STEVE LEONARD
Steve Leonard was born in 1972 in Enniskillen and, when he was six weeks old, moved with his family across the Irish Sea to settle in Cheshire.
Keeping it in the family
Being a vet definitely runs in the family. Following his father and two older brothers before him, Steve decided to study veterinary science at Bristol University Vet School. His younger brother, Keith, enrolled on a veterinary course at Liverpool a year later.
As Steve entered the fifth and final year of his degree, the BBC approached the college to gain permission to film a selection of final-year students. Originally viewing the potential TV appearance as "a bit of a laugh", Steve agreed to participate in the filming.
The resulting series, Vets School, was a huge success, and was swiftly followed up by Vets In Practice. From his very first day of work, including his first diagnosis as a new graduate (which was, unfortunately, completely wrong - although he did improve) Steve has lived with cameras following his day-to-day life.
Vets in the wild
He went on to present Vets In The Wild with Trude Mostue, while holding down a full-time job at a veterinary practice in Lancaster. He quit full-time veterinary employment in September 1999 after three very happy years in Lancaster. Originally planning to locum around the country, he instead found himself travelling all over the world with the BBC Natural History Unit, filming for Ultimate Killers.
Occupational hazards
Covering more than 150,000 miles, Steve saw more of the planet in the one year of filming than he expected to in a lifetime. He went to places as far flung as Indonesia and India in his quest to find the ultimate killers of the animal world.
He was chased by a cheetah, he swam with piranhas and great white sharks, was stung by killer bees and was horribly mauled by a rabbit! Filming Ultimate Killers also involved some complicated stunts, such as tandem skydiving out of a balloon at 10,000ft in Spain, and climbing into an eagle's nest in Panama, 120ft up a very wobbly tree.
Steve also presented Extreme Animals and, in 2004, Animal Camera which took an intimate look at the animal kingdom through cutting edge miniature camera filming techniques. More recently, Steve has explored the origins and evolution of life on Earth in Journey of Life for BBC1 and is already busy on his next projects, Incredible Journeys and Jaws in Britain, both with the Natural History Unit.
Television
1996 Vets' School
1996-2000 Vets In Practice
1997 Holiday
1998-1999 Vets In The Wild
1999-2001 Steve Leonard's Ultimate Killers
2000 Polar Bear Special
2001 Vets In The Wild West
2002 Steve Leonard's Extreme Animals
2003 Animal Camera
2003 Search for Loch Ness
2005 Journey of Life