Edward Michael "Bear" GryllsOBE (/ˈɡrɪlz/; born 7 June 1974) is a British adventurer, writer, television presenter and former SAS trooper who is also a survival expert. He first drew attention after embarking on a number of notable adventures, including several world records in hostile environments, and then became widely known for his television series Man vs. Wild (2006–2011). He is also involved in a number of wilderness survival television series in the UK and US, such as Running Wild with Bear Grylls and The Island with Bear Grylls. In July 2009, Grylls was appointed as The Scout Association’s youngest-ever Chief Scout of the United Kingdom and Overseas Territories at the age of 35, a post he has held for a second term since 2015 and in 2024 became the second longest serving Chief Scout after Robert Baden-Powell. On 5 September 2024, Grylls was succeeded as Chief Scout by Dwayne Fields.[1]
Personal life
Grylls was born in Donaghadee, Northern Ireland, on 7 June 1974.[2][3] His family has a strong cricketing background, his grandfather Neville Ford and great-great-grandfather William Augustus Ford having both been first-class cricketers. He is the son of Conservative politician Sir Michael Grylls and his wife Sarah "Sally" (née Ford). Her mother Patricia (née Smiles), was briefly an MP, succeeding her father; later she married an MP.[4] Grylls has one sibling, an elder sister, Lara Fawcett, who gave him the nickname 'Bear' when he was a week old.[5]
He lived in Donaghadee until the age of four, when his family moved to Bembridge on the Isle of Wight.[6][7] From an early age, he learned to climb and sail with his father, who was a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron. As a teenager, he learned to skydive and earned a second danblack belt in Shotokan karate.[8] He speaks English, Spanish, German and French.[9] He is an Anglican,[10] and has described his Christian faith as the "backbone" in his life:[11] "You can't keep God out. He's all around us, if we're just still enough to listen."[12]
Grylls married Shara Cannings Knight in 2000.[13] They have three sons, born in 2003, 2006 and 2009.[14][15]
In August 2015, Grylls left his 11-year-old son on Saint Tudwal's Island off the North Wales coast, as the tide approached, leaving him to be rescued by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) as part of their weekly practice missions. The child was unharmed, though the RNLI later criticised Grylls for the stunt, saying its crew "had not appreciated" that a child would be involved.[16]
Grylls used to be a vegan but now consumes a diet predominant in animal-based foods as well as fruits and honey.[17] In 2024, he commented to The Irish Times that he was proud to be an Irish citizen.[18]
Grylls inspecting junior soldiers passing out of AFC Harrogate in 2024
After leaving school, Grylls hiked in the Himalayan mountains of Sikkim and West Bengal.[24] From 1994–1997, he served in the Territorial Army with 21 SAS as a trooper. His time in the SAS ended as the result of a free fall parachuting accident in Kenya in 1996;[25][26] his parachute failed to open, causing him to break three vertebrae. At 16,000 feet, his fall is one of the highest ever to be survived without a functional parachute.[26]
On 16 May 1998, Grylls achieved his childhood dream of climbing to the summit of Mount Everest in Nepal, 18 months after breaking three vertebrae in a parachuting accident.[32] At 23, he was at the time among the youngest people to have achieved this feat. There is some dispute over whether he was the youngest Briton to have done so, as he was preceded by James Allen, a climber holding dual Australian and British citizenship, who reached the summit in 1995 at age 22.[33] The record has since been surpassed by Jake Meyer and then Rob Gauntlett who summitted at age 19. To prepare for climbing at such high altitudes in the Himalayas, in 1997, Grylls became the youngest Briton to climb Ama Dablam, a peak once described by Sir Edmund Hillary as "unclimbable", although now the third most popular in the Himalayas for permitted expeditions.[34]
Circumnavigation of the UK
In 2000, Grylls led the team to circumnavigate the British Isles on jet skis,[27] taking about 30 days, to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). He also rowed naked in a homemade bathtub along the Thames to raise funds for a friend who lost his legs in a climbing accident.[32]
Crossing the North Atlantic
In 2003, he led a team of five, including his childhood friend, SAS colleague, and Mount Everest climbing partner Mick Crosthwaite, on an unassisted crossing of the north Atlantic Ocean, in an open rigid inflatable boat. Grylls and his team travelled in an eleven-metre-long boat and encountered force 8 gale winds with waves breaking over the boat while passing through icebergs in their journey from Halifax, Nova Scotia to John o' Groats, Scotland.[35]
Dinner party at altitude
