Prof Alice Roberts

Prof Alice Roberts is a dynamic academic and best-selling author, with over two decades of broadcasting experience. She has presented a range of science and archaeology programmes on television. Her debut came in 2001, as a human bone specialist for Channel 4’s Extreme Archaeology, where climbing and caving skills were needed to access archaeological sites.

In 2005, she was part of the original team of presenters on the first series of Coast on BBC Two, and went on to cover many science and archaeology stories in subsequent series. She also wrote and presented her own BBC Two series, including Don’t Die Young (2007-08), where she looked at the structure and function of the human body, organ by organ. She wrote her first book to accompany this series, Don’t Die Young: An Anatomist’s Guide to Your Organs and Your Health (2007).

Alice is passionate about sharing knowledge, and is known for her incredible ability as a speaker to make complex issues relevant for audiences of all interests and abilities.

Contact Great British Speakers today to book presenter, archaeologist, and diversity speaker Prof Alice Roberts for your next event.

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More About Prof Alice Roberts

Prof Alice Roberts initially trained as a doctor, but left to become a university academic – teaching clinical anatomy to students and doctors. She is now one of the UK’s most popular broadcasters, and has presented more than 100 factual documentaries, and is a well-respected authority on human biology, history, and archaeology.

Alice is busier than ever; in 2023 alone she has presented Ancient Egypt By Train, and Fortress Britain for Channel 4, The Lost Scrolls of Vesuvius for Channel 5, and Curse of the Ancients and Royal Autopsy for Sky History. She has also been busy filming the eleventh series of her hugely popular BBC series, Digging For Britain.

PROF ALICE ROBERTS | PRESENTER AND BROADCASTER

In 2009, she presented her first landmark series on BBC Two, The Incredible Human Journey, which explored how clues from genetics, fossils, and archaeology, have helped us understand how our Stone Age, hunter-gatherer forebears colonised the globe. She went on to present other big budget landmark series for BBC Two, looking at human evolution and palaeobiology more generally, including Origins of Us (2011), Prehistoric Autopsy (2012), Woolly Mammoth (2012), and Ice Age Giants (2013).

She has also presented several Horizon programmes, looking at topics of evolution and human diversity and behaviour, tackling such questions as: Are we still evolving? What makes us human? and Is your brain male or female? She also presented the Horizon programme which launched the Longitude Prize 2014, and Sex: A Horizon Guide. She curated an online collection covering 50 Years of Horizon, to celebrate the birthday of this long-running science series in 2014.

Other presenting credits include Britain’s Most Historic Towns (2018-20), Can Science Make Me Perfect? (2018), Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (2018), The Day the Dinosaurs Died (2017), Food Detectives (2016), Uncovering the Mysteries of Britain’s Pompeii (2016), The Greatest Tomb on Earth: Secrets of Ancient China (2016), and she co-presented The Celts (2015) with fellow Great British Speaker, Neil Oliver.

In 2010, inspired by Roger Deakin’s Waterlog, and her own love of the great outdoors, Alice made Wild Swimming for BBC4. This lyrical film looked at wildlife, physiology, poetry and mythology – alongside the life-affirming, energising and sensuous experience of swimming ‘wild’ – in lakes, rivers and the sea.

Since 2009, Prof Alice Roberts has been an occasional presenter of Radio 4’s environment programme, Costing the Earth.

Alice Roberts Digging for Britain

PROF ALICE ROBERTS | AUTHOR

As well as a popular television presenter, Alice is an award-winning writer, with 15 published books under her belt. These books range from children’s fiction to adult non-fiction. Her first fiction book for children, Wolf Road, was published in 2023 and climbed to the top of the bestseller lists. Other books include:

– The Incredible Human Journey (2009)

– The Incredible Unlikeness of Being (2014) – shortlisted for the Wellcome Trust Book Prize 2015

– The Celts (2015)

– The Complete Human Body (2016)

– Tamed (2017)

– Human Journey (2020)

– The Little Book of Humanism (2020)

– Buried (2022)

– Evolution: The Human Story (2023)

– Anatomical Oddities (2023)

Alice’s next book, Crypt, comes out in 2024.

See Prof Alice Roberts in the Digging for Britain trailer below:

PROF ALICE ROBERTS | KEYNOTE SPEAKING

Prof Alice Roberts is an accomplished public speaker and regularly tours the country giving lectures related to her books and television programmes. She has conducted many panel debates and interviews, headlined corporate launches, and hosted award ceremonies. She has presented the Royal Institute’s Christmas Lecture, and interviewed Sir David Attenborough, and Richard Dawkins.

In 2020 she was awarded the Royal Society’s first David Attenborough Prize for Public Engagement. With over 420,000 followers on social media, Alice has broad, popular appeal, knowing for speaking her mind and engaging people of all ages and interests.

As well as being rated the 2nd most influential woman-scientist-on-Twitter, Alice is also an experienced compere, and has hosted numerous awards ceremonies and launch events, including prestigious events at the Natural History Museum and the Royal Society. She has even been known to give after-dinner speeches.