Ben Fogle was born in 1973, the son of actress Julia Foster and broadcast vet Bruce Fogle. Educated at Bryanston School in Dorset Ben went on to study Latin American Studies at the University of Costa Rica and University of Portsmouth, where Ben enrolled as an Officer in the Royal Naval Reserve, as a Midshipman.
Ben spent several years in Latin America, working on a turtle conservation project on the Mosquito coast of Honduras and working in an orphanage in Ecuador.
In 2000 Ben volunteered to be marooned on Taransay, a remote windswept island in the Outer Hebrides as part of the BBC’s big millennium project Castaway 2000.
Ben has since presented numerous programmes including the BBC’s Animal Park, Countryfile, Wild in Africa, Wild on the West Coast, Crufts, One Man and His Dog, Holiday and three series’ of the hit BBC adventure show, Extreme Dreams in which Ben leads ordinary people on extraordinary journeys across some of the most hostile environments on earth.
Numerous appearances have included Panorama, Richard and Judy, Graham Norton, Paul O’Grady, This Week, The Wright Stuff, The Kumars at no. 42, Question of Sport and Never Mind the Buzzcocks.
Ben has travelled extensively in South and Central America and has toured the world for various broadcasting assignments including Tristan da Cunha, Pitcairn, St Helena, East Timor, Nepal, Namibia, Kenya, the Arctic Circle, Zambia, Papua New Guinea, Uganda, Libya, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Tahiti, Maldives, Tanzania and Morocco.
Ben has published three books, The Teatime Islands, Journey’s to Britain’s Faraway Outposts and Offshore in search of an island of my own both published by Penguin, Michael Joseph, and the bestseller The Crossing, Conquering the Atlantic in the World’s toughest Rowing Race co written with James Cracknell and published by Atlantic Books. His fourth book, Race to the South Pole will be published by Macmillan in June 2009.
Ben writes a weekly Country Diary for the Sunday Telegraph, a green column in Sky magazine and his writing has appeared in numerous other titles including The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, the Sun, Country life, the Independent, Glamour magazine, the Daily Mail, the Evening Standard and the New York Times.
Ben’s sporting achievements have included beating actor Sid Owen in a three round charity boxing match for BBC Sport Relief. He has completed the Marathon Des Sables, a one hundred and sixty mile, six day, self sufficient race across the Sahara Desert which he ran for WWF. He has completed the Safaricom Marathon in Kenya for the TUSK Trust, the Bupa Great north Run, the London Marathon, Tough Guy, Man versus Horse and the Royal Parks Half marathon. In 2005 he rowed across the Atlantic Ocean with Double gold Olympic medallist,oarsman James Cracknell, in 49 days, setting the British pairs record. He is currently training for the inaugral Amundsen Omega 3 South Pole Race, a 500 mile footrace across the Antarctic to the South Pole.
Ben has won a Royal Television Society (RTS) award for the highly acclaimed Through Hell and High Water and has been nominated as TV personality of the year and as best new talent. His first book, The Teatime Islands was short listed for the WH Smith’s people’s award for Best Travel book. Ben has also been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Portsmouth.
Ben is a fellow of the Royal Geographic society, an Ambassador for WWF and Tusk. He is also a keen supporter of the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme and Hearing Dogs for Deaf People and President of the Campaign for National Parks.
Ben has his Ocean Yachtmaster, and coastal skipper certificates, and is a qualified Dinghy sailor. Ben also has his NAUI Scuba licence and he is fluent in Spanish.
Ben married Marina in September 2006 after meeting her in the park while the couple were walking their dogs. Marina runs her own events company. She, Ben, Maggi and Inca live on the remote island of London.
About IncaInca is Ben’s beloved black Labrador. She has accompanied Ben on numerous projects including Crufts, Countryfile, Holiday, Heaven and Earth and she even made a guest appearance alongside Sophia Loren on Graham Norton. Inca was born in 1999 and has had one litter of six puppies.
