Home town Llanwddyn, Powys Nationality Welsh Name Iolo Williams | Years active 1997–present Role Television presenter Known for Wildlife presenter | |
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Occupation ornithologistnature observertelevision presenter Books Birds in Wales, Wild about the Wild Employer Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, BBC Cymru Wales | ||
Discover gwynedd s wildlife with iolo williams tv wildlife presenter
Iolo Tudur Williams (born 22 August 1962) is a Welsh nature observer and television presenter, best known for his BBC and S4C nature shows, working in both English and his first language of Welsh.
Contents
- Discover gwynedd s wildlife with iolo williams tv wildlife presenter
- Perfect day iolo williams
- Biography
- Career
- Personal life
- Television
- Works
- References
Perfect day iolo williams
Biography
The son of a headmaster school teacher, Williams was born in Builth Wells, Breconshire, but his family moved to Pembrokeshire, before moving to Montgomeryshire when he was aged five to live in Llanwddyn near Lake Vyrnwy. Educated at Llanfyllin High School, after gaining two A levels in Biology and French, he almost joined the British Army but instead went to North East London Polytechnic (NELP) now the University of East London in London, graduating with a degree in ecology.
Career
After graduation, he worked on a farm and then in the timber trade, before joining the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) in 1985, staying for 14 years working in the field and as a regional co-ordinator. This led to his making regular appearances in the media, making a name for himself as a leading expert on Welsh bird life.
In 1997 he made "Visions of Snowdonia" with BBC Wales, which followed the lives of six people living and working on the slopes of the country's highest mountain. After making a second series, in 1999 Williams decided to leave the RSPB and pursue a full-time career in the media. He presently makes his main appearances on BBC Wales, and with wider Welsh focused programs on S4C in his first language of Welsh made by independent TV company Telesgop.
Known for frequently wearing shorts for his work, he has, as a result, become a Welsh cult gay icon. In 2007, Williams was awarded an honorary fellowship of the Bangor University.
Williams is the presenter of Rugged Wales, which aired on BBC Two on 13 and 20 March 2012.
Personal life
Williams and his wife Ceri live near the town of Newtown, Powys. The couple have two sons (Dewi and Tomos); and had two rescue dogs, Ianto and Gwen, who have both appeared in some of his television series.
Williams and his wife built a timber-framed home, fully insulated, double-glazed with energy-saving lightbulbs throughout. They have a wildlife garden, and grow their own vegetables. They compost all their food waste, and recycle everything else, whilst always eating organic and local produce. As a result of this, in a World Wide Fund for Nature survey of carbon footprints of ecology personalities, Williams and his family were found to have a very low rating of 1.81, compared to a Welsh average of 3.0.