Nigel Alan Marven (born 27 November 1960) is a British wildlife TV presenter, naturalist, conservationist, author, and television producer. He is best known as presenter of the BBC miniseries Chased by Dinosaurs, its sequel, Sea Monsters, as well as the ITV miniseries Prehistoric Park. He is also known for his unorthodox, spontaneous, and daring style of presenting wildlife documentaries as well as for including factual knowledge in the proceedings. Career Early life Marven was born in Barnet but grew up in St. Albans. As a child he loved animals. His first pet was a hamster called Hummy. He kept stick insects, boa constrictors and even an eel in a bath. When he was 15, he also owned young spectacled caiman. Nigel 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. Becoming producer and TV presenter (1982-1999) From 1982 to the mid-1990s, Nigel first worked as a wildlife documentary researcher for such programmes as The First Eden and My Family and Other Animals. He then went on to begin producing nature documentary series, one of the first being Realms of the Russian Bear in 1992. He enjoyed a 12-year professional collaboration with the natural historian David Attenborough, whom he holds in high esteem. In 1998, he moved to ITV where he was asked to present wildlife documentaries as well as produce them. In his first television series for ITV, Giants, he swam with a great white shark without the protection of a cage. Other scenes included a goliath birdeater spider, arguably the largest spider in the world, walking over his face, and Marven grappling a fifteen-foot African rock python deep in its underground lair. This style of presenting has won him many viewers and to date he has presented more than 50 wildlife programs and series for TV. Shark Week and prehistory programmes (2000–2009) In 2000, Nigel became the host of the hit annual Discovery Channel event Shark Week, and held this role for three years. In 2002, the Impossible Pictures production company asked Nigel to present the Walking with Dinosaurs Special episodes "The Giant Claw" and "Land of Giants", which premiered on BBC One to nearly seven million viewers in late 2002. In 2003, Nigel also hosted a sequel miniseries, Sea Monsters – A Walking with Dinosaurs Trilogy, which was