Quick Facts
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Biography
Steven Rinella (born February 13, 1974) is an American outdoorsman, conservationist, writer, and television personality known for translating the hunting and fishing lifestyle to a wide variety of audiences.
Early life
Steven Rinella was born in Twin Lake, Michigan on February 13, 1974. He grew up in Twin Lake along with his two older brothers, who were taught to hunt and fish at an early age by their father.
Career
Television
MeatEater
Steven Rinella is the host of MeatEater, a weekly half-hour series that airs on Netflix. The show is based on Rinella's hunting adventures in such locations as Montana (deer, elk); Alaska (waterfowl, mountain goat, Dall sheep, caribou, black bear); Mexico (wild turkey, buffalo); New Zealand (tahr, chamois, red stag); Arizona (mountain lion, Coues deer); Wisconsin (white-tailed deer, rabbit, beaver, muskrat); and California (wild pigs, quail, and turkey.) The show offers a defense of hunting and makes the case that hunters are obligated to be stewards of the land and protectors of their chosen prey species. The episodes include rudimentary food preparations after the hunt. Examples include a deer's heart wrapped in caul fat and roasted over a fire, javelina meat boiled inside the animal's own stomach, and more common preparations. The series premiered on January 1, 2012, and has completed its eighth season.
The Wild Within
Prior to MeatEater, Rinella hosted The Wild Within, an 8-episode series on the Travel Channel.
Books
- The Complete Guide to Hunting, Butchering, and Cooking Wild Game
- The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine (2006)
- American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon (2009)
- Meat Eater: Adventures from the Life of an American Hunter (2013)
- The MeatEater Fish and Game Cookbook (2018)
Awards and nominations
In 2012, MeatEater was nominated for Sportsman Channel's Sportsman Choice Awards for Best New Series, Best Host, Best Hunting Show and Best Educational Show
A year earlier, The Wild Within was a James Beard Awards finalist for best Television Program, On Location.
American Buffalo won a number of awards, including the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award. It was also an Amazon Book of the Month and one of The San Francisco Chronicleʼs best fifty non-fiction books of 2008.