number of ecosystems including lowland rainforests, cloud forests and ...

, the largest and most species-rich protected area to be found anywhere on Earth. His second book, ''Gold of the Andes (2 Vol. Set): The Llamas, Alpacas, Vicuñas and Guanacos of South America'' (1994), gives a thorough accounting of the importance

llamas The llama (; ) (''Lama glama'') is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a meat and pack animal by Andean cultures since the Pre-Columbian era. Llamas are social animals and live with others as a herd. Their wool is soft ...

alpacas The alpaca (''Lama pacos'') is a species of South American camelid mammal. It is similar to, and often confused with, the llama. However, alpacas are often noticeably smaller than llamas. The two animals are closely related and can successfu ...

, vicuñas and

guanacos The guanaco (; ''Lama guanicoe'') is a camelid native to South America, closely related to the llama. Guanacos are one of two wild South American camelids, the other being the vicuña, which lives at higher elevations. Etymology The guanaco g ...

have had on South American cultures. MacQuarrie’s third book, ''Where the ANDES meet the AMAZON: Peru & Bolivia's Bahuaja Sonene &

Madidi Madidi () is a national park in the upper Amazon river basin in Bolivia. Established in 1995, it has an area of 18,958km². Along with the nearby protected (though not necessarily contiguous) areas Manuripi-Heath, Apolobamba, and the Manu Bios ...

National Parks'' (2001) chronicles the history, indigenous cultures, and flora and fauna of the largest bi-national protected rainforest area in the world. MacQuarrie's fourth book, '' The Last Days of the Incas'' (2007), covers the

Inca Empire The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, (Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The admin ...

, its

conquest Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms. Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, t ...

Francisco Pizarro Francisco Pizarro González, Marquess of the Atabillos (; ; – 26 June 1541) was a Spanish conquistador, best known for his expeditions that led to the Spanish conquest of Peru. Born in Trujillo, Spain to a poor family, Pizarro chose ...

and the Spanish conquistadors, and the massive Inca rebellion that lasted nearly four decades after the initial conquest. MacQuarrie’s fifth book, ''Life and Death in the Andes: On the Trail of Bandits, Heroes, and Revolutionaries'' (2015), chronicles his 4,300-mile journey from Colombia to

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of the Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main island, Isla G ...

Television

In 2013,

FX (TV channel) FX is an American pay television channel owned by FX Networks, LLC, a subsidiary of the Disney General Entertainment Content unit of The Walt Disney Company. It is based at the Fox Studios lot in Century City, California. FX originally launc ...

announced plans to turn MacQuarrie’s ''Last Days of the Incas'' into a 13-part dramatic television series, called ''Conquistadors''.

Philanthropy

MacQuarrie is the cofounder of the 501(c)3 nonprofit conservation organization Green our Planet, headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada. Launched in March, 2013, the foundation operates a free

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

platform for green projects around the world and also runs the one of the fastest-growing school garden programs in the United States in Las Vegas,

Filmography

Written works

References

External links

Green Our Planet

Simon & Schuster
Publisher's author page
MacQuarrie's Guardian Column Archive
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''Book TV'' interview with MacQuarrie on ''The Last Days of the Incas'', JUNE 22, 2007.
{{morecat, date=February 2022 Living people The Guardian journalists Year of birth missing (living people)