Michael Palin

Sir Michael Edward Palin ( PAY-lin; born 5 May 1943) is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television presenter. He was a member of the Monty Python comedy group. He received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2013 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2019. Palin started in television working on programmes including the Ken Dodd Show, The Frost Report, and Do Not Adjust Your Set. He joined Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969–1974) alongside John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and Graham Chapman. He acted in some of the most famous Python sketches, including "Argument Clinic", "Dead Parrot sketch", "The Lumberjack Song", "The Spanish Inquisition", "Bicycle Repair Man", and "The Fish-Slapping Dance". Palin continued to work with Jones away from Python, co-writing Ripping Yarns. Palin co-wrote and starred in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Life of Brian (1979) and The Meaning of Life (1983). For his performance in A Fish Called Wanda (1988) he received the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Other notable films include Jabberwocky (1977), Time Bandits (1981), The Missionary (1982), A Private Function (1984), Brazil (1985), Fierce Creatures (1997), and The Death of Stalin (2017). Since 1980, Palin has made numerous television travel documentaries and is a widely recognised writer and presenter. He has been a travel writer and travel documentarian in programmes broadcast on the BBC. His journeys have taken him across the world, including the North and South Poles, the Sahara, the Himalayas, Eastern Europe, and Brazil; in 2018, he visited North Korea, documenting his visit to the isolated country in a series broadcast on Channel 5. Palin visited Nigeria in 2023 to make a travel documentary that was aired in 2024. From 2009 to 2012 he was president of the Royal Geographical Society.