Jeremy John Wade, a native of rural Suffolk, England, UK, grew up on the banks of the Suffolk Stour. He currently resides in the countryside near Bath, Somerset, UK, when not traveling to distant lands to catch "monster" fish and film the TV series, River Monsters, a production of Icon Films for Animal Planet.
Wade holds a degree in Zoology from Bristol University and a postgraduate teaching certificate in biological sciences from the University of Kent. He has had a diverse career, working as a secondary school biology teacher, tour leader, motorcycle dispatch rider, supply teacher, art tutor, translator (Portuguese-English),public relations consultant, dishwasher, senior copywriter (at an advertising agency),and newspaper reporter.
As a self-taught writer, Wade has published several articles on poaching, fair trade, travel, natural history, and fishing. He co-wrote a book, "Somewhere Down the Crazy River," with Paul Arthur Boote in 1992, which is considered an angling classic. Wade has also completed a new book, "River Monsters: True Stories of the Ones That Didn't Get Away," scheduled for release in April 2011.
At the age of 16, Wade became the youngest member of the British Carp Study Group. His first overseas trip was to the mountain rivers of India in 1982, where his passion for tracking down large and little-known freshwater fish became unquenchable. He has since traveled to many lands, including the Congo and the Amazon rainforests of Brazil, where he has faced numerous challenges, including catching Malaria, being jailed overnight as a suspected spy, almost drowning, surviving a plane crash, having an Alaskan bear steal his fish, and facing the wrong end of a gun.
Throughout his career, Wade has achieved several notable "firsts." These include filming a large mystery creature in an Amazon lake, dubbed "the Amazon Nessie" by BBC Wildlife magazine, which turned out to be a malformed pink river dolphin, and getting the first underwater footage of the "Giant Devil Catfish" in India.
Wade's tenacity is impressive, as he studied Portuguese for three hours a day for three months to prepare for a trip to Brazil. He has since worked as a Portuguese-English translator and speaks several languages well enough to get around. However, he has admitted that German is not one of them.
Wade became a TV personality in 2002, hosting his first TV series, "Jungle Hooks," filmed for Discovery Europe, which was highly popular. He then hosted "River Monsters" in 2009, which achieved the highest-ever audience figures in the history of Animal Planet.
When not fishing, Wade enjoys scuba diving (mostly in cold, low-visibility water around the UK coast),free diving, and rock climbing when the weather permits.
