Researching Chris Morgan

Morgan was born in Cardiff and educated at Cardiff High School, and the United World College of the Atlantic in the Vale of Glamorgan. He graduated in 1976 in theology from the University of St Andrews, Scotland.

Morgan began his media career in broadcasting in 1977 in the BBC's religious department. Morgan trained as a journalist from 1978 at BBC Wales, reporting for both BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio 4, and latterly BBC1. Morgan worked for BBC Wales television, where during the early 1980s he became one of the main presenters on the evening news programme Wales Today.

After leaving BBC Wales, Morgan moved to London in 1990 to work as a reporter for Thames News and TV-am. Between 1990 and 1997, he presented Sunday for Radio 4, and became religious affairs correspondent for The Sunday Times in 1997.

A committed Anglo-Catholic, Morgan was best man at the wedding of Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1981.

Having suffered from a long period of clinical depression, Morgan killed himself at Kings Langley railway station in Hertfordshire on Friday 30 May 2008. His body was found by British Transport Police, and he was pronounced dead at the scene after an incident involving a Manchester Piccadilly to London Euston train.

He began his career at Barnsley, making his debut for the club in the Premier League in January 1998. Barnsley were relegated at the end of the season, and he would stay on at the club to make a total of 212 league and cup appearances across six seasons, scoring eight goals. He signed with Sheffield United in July 2003 and was soon appointed club captain. He was named as the club's Player of the Year in 2004 and helped the club to secure promotion out of the Championship in 2005–06, though United's stay in the Premier League lasted only one season. He went on to score 16 goals in 279 league and cup appearances in nine seasons at Bramall Lane. He was sent off six times each for Barnsley and Sheffield United, holding the club record for red cards at both clubs.

He retired due to injury in July 2012, and went on to coach at Sheffield United, and served the club as caretaker-manager over two separate spells in 2013. He went on to join Chesterfield as first team coach in December 2015, and then joined Port Vale as a coach in March 2017.

He emigrated to the US from the UK in 1997, and in the year 2000 co-founded the award-winning community-based education program, the Grizzly Bear Outreach Project (GBOP; now Western Wildlife Outreach, WWO), which was designed to bring scientifically credible information about grizzly bears and recovery to local communities of the North Cascades in Washington State.

Through his work as a wilderness guide he has escorted hundreds of people into wild locations around the world to share the wonder of nature, and especially large carnivores.

Morgan has been a featured television host and/or contributor in productions for PBS, National Geographic Television, BBC, Discovery Channel, and has appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman. In addition to TV hosting he has also become a familiar voice of the television series PBS Nature having narrated numerous films since 2011 on topics ranging from lions to pelicans and the Australian outback.

Chris authored the book Bears of the Last Frontier. This large format publication describes the experience, the bears, and behind-the-scenes insight from the production of the PBS Nature episodes of the same title that Chris co-created and hosted.

Chris is the co-founder of Wildlife Media, a non profit organization that produced BEARTREK, a feature-length documentary that follows Chris’ journey by motorcycle to Alaska, Peru, the Canadian north, and Borneo. The film's campaign has generated support and exposure for critical conservation projects in these areas. Wildlife Media also focuses on finding and supporting young conservationists as “Ambassadors” for their passion species.