Background and career
Edward Michael "Bear" Grylls (; born 7 June 1974) is a British adventurer, television presenter and former SAS trooper. He holds several world records in hostile environments, and appeared in numerous wilderness survival television series including Man vs. Wild (2006–2011), Running Wild with Bear Grylls (2014–2023) and The Island with Bear Grylls (2014–2019).
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. He held the post until September 2024, becoming the second-longest-serving Chief Scout after Robert Baden-Powell.
Grylls was born in Donaghadee, Northern Ireland, on 7 June 1974. 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. Grylls has one sibling, an elder sister, Lara Fawcett, who gave him the nickname "Bear" when he was a week old. 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 lived in Donaghadee until the age of four, when his family moved to Bembridge on the Isle of Wight. 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 dan black belt in Shotokan karate. He speaks English, Spanish, German and French. He is an Anglican, and has described his Christian faith as the "backbone" in his life: "You can't keep God out. He's all around us, if we're just still enough to listen."
Grylls was educated at Eaton House, Ludgrove School and Eton College, where he helped start its first mountaineering club. He studied Spanish and German at the University of the West of England, Bristol, and at Birkbeck College, where he graduated with a 2:2 bachelor's degree, obtained part-time, in Hispanic studies in 2002.
