Monty Halls

Biography

A former Royal Marine Officer and trained marine biologist, broadcaster and explorer Monty Halls has led teams through some of the most demanding environments on land and at sea. His adventures include discovering prehistoric settlements amid great white sharks, avoiding the bullets of poachers, and photographing a dangerous and rare crocodile underwater for the first time.

Monty first came to prominence when he led a group of adventurers and scientists to a sunken city off coast of India that could prove to be the cradle of civilisation as we know it today. He has gone onto circumnavigate the globe three times through his many adventures.

Monty has documented his travels in Great Ocean Adventures and demonstrated his knowledge of medieval warfare in The Perfect Weapon. He fled the city in Great Escapes on BBC2, where he charted his experiences living in remote parts of Scotland and Ireland. He’s looked at WWII’s Great Escapes, observed wildlife, renovated a cattle-shed to make a basic home and participated in local life. Monty’s book Beachcomber Cottage accompanied the series. His adventures have also appeared on Channel 5’s Monty's Diving Mysteries and the series Monty And..., where he took viewers around the world’s most fascinating underwater sites. He also took part in (and won) Channel 4’s Superhuman, competing in twelve tests that pushed the participants to their mental and physical limits, and in My Family and the Galapagos, took his wife and daughters to the Ecuadorian islands to highlight conservation efforts.

He has also written Commando: The Inside Story of Britain’s Royal Marines, Great Irish Escape, where Monty and his canine companion, Reuben, escape to the west coast of Ireland to help the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, and, The Great Escape: Adventures on the Wild West Coast, which follows Monty’s dream of becoming a crofter.

Using stunning images from his expeditions Monty provides an incredible journey through some of the world's most inaccessible environments. In his presentations he demonstrates how we can learn from ecosystems and local communities, as well as the importance in preserving them. He considers the lessons in risk, mindset, preparation, persistence, and leadership he has learned from a life that has encompassed working with Nelson Mandela to trekking through jungles and scaling sheer cliffs. He reveals how other animals behave under stress, how we occupy niches within our own teams – and how best to maintain objectives in an ever-changing environment.