Originally from Holland, world famous “Bug Man” Ruud Kleinpaste has called New Zealand home for over 30 years. His TV career began in 1990, hosting farming documentary series The Enduring Land. He soon made a name for himself talking about bugs on children’s programmes The Early Bird Show and What Now?.

Kleinpaste was then a primetime regular on TVNZ’s long-running gardening series Maggie’s Garden Show. Making the documentary The Bug House with producer Bryan Bruce led to international success with Animal Planet’s World’s Biggest Baddest Bugs.

In this ScreenTalk, Kleinpaste talks about:

• How bugs are really our overlords and that’s why he loves them
• Having to attend elocution lessons for The Enduring Land
• Hating having to learn the script verbatim
• Talking about bugs with a hyperactive chicken on The Early Bird Show
• Educating a generation on What Now?
• Adding science to ‘garden porn’ on Maggie’s Garden Show
• Explaining why insects infest our dwellings in The Bug House
• Wearing a beard made from killer bees on World’s Biggest Baddest Bugs
• Scaring a fellow guest with a scorpion on a US talk show
• How hosting the Dutch episode of Here to Stay reinforced his love of New Zealand

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

NZ On Screen: Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside