Mark Anstice (born 17 May 1967 in the

Angus Glens The Five Glens of Angus are the five Highland glens located in the western portion of the Angus region of Scotland. The five glens are, from west to east: Glen Isla Drained by the River Isla. Glen Prosen Drained by the Prosen Water. Glen C ...

area of Scotland) is a Scottish explorer,

adventurous An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme s ...

documentary reality television film maker and writer. He is best known for appearing in the

Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, who previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in Manhattan, with ...

's series '' Mark & Olly: Living with the Tribes'' with Oliver Steeds.

Army career

After school, Anstice travelled extensively throughout Australia and Asia. In London he joined the

5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards The 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards was a cavalry regiment of the British Army formed in 1922 by the amalgamation of the 5th Dragoon Guards (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) and the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons. It served in the Second World ...

of the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

. Anstice spent six years in the guards with operational commitments in the Middle East, Central America and

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

, leaving the service in 1995 as a

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

Television career

In 2000, Mark travelled along with his friend Bruce Parry for 77 days to climb the south face of

Puncak Mandala Puncak Mandala or Mandala Peak (until 1963 Julianatop or Juliana Peak) is a mountain located in Highland Papua, Indonesia. At , it is the highest point of the Jayawijaya (Orange) Range and is included in Seven Second Summits. Following Puncak ...

in the Indonesian part of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

. This is the third highest mountain of Australasia, but is little known and had only been climbed once before, from the north. During the expedition, the team had first contact with some members of the Korowai tribe. In the course of the expedition, the adventure documentary, ''Extreme Lives: Cannibals and Crampons''. was co-directed and written along with Bruce Parry. The film won both the

Banff Mountain Film Festival The Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival, formerly Banff Festival of Mountain Films, is an international film competition and annual presentation of films and documentaries about mountain culture, sports, environment and adventure & exploration, h ...

and Kendal Mountain Film Festival. Mark subsequently wrote the book First Contact, published by Eye Books., which was published in 2004. chronicling the expedition to Mount Mandela. In 2005, Mark took part in the recreation of the

Terra Nova Expedition The ''Terra Nova'' Expedition, officially the British Antarctic Expedition, was an expedition to Antarctica which took place between 1910 and 1913. Led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the expedition had various scientific and geographical objec ...

Robert Falcon Scott Captain Robert Falcon Scott (6 June 1868 – ) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, ''Discovery'' expedition of 1901–04 and the Terra Nova Expedition ...

and the

Amundsen's South Pole expedition The first ever expedition to reach the Geographic South Pole was led by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. He and four other crew members made it to the geographical south pole on 14 December 1911, which would prove to be five weeks ahea ...

Roald Amundsen Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (, ; ; 16 July 1872 – ) was a Norwegians, Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He was a key figure of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Born in Borge, Østfold, Norway, Am ...

as part of the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Blizzard: Race to the Pole documentary. The documentary reconstructed the 2500 km expedition using the same equipment, food and clothing as the original two teams, placing the setting in

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

as dogs were no longer allowed in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...

. Between 2006 and 2008 he co-presented, with Olly Steeds, three 8-part series for Travel Channel in each of which the duo went to live with a remote, jungle-dwelling tribe for three months. In 2009, amidst growing resentment at the way their experiences were edited for the viewing audience, and public controversy surrounding the edit of the third series Steeds left the team and the show was axed. Anstice went on to make a different series, 'Secrets of The Tribes', in West Africa. Mark Anstice previously ran the charity Fertile Roots Foundation. In 2025 he appeared in Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild series 20 episode 8 explaining what happened to the charity.

Television filmography

* ''Extreme Lives: Cannibals and Crampons'' (2002) * ''First Contact'' (2006) – a BBC Anthropology series presentation (set in West Papua New Guinea) surrounding the ethics of "First Contact" experiences staged by tour operators * ''Blizzard: Race to the Pole'' (2006) * ''Mark & Olly: Living with the Tribes'' (2007) * ''Worlds Lost Tribes: The New Adventures of Mark and Olly'' (2007–2009) * ''Secrets of the Tribes'' (2010) * '' Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild'' (2025)

Personal life

Anstice is married to Ayelen, who is Argentinian. They have two children and live in Morocco where they operate The Serai, a retreat centre near Essaouira.

References

1967 births Living people 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards officers British documentary filmmakers Military personnel from Angus, Scotland 20th-century British Army personnel {{Explorer-stub