Professor Ben Garrod is an academic, author, and broadcaster. He is a multi-disciplinary scientist, with a focus spanning evolution, zoology, and conservation. Ben is an award-winning broadcaster, presenting and co-presenting a wide range of television and radio science documentaries and series, and has written numerous Children’s books, with a mission to inspire young readers to be passionate, inquisitive, and confident about science. Ben is Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Science Engagement at The University of East Anglia, in Norwich. He has a master’s degree in Wild Animal Biology from the Royal Veterinary College, London, and his PhD at UCL, ‘Primates of the Caribbean’, focused on studying the early stages of speciation in island-living monkeys through molecular and anatomical changes. In...
Professor Ben Garrod is an academic, author, and broadcaster. He is a multi-disciplinary scientist, with a focus spanning evolution, zoology, and conservation. Ben is an award-winning broadcaster, presenting and co-presenting a wide range of television and radio science documentaries and series, and has written numerous Children’s books, with a mission to inspire young readers to be passionate, inquisitive, and confident about science.
Ben is Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Science Engagement at The University of East Anglia, in Norwich. He has a master’s degree in Wild Animal Biology from the Royal Veterinary College, London, and his PhD at UCL, ‘Primates of the Caribbean’, focused on studying the early stages of speciation in island-living monkeys through molecular and anatomical changes.
In 2014, Ben presented his first TV documentary, with the award-winning BBC4 series Secrets of Bones. Since then, he has presented a wide range of science and wildlife documentaries and series, including Secrets of Skin (2019) and Baby Chimp Rescue (2020). He has worked alongside Prof. Alice Roberts, presenting The Day the Dinosaurs Died (2017), and with Prof. Danielle George in the series Hyper-evolution: the Rise of Robots (2017). He also co-presented Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur (2016) and Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard (2021) alongside Sir David Attenborough. Ben has also presented several segments for The One Show.
Across radio and other digital audio platforms, Ben has fronted various series and stand-alone documentaries, including A Grown-Up Guide to Dinosaurs and A Grown-Up Guide to Oceans (both for Audible Original), and a whole host of BBC Radio 4 projects, including Super Senses, Bone Stories, and The Human Hive, alongside three series of the hugely successful anatomy series Wild Inside with veterinarian and broadcaster Dr. Jess French. He has also been featured on A Life Scientific and has guest presented on BBC Inside Science.
Ben grew up on the Norfolk coast and, from a very early age, was fascinated by the natural world, juggling a love for local wildlife with a desire to work in tropical biology. Ben is an accomplished field biologist and has, over the last twenty years, lived and worked all over the world, studying primates in the field. Destinations have included: Uganda, Madagascar, Gabon, Liberia, Cameroon, with chimpanzees, gorillas, and lemurs; in Indonesia, working with critically endangered Sumatran orangutans; and across various Caribbean islands researching introduced green monkeys.
Additionally, his work has included investigating archaeological animal remains in Chinese Imperial tombs, assisting in anatomical assessments of stranded sperm whales, and excavating some of the largest dinosaur remains ever discovered, in Argentina.
Ben is a prolific author and loves to write for children and young adults. He has written about his work with great apes in The Chimpanzee and Me and has written two eight-part, non-fiction series: Ultimate Dinosaurs and Extinct – the story of life on Earth. Ben’s first children’s fiction series, The Adventures of a Dog Called Jack-Jack, features his own dog, who grew up in Africa helping orphaned chimpanzees, but now enjoys coffee shops and croissants.
Ben represents numerous charities close to his heart, in a range of different capacities. He is Patron for the British Hen Welfare Trust, a Patron for Humanists UK, President for the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists Society, Vice President for the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, a Patron for the Natural Sciences Collections Association (NatSCA), Ambassador for the Marine Conservation Society, Patron for the Youth STEMM Award, and a Patron for the Norwich Science Festival.
Ben is an experienced public speaker and educator. He has appeared at numerous festivals (including the Hay Literary Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe, the NI Science Festival, and the Norwich Science Festival), hosted several charity events, and has given various corporate talks.
Ben is a keen trail and ultra-marathon runner, but still enjoys a good Park Run and a slow dog walk near his Norfolk home, too.
