Social events

Monty Halls is a writer, explorer, television presenter and public speaker. A former Royal Marines officer who worked for Nelson Mandela on the peace process in South Africa, he left the services in 1996 to pursue a career in leading expeditions. Having achieved a First Class Honors degree in marine biology, over the next decade he circumnavigated the globe four times on various projects, leading multi-national teams in some of the most demanding environments on earth. Notable expeditions included an anti poaching project in the high montane grasslands of the Nyika Plateau in northern Malawi, the discovery of a sunken city off the coast of Tamil Nadu in India, and a (successful) attempt to find and photograph a rare crocodile species in the mountain pools of the Raspaculo Basin in Central America. In 2002 he was awarded the Bish Medal by the Scientific Exploration Society for his services to exploration.

His television career began when he won Channel Four’s Superhuman competition in 2004. Since then he has presented series and documentaries for the BBC, Channel Five, The Discover Channel, The National Geographic Channel and the History Channel.

The three Great Escape Series for BBC2 saw Monty and his bonkers dog Reuben live on the west coast of Scotland (2008), the Outer Hebrides (2009) and the west coast of Ireland (2010).  After Ireland, Monty went out to Australia to film the award winning “Great Barrier Reef” for the BBC’s Natural History Unit. Monty spent most of 2011 living and working as a fisherman in Cornwall, filming the highly acclaimed “Fisherman’s Apprentice with Monty Halls”  which tells the story of the threats facing the livelihood of the small fleet fishing industry in the UK and has just finished being aired on BBC2.

Monty is patron to The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, Help for Heroes, Shark & Coral Conservation, The Shark Trust, Coral Cay Conservation, Go Commando, Dumfrieshire and Cumbrian Greyhound Rescue and is an Honorary Ambassador to the Galapagos Conservation Trust. 

He continues to run expeditions and diving trips when he has the time between speaking engagements and filming projects. He has written six books, mainly on diving and the marine environment as well as "Beachcomber Cottage" for the first “Great Escape” series and “Great Irish Escape” for the third series. His latest book "The Fisherman’s Apprentice" documenting his time in Cornwall with some wonderful photography to accompany the BBC series of the same title has just been published and is out now. 

His hobbies include playing the guitar and playing rugby - both to a mind bogglingly low standard. In the latter he has two shot knees, no pace, and doesn't like tackling and yet remains resolutely optimistic concerning his call up to the national squad.

Monty has recently become a Dad to Isla Grace and lives with his partner Tamsyn in Dartmouth where they are running their new business that specialises in wildlife tours around the local area, natural history filming courses and training packages for corporate groups.