Jess French
Jess French is a British television personality, veterinarian and author. She is the presenter of a television programme called Minibeast Adventure with Jess which has aired on CBeebies. French is also a best-selling author, particularly of conservation books for children and a regular contributor to science and literary festivals such as Hay Festival, Edinburgh festival and Norwich Science Festival and printed press such as The Guardian, BBC Wildlife. TV career. French has worked on a number of shows as a wildlife (in particular creepy-crawly) expert including, Live 'n' Deadly (CBBC), Deadly Mission Madagascar (CBBC), Springwatch (BBC ) and Micro Monsters 3D (Sky). Since April 2014 she has presented a series of twenty 9-minute episodes of "Minibeast Adventure with Jess" on the Cbeebies channel. She has also appeared on The Pets Factor, BBC Breakfast, Sunday Brunch and Springwatch. Radio. In 2021, French co-presented a radio series with Ben Garrod for BBC Radio 4 called Wild Inside, in which she carried out post mortems on exotic species and discussed her findings. On 12 August 2019, she appeared on the podcast Trees A Crowd with David Oakes. Education. French has degrees in zoology (from University College London), veterinary  science and veterinary medicine and surgery (from University of Nottingham). Books. French is one of the UK's top-selling authors of non-fiction books for children. She usually writes on the theme of animals, nature and the environment. In August 2020 she released her debut picture book. French was one of the 2021 World Book Day authors, with her title 'Protect the Planet', published by DK (publisher). Awards. French won the Jane Goodall Global Youth Leadership award in 2010 for setting up a program to teach children about environmental issues. In 2015, French was named number 43 on BBC  Wildlife magazine's Power List of conservation heroes. French's book 'Fluttering Minibeast Adventures' was nominated for the 2017 Educational Writers' Award Early life. French has lived across the world, from Chile to Thailand. She grew up in Norfolk and studied at Norwich School. She gained a first class degree in zoology at University College London where she was active in the volunteering department, winning awards for her work teaching children about conservation and for setting up a sign language society. She gained her degree in veterinary medicine and surgery from the University of Nottingham. Her specialism is with primates  and she hopes to be a gorilla vet in the future. She can speak fluent Spanish and can use British Sign Language.