Steve Leonard studied veterinary science at Bristol University Veterinary School. In the final year of his degree, the BBC approached the college to film a group of final-year students.
Originally seeing the idea of appearing on TV as “a bit of a laugh,” he agreed to participate in the filming. The series, Vets’ School was a huge success, and was swiftly followed by Vets in Practice. He went on to present Vets in the Wild .
He gave up full-time veterinary employment and found himself travelling all over the world with the BBC Natural History Unit, filming for Ultimate Killers. Filming this series involved some hair-raising stunts, such as tandem skydiving out of a balloon at 10,000 feet over Spain, and climbing into an eagle’s eyrie in Panama.
Steve went on to present Extreme Animals; and Animal Camera, an intimate look at the animal kingdom through cutting-edge miniature camera filming techniques. He followed this with an exploratory on the origins and evolution of life on Earth in Journey of Life; and another series on animal migrations called Incredible Animal Journeys..
Nowadays (and when he’s not gallivanting around the globe making documentaries) he is a full-time small animal vet (with surgeries in South Cheshire) and is heavily involved in national veterinary issues and animal conservation, not least with Chester Zoo’s ‘Act For Wildlife’ campaign, to which the Club made a donation.