30 Facts About Nigel Marven

Nigel Marven is best known as presenter of the BBC miniseries Chased by Dinosaurs, its sequel, Sea Monsters, as well as the ITV miniseries Prehistoric Park.

Nigel Marven is known for his unorthodox, spontaneous, and daring style of presenting wildlife documentaries as well as for including factual knowledge in the proceedings.

Nigel Marven kept stick insects, boa constrictors, and even an eel in a bath.

Nigel Marven studied botany and zoology at the University of Bristol until the age of 22 when he left to begin his career at the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol.

From 1982 to the mid-1990s, Nigel Marven worked as a wildlife documentary researcher for such programmes as The First Eden and My Family and Other Animals.

Nigel Marven then went on to begin producing nature documentary series, one of the first being Realms of the Russian Bear in 1992.

Nigel Marven enjoyed a 12-year professional collaboration with the natural historian David Attenborough, whom he holds in high esteem.

In 2000, Nigel Marven became the host of the hit annual Discovery Channel event Shark Week, and held this role for three years.

Nigel Marven then continued his partnership with Impossible Pictures as the studio moved on to ITV, beginning with Prehistoric Park in 2006, a fictional series about travelling back in time to rescue examples of extinct creatures such as Tyrannosaurus, the woolly mammoth, Arthropleura, and others.

Nigel Marven is seen playing with a baby Velociraptor, before encountering a Giganotosaurus, which, it is implied, eats him off-screen.

Nigel Marven has made some short how-to-guides, available through Eden Channel's website.

The presenter-led version of this documentary called Wild Philippines with Nigel Marven aired on Viasat Nature in Europe in March and April 2018 and on Animal Planet India in June 2018, with the American TV channel PBS airing the series in late summer 2019.

Nigel Marven voiced the Early Access Trailer for the game, which was released on 21 April 2022.

Nigel Marven narrated the upcoming independent documentary project Forgotten Bloodlines: Agate, which will take place during the Miocene epoch.

Marven's most recent project is a one-hour documentary film titled Wild Slovakia with Nigel Marven, set to premiere on 1 January 2024 on the Slovak RSTV channel Dvojka.

Nigel Marven was bitten by a venomous green pit viper in the East Malaysian state of Sabah in the summer of 2014 during filming of the first episode of the show Eating Wild.

The snake bit him on the thumb but did not inject much venom, so Nigel Marven spent only six hours in the hospital until he had recovered.

Nigel Marven has had a few other very dangerous encounters with venomous snakes.

Nigel Marven spent two to three days in hospital, though luckily the venom did not enter his blood.

Nigel Marven's hand swelled up within ten minutes, but there were no other harmful effects.

Nigel Marven still recalls it as one of the most dangerous moments in his career.

Nigel Marven later said that this experience was the most exciting moment in his entire film-making career.

Nigel Marven is a Panda Ambassador for Chengdu Panda Base in Sichuan Province, China.

Nigel Marven is a patron of The Great Fen Project for restoring vital wildlife habitat, Healthy Planet through which he adopted a plot of land for helping to create new wildlife habitats, and Vale Wildlife Hospital, company that treats injured wildlife in Gloucestershire, England.

Nigel Marven is a patron of the ORCA organization, which protects whales and dolphins in European waters.

In 2016, Nigel Marven produced and narrated a short film featuring the work of the Black Mamba Anti-Poaching Unit, which is fighting against rhinoceros poaching in South Africa.

Nigel Marven was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award in 2000 for Best Features for his first presenter-led series, Giants.

Nigel Marven married Jenny Hull in September 1996, but they separated four years later.

Nigel Marven's children are one son Theo and daughter Eleonora.

Nigel Marven confirms he is a vegetarian on his official website by stating that the peregrine falcon is his favourite animal and that he would love to be such a bird, but because he is a vegetarian eating raw pigeon would make that hard.