Steven Rinella | |
|---|---|
| Born | Steven John Rinella February 13, 1974 Twin Lake, Michigan, U.S. |
| Education |
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| Occupation(s) | Outdoorsman, television personality, writer, and trapper |
| Television | MeatEater |
| Spouse | Catherine Finch |
Steven Rinella (born February 13, 1974) is an American outdoorsman, conservationist, writer, and television personality known for translating the hunting and fishing lifestyle to a wide variety of audiences.
Steven Rinella, who is of Italian descent, was born in Twin Lake, Michigan on February 13, 1974. He grew up in Twin Lake along with his two older brothers, who were taught to hunt and fish at an early age by their father.[2]
Prior to MeatEater, Rinella hosted The Wild Within, an 8-episode series on the Travel Channel.
Rinella is the host of MeatEater, a weekly half-hour hunting show. The show ran for six seasons on Sportsman Channel before moving to Netflix in 2018. The show is based on Rinella's hunting and fishing adventures in such locations as Montana (deer, elk); Alaska (waterfowl, mountain goat, Dall sheep, caribou, black bear, moose); Mexico (wild turkey, buffalo); New Zealand (tahr, chamois, red stag); Arizona (mountain lion, Coues deer); Wisconsin (white-tailed deer, rabbit, beaver, muskrat); and California (wild pigs, quail, and turkey.)
The show offers a defense of hunting and makes the case that hunters are obligated to be stewards of the land and protectors of their chosen prey species.[3] The episodes include interesting and sometimes artful food preparations after the hunt. Examples include a deer's heart wrapped in caul fat and roasted over a fire, javelina meat boiled inside the animal's own stomach, and more common preparations. The series premiered on January 1, 2012, and has completed its eleventh season.
Stars In The Sky: A Hunting Story
A 2018 documentary that follows a group of hunters as they grapple with complexities in the wild. Steven directed and starred in this.
Rinella appeared in the 2023 Ken Burns documentary The American Buffalo.[4]
Rinella hosts a podcast called The MeatEater Podcast that ranks among the top ten sports podcasts.[5] In addition to hosting his own podcast, Rinella is also a frequent guest on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast hosted by Joe Rogan, the two have also been frequent hunting companions with Rogan appearing on Rinella's television program MeatEater.[6]
In 2012, MeatEater was nominated for Sportsman Channel's Sportsman Choice Awards for Best New Series, Best Host, Best Hunting Show and Best Educational Show [7]
A year earlier, The Wild Within was a James Beard Awards finalist for best Television Program, On Location.[8]
American Buffalo won a number of awards, including the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award[9] and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award.[10] It was also an Amazon Editors'pick for Best History[11] and one of The San Francisco Chronicleʼs best fifty non-fiction books of 2008.[12]