Michael Palin

Sir Michael Edward Palin is an English actor, writer, and television presenter. He is widely recognized as a member of the Monty Python comedy group. Beyond his work in comedy and film, Palin has established a prominent career as a travel writer and television documentarian. His contributions to entertainment and broadcasting have been recognized with major honours, including the BAFTA Fellowship in 2013 and a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 2019.

Palin was born on 5 May 1943 in Ranmoor, Sheffield, to Edward Moreton Palin, an engineer for a steel firm, and Mary Rachel Lockhart. He had an older sister named Angela. Palin had his first acting experience at age five playing Martha Cratchit in a school performance of A Christmas Carol at Birkdale School. He later attended Shrewsbury School before reading modern history at Brasenose College, Oxford, finishing university in 1965. While at Oxford, Palin began writing and performing comedy alongside fellow student Robert Hewison and met Terry Jones, with whom he formed a lasting creative partnership.

After university, Palin worked as a presenter on the comedy pop show Now! for Television Wales and the West. He and Jones wrote comedy material for several BBC programmes, including The Ken Dodd Show, The Billy Cotton Bandshow, and The Frost Report. On The Frost Report, Palin worked alongside future Monty Python members Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and Eric Idle. Following further work on shows such as Do Not Adjust Your Set, Palin joined Cleese, Chapman, Idle, Jones, and Terry Gilliam to form Monty Python's Flying Circus, which ran from 1969 to 1974.

In Monty Python's Flying Circus, Palin portrayed a wide variety of characters in famous sketches such as The Lumberjack Song, Dead Parrot sketch, The Spanish Inquisition, and Argument Clinic. He also co-wrote sketches and songs, including Every Sperm Is Sacred and Spam. Palin co-wrote and starred in the troupe's feature films, including Monty Python and the Holy Grail in 1975, Life of Brian in 1979, and The Meaning of Life in 1983. Outside the main Python projects, he co-wrote the television series Ripping Yarns with Jones.

Palin's film acting career expanded with roles in Jabberwocky, Time Bandits, The Missionary, A Private Function, and Brazil. For his performance in the 1988 comedy film A Fish Called Wanda, Palin received the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He later appeared in Fierce Creatures, written by and co-starring Cleese, and starred in dramatic projects such as American Friends and the series GBH. After a long hiatus from film, Palin portrayed Vyacheslav Molotov in the 2017 satirical film The Death of Stalin.

Beginning in 1980 with an episode of Great Railway Journeys of the World, Palin developed a prolific career presenting television travel documentaries for the BBC and Channel 5. His extensive global expeditions include Around the World in 80 Days, Pole to Pole, and Full Circle, taking him to regions such as the North and South Poles, the Sahara, the Himalayas, Eastern Europe, and Brazil. In 2018, he presented a documentary on North Korea, followed by a series on Nigeria filmed in 2023 and broadcast in 2024. Additionally, Palin served as president of the Royal Geographical Society from 2009 to 2012.