Sir David Attenborough is Britain’s best-known natural history film-maker. His career as a naturalist and broadcaster has spanned nearly five decades and there are very few places on the globe that he has not visited. Over the last 25 years he has established himself as the world’s leading natural history program maker with several landmark BBC series, including: Life on Earth (1979), The Living Planet (1984), The Trials of Life (1990), The Private Life of Plants (1995), The Life of Birds (1998), The Life of Mammals (2002) and Life in the Undergrowth (2005).

Attenborough is best known for writing and presenting the Nine Life series, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, which collectively form a comprehensive survey of all life on the planet. His career as the face and voice of natural history programs has endured for more than 50 years. He is a former senior manager at the BBC, having served as controller of BBC Two and director of programming for BBC Television in the 1960s and 1970s.

Whilst a director, one of his most significant decisions was to order a 13-part series on the history of Western art, to show off the quality of the new UHF color television service that BBC Two offered. Broadcast to universal acclaim in 1969, "Civilisation" set the blueprint for landmark authored documentaries. Attenborough's early projects included the quiz show "Animal," "Vegetable, Mineral?" and "Song Hunter," a series about folk music presented by Alan Lomax.

Attenborough’s association with natural history programs began when he produced and presented the three-part series The Pattern of Animals. The studio-bound program featured animals from London Zoo, with the naturalist Julian Huxley discussing their use of camouflage, aposematism and courtship displays.

Beginning with "Life on Earth" in 1979, Attenborough set about creating a body of work which became a benchmark of quality in wildlife film-making and influenced a generation of documentary film-makers. The series also established many of the hallmarks of the BBC’s natural history output. Alongside the “Life” series, Attenborough has continued to work on other television documentaries, mainly in the natural history genre.

In 2010, it was reported that Attenborough has been given 29 honorary degrees by British universities, more than any other person. In 1980, he was honored by the Open University, with whom he has had a close association throughout his career.

Attenborough celebrated his 60th year in broadcasting in 2012, and continues to work on a number of television, film and radio projects. One of the most respected figures broadcasting history, David Attenborough is in constant demand.