Michael Palin

Michael Palin is one of Britain's best-known actor/comedians, a member of the Monty Python team and probably the world's favorite globetrotter.

Born in Sheffield, England, on May 5 1943, he first gained recognition in 1962 when he joined Brightside and Carbrook Co-Operative Society Players and won the Best Performing Gent Award at the Co-Op Drama Festival. He studied at Brasenrose College, Oxford, and majored in history. At Oxford University, he wrote and performed comedy with Robert Hewsion, and for the university production of Hang Down Your Head and Die. In 1964, he appeared with fellow Python member Terry Jones in the Oxford Revue at the Edinburgh Festival.

Almost immediately upon graduation from Oxford, Palin and Jones were snatched up by the BBC, where they worked their apprenticeship writing for several top TV shows at that time, including The Two Ronnies, Marty Feldman and The Frost Report (together with future Pythons Cleese, Chapman and Idle). In 1967, Idle joined Palin and Jones in co-writing and performing Do Not Adjust Your Set. Other work by Palin and Jones included The Complete and Utter History of Everything, Bert Fegg's Nasty Book for Boys and Girls and Dr Fegg's Encyclopedia of All World Knowledge. Palin also contributed articles for the New York Times, Sunday Telegraph magazine and Punch.

In May 1969, Palin joined Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle and Terry Jones for the first series of the famous Monty Python's Flying Circus, which transformed British comedy in the early 1970s. He also starred in the Python films, And Now For Something Completely Different, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life, as well as the enormously popular A Fish Called Wanda (which earned him the British Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor) and its sequel, Fierce Creatures. Other film appearances include Jabberwocky, Time Bandits (which he co-wrote), Brazil, A Private Function, Consuming Passions, American Friends and The Missonary (which he also wrote and produced). In addition to this, Palin has written several books for children (The Mirrorstone, Cyril, The Dinner Party, Small Harry and The Toothache Pills) and in 1994 his first stage play, The Weekend, was performed in London's West End.

On television, Michael went on from Python to write (with Terry Jones) and star in the six-part spoof comic tales, Ripping Yarns, which won the Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Comedy Series in 1977. He also wrote the BBC comedy drama, East of Ipswich (for which he received the prestigious 1988 ACE award for Best Writing of a Mini Series or Movie), the TV movie Number 27 and co-starred in Tom Stoppard's BBC adaptation of Jerome K Jerome's classic novel, Three Men In A Boat.

Then, in the late 1980s/1990s, Michael accepted a challenge to become a latter-day Phileas Fogg and charmed the world with his adventures which were to establish him as the ultimate television travel guide. The BBC travelogues, Around the World in 80 Days, Pole to Pole, Full Circle, Sahara, and Himalaya, proved immensely popular with audiences around the globe and the spin-off books, videos and DVDs topped the best-seller charts. He has just delivered his latest in the series, New Europe, and is not ruling out further adventures in globe-trotting. He also appeared in Great Railway Journeys of the World (Series 2, Program 4 From Derry to Kerry) and, in 1999, he presented the four-part BBC series Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure, dedicated to one of his personal heroes, which came after his successful novel Hemingway's Chair.

Michael is married to his childhood sweetheart, Helen Gibbins. They have three children, Thomas, William and Rachel.