Simon King was born in Nairobi, Kenya but moved to the UK in 1964 and has been working in the field of Natural History film making for almost 30 years. He began his career as a child actor at the age of ten in such films as The Fox and Secret Place. In 1976 he accompanied naturalist Mike Kendall in the BBC series Man and Boy in which they searched the country for Britain's wildlife.
First television films
In 1979, he made his first film for television - The Willow, a study of the wildlife which surrounds a willow tree. This was shown in The World About Us series, as was his following film - The Hidden Land, a study of the wildlife which exists around the hotels in Spain's Costa del Sol. He has since gone on to produce in excess of 80 natural history films as principal cameraman, director, producer and many more as presenter.
Presenting and filming
Simon made two series of King's Country and a series of King's Country Diary for the BBC. He was also responsible for the annual BBC Two Christmas dramas including Rannoch the Red Deer, Dusk the Badger, Shadow the Peregrine and the award winning Aliya the Asian Elephant and Tyto the Barn Owl which won an RTS Technical Excellence Award, a Japan Wildlife Festival Environmental Award and a Silver medal at The New York Festival of International Programming.
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, Simon has worked out of the BBC's Natural History Unit on programmes such as Nature Detectives and Wild Nights with Simon King and won a BAFTA for his camerawork on Life in the Freezer.
As well as being a regular presenter on BBC Two's Tracks, Simon fronted Watchout on the same channel and filmed all over the world for Hot Shots, a series which looked at the making of natural history films.
He has been a regular presenter on the NHU's Live Watch programmes and fronts Big Cat Diary, which follows the progress of lions, leopards and cheetahs in the Masai Mara. He also presents Autumnwatch and Springwatch from some of Britain's wildest places. He had principal camera credits for Wild Africa and The Blue Planet.
From scuba diving to composing music
Simon's skills are not limited to film making. He has written a book, a number of forewords, scripts for BBC One films narrated by David Attenborough, and is a regular contributor to magazines and newspapers. He is a qualified scuba diver and enjoys wildlife photography, art, and composing and arranging music.
Television
Man and Boy
King's Country
King's Country Diary
King and Company
A Walk on the Wildside
Wild Nights with Simon King
Tracks
Watch Out
Hot Shots
Big Cat Diary/Week
Autumnwatch
Springwatch
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