Bear Grylls OBE served with 21 SAS from 1994 to 1997, until a parachuting accident in Zambia broke three vertebrae. Eighteen months later, on 16 May 1998, he reached the summit of Everest aged 23, one of the youngest climbers to do so.

Television followed: seven series of Man vs. Wild, the BAFTA-winning The Island, Running Wild with Bear Grylls, and the Emmy-winning interactive Netflix series You vs. Wild. Recent work includes Netflix’s Celebrity Bear Hunt (February 2025), a ninth series of Running Wild in 2026 and BBC One’s sixteen-part Bear Grylls: Wild Reckoning, filmed in north Wales and launched on 23 February 2026.

He was the UK’s youngest ever Chief Scout, serving from 2009 until September 2024, and in 2018 became the first Chief Ambassador of World Scouting. He is Honorary Colonel of the Royal Marines Commandos and was appointed OBE in the 2019 Birthday Honours. His books have sold more than 20 million copies, from Mud, Sweat and Tears (2011) and Never Give Up (2021) to The Greatest Story Ever Told, a Sunday Times number one in 2025.

His businesses include BecomingX, the Bear Grylls Survival Academy and Be Military Fit, and he tours with Never Give Up in 2026. He speaks on resilience, teamwork and his motto: courage, kindness and never give up.