Ajay Tegala

Ajay Haywood Tegala is a wildlife television presenter, countryside ranger, naturalist and voice-over artist. He was born in Chertsey, Surrey but grew up in East Anglia. Ajay studied Environmental Conservation and Countryside Management at Nottingham Trent University. He then went on to work as a ranger on coastal and wetland nature reserves in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Northumberland. His early television credits include appearances on Summer Special (2012) with John Craven, Winterwatch (2012) with Iolo Williams, Springwatch: Unsprung (2009) alongside Will Young and Chris Packham, The Great Guide: East Anglia (2016) with Neil Oliver, Homes by the Sea (2014) with Charlie Luxton, Walking Through History (2013) with Tony Robinson, Secrets of the National Trust (2017) alongside Suzannah Lipscomb and Curious Creatures (2017) alongside Kate Humble, Chris Packham, Steve Backshall and Lucy Cooke. Ajay's first television appearance was in an episode of The Great British Story: Regional Histories (2012) alongside Rory McGrath in 2012. He was described as a natural and has appeared on television regularly ever since. In 2018, Ajay took part in Celebrity Eggheads (2008) on a science team with Rory Cellan-Jones, Dallas Campbell, Spencer Kelly and Helen Lawal. That summer, he fronted the Big Coast Clean-Up. Ajay modeled for Cotswold Outdoor as their featured ranger for their summer 2019 range of clothing. The same summer, he filmed Inside the Bat Cave (2020), a ground-breaking Springwatch-style documentary about bats, presenting alongside Lucy Cooke. Spring 2021 saw Ajay undertaking a three-month talent development placement with the BBC Natural History Unit. This involved working on location in Ascot with George McGavin and Hyde Park with Liz Bonnin filming their contributions for the archive-based Our Wild Adventures (2021) series. As well as research and story development for series 17 of Springwatch (2005), he also wrote and presented a five-minute film, which featured in the ninth episode in addition to co-writing Megan McCubbin's five-minute film in the tenth episode and working on location in Norfolk with Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan. Ajay has made numerous appearances on BBC Look East (1959) as well as BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, BBC Radio Norfolk and North Norfolk Radio. He has also made a number of short wildlife films, including "White Feathers - My Winter with Wild Swans" (2021) featuring original music by Charlotte Eve.