Simon Henry King

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

HonFRPS (born 27 December 1962) is a British naturalist, author, conservationist, television presenter and

cameraman A camera operator, or depending on the context cameraman or camerawoman, is a professional operator of a film camera or video camera as part of a film crew. The term "cameraman" does not imply that a male is performing the task. In filmmaking ...

, specialising in nature documentaries. King received an Honorary Fellowship of the

Royal Photographic Society The Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, commonly known as the Royal Photographic Society (RPS), is one of the world's oldest photographic societies. It was founded in London, England, in 1853 as the Photographic Society of London with ...

in 2011. King has been working in the field of natural history film making for over 30 years. He has credited his media career to his parents, his father being in the television industry and his mother being involved in the music industry.

Early life

King was born in

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

, Kenya, to parents John King and Eve King (née Shulman), where King's father worked with the British Forces Broadcasting Service in Nairobi. The family moved to

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

in the United Kingdom in 1964, when John got a job as a reporter for the BBC's ''Points West'' news programme. King's parents separated when he was nine years old, and thereafter he lived with his mother and elder sister, Debbie.

Education

King attended

Henbury School Blaise High School (formerly Henbury School) is an 11–18 mixed, secondary school and sixth form with academy status in Henbury, Bristol, England. It was formerly a community school that was established in 1956 and converted to an academy ...

from 1974 to 1979.

Earliest television work

He began his career as a child actor at the age of ten in such television films as ''The Fox'' (1973) and ''Secret Place'' (1974). In 1976 he accompanied naturalist Mike Kendall in the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

series ''Man and Boy'', in which they searched the country for Britain's

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animal species (biology), species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous ...

. All of these were his father's projects. In 1984, he made his first film for television – "The Willow", a study of the wildlife which surrounds a willow tree. This was broadcast as an edition of the BBC series ''

The World About Us ''The World About Us'' was a BBC Two television documentary series on natural history which ran from 3 December 1967 to 20 July 1986.''Encyclopedia of Television'' (2d ed.), ed. Horace Newcomb, p. 324, 620, 1363. The show was created by David At ...

'', as was his following film "The Hidden Land", a study of the wildlife which exists around the hotels in Spain's

Costa del Sol The Costa del Sol (literally "Coast of the Sun" or "Sun Coast") is a region in the south of Spain in the autonomous community of Andalusia, comprising the coastal towns and communities along the coastline of the Province of Málaga and the easte ...

. He has since gone on to produce more than 80 natural history films as principal cameraman, director, producer and many more as presenter.

Presenting and filming

King made two series of ''King's Country'' and a series of ''King's Country Diary'' for the BBC. He was also responsible for

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

's Christmas dramatised wildlife documentaries including "Rannoch the Red Deer", "Dusk the Badger", "Shadow the Peregrine" and the programmes "Aliya the Asian Elephant" and "Tyto the Barn Owl", which were produced and narrated by his father and won industry awards. He presented the highly successful six-part series ''King and Company'' and ''A Walk on the Wildside'' which was two-and-a-half years in the making. Since 1992, King has worked on programmes for the BBC Natural History Unit. His early credits included presenting stints on series such as ''Nature Detectives'' and ''Wild Nights with Simon King'', as well as fronting the Unit's occasional live "Watch" broadcasts. He was a regular presenter on BBC Two's ''Tracks'', fronted ''Watch Out'' on the same channel and filmed all over the world for ''Hot Shots'', a series which looked at the making of natural history films. More recently, King has filmed and co-presented the long-running

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

series ''

Big Cat Diary ''Big Cat Diary'', also known as ''Big Cat Week'' or ''Big Cat Live'', is a long-running nature documentary series on BBC television which followed the lives of African big cats in Kenya's Maasai Mara Maasai Mara, also sometimes spelled Masai ...

'' alongside Jonathan Scott and

Saba Douglas-Hamilton Saba Iassa Douglas-Hamilton (born 7 June 1970) is a Kenyan wildlife conservationist and television presenter. She has worked for a variety of conservation charities, and has appeared in wildlife documentaries produced by the BBC and other bro ...

, which follows the progress of lions,

leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus '' Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, a ...

s and cheetahs in the

Masai Mara Maasai Mara, also sometimes spelled Masai Mara and locally known simply as The Mara, is a large national game reserve in Narok, Kenya, contiguous with the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. It is named in honor of the Maasai people, the ancestr ...

Game Reserve. He also co-presented BBC Two's annual ''

Springwatch ''Springwatch'', ''Autumnwatch'' and ''Winterwatch'', sometimes known collectively as ''The Watches'', are annual BBC television series which chart the fortunes of British wildlife during the changing of the seasons in the United Kingdom. The p ...

'' and ''

Autumnwatch ''Springwatch'', ''Autumnwatch'' and ''Winterwatch'', sometimes known collectively as ''The Watches'', are annual BBC television series which chart the fortunes of British wildlife during the changing of the seasons in the United Kingdom. The p ...

'' series with Bill Oddie and Kate Humble later with Chris Packham and

Martin Hughes-Games Martin Hughes-Games (born 16 April 1956) is a natural history programme producer, presenter and author. He is best known for co-presenting the BBC magazine-style nature series ''Springwatch'' and its spin-offs, ''Winterwatch'', ''Autumnwatch'' ...

. For these, King films and presents live outside broadcasts from wildlife hotspots around the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

, including

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

, Mull, the London Wetlands Centre and the Somerset Levels. Recent filming projects include principal camera credits for ''

Wild Africa Wild, wild, wilds or wild may refer to: Common meanings * Wild animal * Wilderness, a wild natural environment * Wildness, the quality of being wild or untamed Art, media and entertainment Film and television * ''Wild'' (2014 film), a 2014 Am ...

'' and '' The Blue Planet''. He has won BAFTA awards for his camera work on ''

Life in the Freezer ''Life in the Freezer'' is a BBC nature documentary series written and presented by David Attenborough, first transmitted in the United Kingdom from 18 November 1993. A study of the seasonal cycle of Antarctica, it was the first of Attenborough ...

'' and '' Planet Earth'', for which he filmed a celebrated slow-motion sequence of a

great white shark The great white shark (''Carcharodon carcharias''), also known as the white shark, white pointer, or simply great white, is a species of large mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major oceans. It is nota ...

leaping out of the water to catch a

Cape fur seal The brown fur seal (''Arctocephalus pusillus''), also known as the Cape fur seal, South African fur seal and Australian fur seal, is a species of fur seal. Description The brown fur seal is the largest and most robust member of the fur seals. ...

. In 2007, it was announced that King and an assistant had been attacked by a

rabid Rabies is a viral disease that causes encephalitis in humans and other mammals. Early symptoms can include fever and tingling at the site of exposure. These symptoms are followed by one or more of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, vio ...

cheetah in Kenya while filming for ''

Natural World ''Natural World'' is a strand of British wildlife documentary programmes broadcast on BBC Two and BBC Two HD and regarded by the BBC as its flagship natural history series. It is the longest-running documentary in its genre on British televisi ...

''. They were given rabies jabs and did not develop the disease, although the cheetah itself later died. This attack was documented in the Natural World episode "Toki's Tale." In 2011, King was part of the camera team for the

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

film, ''

African Cats ''African Cats'' (known as ''Felines'' in France) is a 2011 nature documentary film about a pride of lions and a family of cheetahs trying to survive in the African savannah directed by Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey. The film was released ...

''. King has filmed a number of instructional videos for

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, with help on using a compass, reading a map and using grid references. King was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the

in 2011. These are awarded to distinguished persons having, from their position or attainments, an intimate connection with the science or fine art of photography or the application thereof.

Personal life

King has three children from his first marriage: Alexander (born 1986), Romy (born 1989) and Greer (born 1995) and one daughter from his second marriage, Savannah (born in August 2006), to his second wife Marguerite Smits van Oyen. King was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours for services to wildlife photography and conservation, and was awarded the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

's Cherry Kearton Medal and Award in 2009.

Programmes

References

External links

Simon King official websiteSimon King Wildlife Shop
* {{DEFAULTSORT:King, Simon 1962 births BBC television presenters Living people English naturalists English television presenters People from Nairobi Officers of the Order of the British Empire People associated with Shetland