Ella Al-Shamahi

Activist, Concerned citizen, Explorer, Foodie, Producer, Scientist, Student

Ella Al-Shamahi is a TV presenter, a palaeoanthropologist and an evolutionary biologist. A National Geographic Explorer specializing in unstable, hostile and disputed territories she currently has projects in Somaliland and Socotra, Yemen. In her spare time, she's a stand-up comic. Ella’s family is from Yemen and she believes in using expeditions to shed light on some of the most misunderstood and disadvantaged people and places on earth. She has worked extensively in areas of conflict and areas coming out of conflict both for fieldwork expeditions and TV. These areas include Iraq, northern Cyprus, Nagorno-Karabakh, Colombia and Cambodia. Her current work in Somaliland, with an exceptional group of Somalilanders, involves looking for Palaeolithic caves and is looking to get baseline environmental data to help with environmental restoration efforts. Al-Shamahi is a TV presenter working with the BBC, PBS, National Geographic, Channel 4 and Discovery. Her recent shows include Changing Planet, The Curse of Tutankhamun, Viking Warrior Women and Who Killed the Whale. She also has two BBC podcasts: a ten year retrospective on the Arab Spring with her journalist brother Abubakr (My Arab Spring) and Why Do We Do That: An Anthropologists Guide To The Modern World. She’s always interested in keeping her ear to the ground and hearing about interesting stories and innovation. Her debut book The Handshake: A Gripping History came out in 2021 and was a Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year. Ella is a stand-up comic, she has taken 5 shows and a panel show (Nature’s Worst) to the Edinburgh Fringe festival. Ella has a BSc in Genetics from University College London, a MSc in Taxonomy and Biodiversity from the Natural History Museum (London)/Imperial College London and is undertaking a PhD in palaeoanthropology at University College London.

Mountains, caves, adventure with purpose, war-zones, comedy, racism, islands, science, Yemen, Somaliland

Huge parts of the planet’s scientific potential is overlooked because these places are deemed too risky to work in. This system is put in place by American, British and European research institutions and funding bodies and is arbitrary - is the risk of working in an unstable or disputed place really worse than the risks associated with research involving deep sea diving, cave diving or venomous snakes? Science has a geography problem and that is a tragedy for science and for these places. Places that are little studied logically have the lowest hanging fruit when it comes to discovery and should be the frontline of exploration.

Comedy, Expeditions, Hostile territories, Palaeoanthropology, TV