Jess French
Quick Facts
Biography
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.
TV career
She has worked on a number of shows as a wildlife (in particular creepy-crawly) expert including, Live ānā 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.
On 12 August 2019, she appeared on the podcast Trees A Crowd with David Oakes.
Books
French has written a number of books.
- Fluttering Minibeast Adventures (published Feb 2016)
- Tickly Minibeast Adventures (published Feb 2016)
- Born Free Chimp Rescue:The True Story of Chinoise (published May 2016)
- Slimy Minibeast Adventures (due March 2017)
- Buzzy Minibeast Adventures (due March 2017)
- Born Free Bear Rescue (published September 2017)
- Born Free Cheetah Rescue (published November 2017)
- Minibeasts with Jess French (due February 2018)
- Saving Species (October 2018)
What a Waste (due April 2019)
Lost Species (due October 2019)
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
Education
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.