In 2005, alongside the balloonist and mountaineer David Hempleman-Adams and Lieutenant Commander Alan Veal, leader of the Royal Navy Freefall Parachute Display Team, Grylls created a world record for the highest open-air formal dinner party, which they did under a hot-air balloon at 7,600 metres (25,000 ft), dressed in full mess dress and oxygen masks.[36] To train for the event, he made over 200 parachute jumps.[37] This event was in aid of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award and The Prince's Trust.[38]
Paramotoring over the Himalayas
In 2007, Grylls embarked on a record-setting Parajet paramotor in Himalayas near Mount Everest. He took off from 4,400 metres (14,500 ft), 8 miles (13 km) south of the mountain. Grylls reported looking down on the summit during his ascent and coping with temperatures of −60 °C (−76 °F). He endured dangerously low oxygen levels and eventually reached 9,000 metres (29,500 ft), almost 3,000 metres (10,000 ft) higher than the previous record of 6,102 metres (20,019 ft). The feat was filmed for Discovery Channel worldwide as well as Channel 4 in the UK.[39] While Grylls initially planned to cross over Everest itself, the permit was only to fly to the south of Everest, and he did not traverse Everest out of risk of violating Chinese airspace.[40]
Journey Antarctica 2008
In 2008, Grylls led a team of four to climb one of the most remote unclimbed peaks in the world in Antarctica, to raise funds for children's charity Global Angels and promote the use of alternative energies. During this mission the team also aimed to explore the coast of Antarctica by inflatable boat and jetski, part powered by bioethanol, and then to travel across some of the vast ice desert by wind-powered kite-ski and electric powered paramotor. However, the expedition was cut short after Grylls suffered a broken shoulder while kite skiing across a stretch of ice. Travelling at speeds up to 50 km/h (30 mph), a ski caught on the ice, launching him in the air and breaking his shoulder when he came down. He had to be medically evacuated.[41]
Longest indoor freefall
Grylls, along with the double amputee Al Hodgson and the Scotsman Freddy MacDonald, set a Guinness world record in 2008 for the longest continuous indoor freefall. The previous record was 1 hour 36 minutes by a US team. Grylls, Hodgson, and MacDonald, using a vertical wind tunnel in Milton Keynes, broke the record by a few seconds. The attempt was in support of the charity Global Angels.[42][43][44]
Northwest Passage expedition
In September 2010, Grylls led a team of five to take an ice-breaking rigid-inflatable boat (RIB) through 5,700 nautical miles (10,600 km) of the ice-strewn Northwest Passage. The expedition intended to raise awareness of the effects of global warming and to raise money for children's charity Global Angels.[45][46]
Career
Books
Grylls' first book, Facing Up (UK)/The Kid Who Climbed Everest (US), described his expedition and achievements climbing to the summit of Mount Everest. His second was Facing the Frozen Ocean. His third book Born Survivor: Bear Grylls was written to accompany the TV series of the same name. He also wrote an extreme guide to outdoor pursuits, titled Bear Grylls Outdoor Adventures.[47]
Grylls also wrote the Mission Survival series of children's adventure survival books titled: Mission Survival: Gold of the Gods, Mission Survival: Way of the Wolf, Mission Survival: Sands of the Scorpion, Mission Survival: Tracks of the Tiger and Mission Survival: Claws of the Crocodile. He has written two thriller novels based around his character Will Jaeger; Ghost Flight released in 2015[50] and Burning Angels in 2016.[51]
In 2019, Grylls published a Christian devotional titled Soul Fuel.[52]
In October 2021, Grylls released his second autobiography, Never Give Up; covering some of his most memorable events and adventures.[53]
In 2022, Grylls published Mind Fuel: Simple Ways to Build Mental Resilience Every Day.[54] Grylls told The Christian Post that it "offers honest and practical ways to practice better mental health... a crucial part of living a healthy, God-glorying life."[55]
In April 2023, Grylls released You Vs the World: The Bear Grylls Guide to Never Giving Up; a motivational book aimed at children.[56]
In September 2023, How to be a Scout, was released by Grylls.[57]
Grylls filmed a four-part TV show in 2005, called Escape to the Legion, which followed Grylls and eleven other "recruits" as they took part in a shortened re-creation of the French Foreign Legion's basic desert training in the Sahara. The show was first broadcast in the UK on Channel 4,[59] and in the US on the Military Channel.[60]
Grylls hosts a series titled Born Survivor: Bear Grylls for the British Channel 4 and broadcast as Man vs. Wild in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, and the United States, and as Ultimate Survival on the Discovery Channel in Europe, Asia, and Africa. The series features Grylls dropped into inhospitable places, showing viewers how to survive. Man vs. Wild debuted in 2006, and its success led it to lasting seven seasons over five years.
The show has featured stunts including Grylls climbing cliffs, parachuting from helicopters, balloons, and planes, paragliding, ice climbing, running through a forest fire, wading rapids, eating snakes, wrapping his urine-soaked T-shirt around his head to help stave off the desert heat, drinking urine saved in a rattlesnake skin, drinking fecal liquid from elephant dung, eating deer droppings, wrestling alligators, field dressing a camel carcass and drinking water from it, eating various "creepy crawlies" (insects), using the corpse of a sheep as a sleeping bag and flotation device, free climbing waterfalls and using a bird guano/water enema for hydration.[61][62]
The show caused controversy after a programme consultant revealed that Grylls actually stayed in a hotel on some nights — including an episode in Hawaii in which Grylls was ostensibly stranded on a deserted island — and that certain scenes were staged for him.[63] Grylls subsequently told viewers, "If people felt misled … I'm really sorry for that."[63]
In March 2012, the Discovery Channel dropped Grylls from its line-up because of a contractual dispute,[64][65] although he has worked with them again.
In August 2019, Bear Grylls appeared with Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi in a special episode shot in the India's Jim Corbett National Park, Uttarakhand. The episode was showcased in more than 180 countries across the world on the Discovery, Inc. network.[66]
In 2010, Grylls came out with a new project titled Worst-Case Scenario which aired on Discovery in the US. It is based on the popular books of the same name.[67] Twelve episodes were produced before the show was cancelled.[68]
Bear's Wild Weekend
In 2011, he made two specials under the title Bear's Wild Weekend for Channel 4 in the UK which was broadcast over the Christmas holiday that year. Each special featured Grylls taking either Jonathan Ross or Miranda Hart on short two-day adventures; Ross to rainforest in the Canary Islands, Hart to the Swiss Alps.[69] These screened in the US under the title Bear Grylls' Wild Adventure. A third episode with Stephen Fry, this time in the Dolomite mountains of South Tyrol, screened in late 2013.[70]
In 2014, two further episodes were aired in the UK under the title Wild Weekends. The first of these was the 2011 special of Man vs. Wild featuring Jake Gyllenhaal,[71] and the second was the Running Wild episode featuring Ben Stiller.[72]
In Bear Grylls: Escape from Hell, he reveals the true life stories of ordinary people trapped in extraordinary situations of survival. The six-episode series premiered on the Discovery Channel in the UK on 4 October 2013, and in the US on 11 November 2013.[75]
In 2015, he began presenting the six-part ITV series Bear Grylls: Mission Survive which features eight celebrities on a twelve-day survival mission. The series began airing on 20 February 2015.[83]Mission Survive returned for a second series in 2016.[84]
Bear Grylls Survival School
In 2016, he presented a CITV series called Bear Grylls Survival School. Filming started in August 2015. The series began airing on 10 January 2016.[85][86] A second series was scheduled to begin on 7 January 2017.
Survivor Games
In summer 2015, China's Dragon TV ordered a Grylls-fronted adventure series titled Survivor Games [zh] (Chinese: 跟着贝尔去冒险). The series featured Grylls and eight Chinese celebrities and premiered on Dragon TV on 16 October 2015.[87]
Bear's Mission
In 2018, ITV began airing a new series similar to the USA series Running Wild with Bear Grylls called Bear's Mission with... This show focuses on one British celebrity taking an overnight adventure with Bear each episode. The series premiered on ITV in early 2018.[88]
Premiered in July 2022, it is a spin-off of Grylls' long running Running Wild with Bear Grylls series.[91] The series returned for a second season on 9 July 2023.[92]
Bear Grylls Meets President Zelenskyy
In this documentary that aired on Channel 4 on 28 March 2023, Grylls travels to Ukraine to meet President Zelenskyy and to meet civilians caught up in the war with Russia.[93]
I Survived Bear Grylls
Eight-part competition series; co-hosted with comedian Jordan Conley.[94]
Bear Grylls Ventures and NM Capital purchased British Military Fitness in September 2018 and re-branded as "Be Military Fit with Bear Grylls", to retain the existing abbreviation BMF. The company runs outdoor group fitness classes in 140 public parks and outdoor spaces across the United Kingdom. The classes are led by former or serving members of the British Armed Forces with recognised fitness training qualifications. It is Europe's largest outdoor fitness company.[96][97][98][99]
Charity and politics
Grylls juggling in 2016
Grylls is an ambassador for The Prince's Trust, an organisation which provides training, financial, and practical support to young people in the United Kingdom.[15]
Global Angels, a UK charity which seeks to aid children around the world, were the beneficiaries of his 2007 accomplishment of taking a powered para-glider higher than Mount Everest. Grylls' held the highest ever dinner party at 7,600 metres (25,000 ft) in aid of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, and launched the 50th anniversary of the Awards. His successful circumnavigation of Britain on jet skis raised money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
Grylls' Everest climb was in aid of SSAFA Forces Help, a British-based charitable organisation set up to help former and serving members of the British Armed Forces and their families and dependents. His 2003 Arctic expedition detailed in the book Facing the Frozen Ocean was in aid of The Prince's Trust. His 2005 attempt to para-motor over the Angel Falls was in aid of the charity Hope and Homes for Children.[100]
In August 2010, Grylls continued his fund-raising work for Global Angels by undertaking an expedition through the Northwest Passage in a rigid inflatable boat. Many of his expeditions also support environmental causes such as his Antarctica expedition and his circumnavigation of Britain which tested a pioneering new fuel made from rubbish. In 2011, Grylls was in New Zealand during the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Following the incident, he appeared on New Zealand advertisements encouraging people to donate money to help rebuild the city.[101][102]
Grylls is also an ambassador for Care for Children, an organisation that partners with governments in Asia to help create a positive alternative to institutional care through local family-based care for disadvantaged children.[103] In 2014, Grylls designed a Scouts-themed Paddington Bear statue, one of fifty located around London prior to the release of the film Paddington, which was auctioned to raise funds for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).[104]
Grylls said he spoke "from the heart" in backing "Remain" in the 2016 referendum. "At such a time for the UK to retreat, run and cut ourselves loose from Europe, when there are so many challenges on our doorstep, to me just doesn't feel either courageous or kind," he said. "Europe has many flaws, but I also believe the way to help resolve many of those tough issues is from within... I have never been a good quitter and I am so proud of the UK and our values: tolerance, kindness, respect, courage and resilience. This is why I want us to stay together and Remain in Europe."[105] In January 2020, he announced that he had asserted his right to Irish citizenship and had obtained an Irish passport.[106]
On 16 November 2018, The World Organization of the Scout Movement announced the appointment of Bear Grylls as its first Chief Ambassador.[108] Upon his appointment, he said "I'm very proud and humbled to take on this new role as Chief Ambassador of World Scouting and continue to promote the great work Scouting is doing across the globe. Scouting is a worldwide force for good that unites young people with positive values and an adventurous spirit. We aim to make a difference in our communities, help young people learn new skills, and be kind to all people."[108]
Bear has long been a supporter of Scouting around the world, often visiting Scout groups on his filming missions, and appeared at the 24th World Scout Jamboree in his role as Chief Ambassador[109]
On 17 May 2009, The Scout Association announced Grylls would be appointed Chief Scout following the end of Peter Duncan's five-year term in July 2009.[110] He was officially made Chief Scout at Gilwell 24 on 11 July 2009 at age 35[111][112] in a handover event featuring Peter Duncan in front of a crowd of over 3,000 Explorer Scouts. He is the tenth person to hold the position and the youngest Chief Scout since the role was created for Robert Baden-Powell in 1920.[111][113][114]
On 9 April 2015, The Scout Association announced that Grylls would continue as Chief Scout until 2018. Grylls wrote, "I am so proud that the largest youth movement on the planet has asked me to continue in my role as UK Chief Scout."[115]
On 5 June 2015, in an interview with The Telegraph, Grylls praised the challenge of being Britain's youngest Chief Scout, saying: "Scouting humbles me every day."[116] He was succeeded as Chief Scout in 2024 by Dwayne Fields.[1][117]
Ambassador in United24
On 29 March 2023, Grylls became an ambassador for the UNITED24 platform. His learning and development company BecomingX, together with Amazon and Accenture, is developing the BecomingX Ukraine learning platform for Ukrainians.[118][119]
Tour
"The Never Give Up Tour" (2024); seven-day UK tour[120]
^"No. 64447". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 July 2024. p. 12766. Mr Edward Michael Bear GRYLLS OBE is appointed Honorary Colonel Army Foundation College Harrogate 19 April 2024 and in accordance with the provisions of Paragraph 4 of the Officers' Commissions (Army) Order 1967 is commissioned in His Majesty's Land Forces in the rank of Local Colonel for the duration of the appointment in an existing vacancy
^ abcBlundell, Joanna (7 April 2003). "A Boys Own adventure". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022.
^"Dining with altitude". Press Association. London. 30 June 2005. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2016 – via The Guardian.
^Grylls, Bear (2012). Mud, sweat, and tears: the autobiograph. New York: William Morrow. p. 408. ISBN978-0-06-212419-7.
^A Survival Guide for Life: How to Achieve Your Goal, Thrive in Adversity, and Grow in Character. New York: William Morrow. 2012. p. 285. ISBN978-0-06-227195-2. OCLC818737912.
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