Since his childhood, growing up in northwest Austin, Skip Hobbie has been climbing trees, chasing reptiles and exploring the natural world around him. Now, as a wildlife filmmaker, he jokes, “Who knew these would actually become life skills?” Although he has always loved to travel, he also loves Austin, so he stayed, getting a BS in Radio-Television-Film from UT, and it was one of his professors that recommended him for his first project with National Geographic, which was filmed here in Central and South Texas. Since that first assignment, he has traveled the world working on documentaries for National Geographic as well as the BBC, ranging from filming the world’s largest venomous snakes (King Cobras) in the rainforest of India’s Western Ghats to capturing explorer/researcher Mike Fay during his famous Redwoods Transect for an Explorer episode that earned him an Emmy nomination at age 26. However, Hobbie weighs his successes more by the people he has had the opportunity to work with and learn from. Today, his job takes him far from home, but he still thinks back on his childhood in Austin: “When I am climbing trees and stomping around in the jungle chasing animals, I definitely often think ‘Wow. I am getting paid to be a little boy.’”

9 Questions for Skip:
What is the most beautiful place you have ever seen? Borneo’s Danum Valley. My heart has a special spot for all of the world’s rainforests I’ve visited, but Danum is full of gibbons, orangutans and big emergent trees that make it particularly breathtaking and mystical.

What do you never travel without? A Texas shirt. I try to represent some Burnt Orange on game day, no matter where I am in the world. I’ve even been known to misuse our emergency satellite phone from deep in the Amazon forest to try to find out football scores.

What is the biggest challenge you have overcome? Just getting rolling in my career. There have been a lot of rough patches, with four to six months at a time without any work. After six years, the next big challenge will be trying to maintain a scrap of a normal life when I’m not in the field.

Who is your favorite fictional character? I guess I’ve always been a big Peter Pan fan, and the whole never growing up thing.

Who are your heroes in real life? Sir David Attenborough. He pioneered wildlife filmmaking for the BBC when TV first got started and is probably the most well traveled person alive.

At age seven, you wanted to be? I think I would have said a herpetologist, a scientist that studies reptiles and amphibians; however, I bet at that age, working for National Geographic was already also on my list.

If you weren’t in your current career, what else would you try? High school geography teacher, or maybe media education. I like the idea of encouraging our youth to think about the bigger world picture.

When and where are you happiest? When I’m having some margaritas or beers with my friends and family, home in Austin. All the travel and adventure is only fun if you can later share your stories with the people you care about.

Where do you go in Austin to get away? St. Edward’s Park. I’ve been going there since I was a kid to just hike around looking for bugs, turtles, lizards…whatever critters I can find.