| George Kourounis | |
|---|---|
| Born | 22 May 1970 Hull, Quebec, Canada |
| Residence | Toronto, Canada |
| Occupation | professional adventurer, storm chaser, motivational speaker, television presenter [1] |
| Website | |
| Stormchaser.ca | |
George Kourounis (born 22 May 1970), is a Canadian adventurer, television presenter, storm chaser, and explorer, currently best known for his television series Angry Planet. He specializes in documenting extreme weather and worldwide natural disasters. He has also done a March Break program at the Ontario Science Center in 2011 for kids.
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Kourounis has been a storm chaser since 1997 and documents all forms of severe weather including tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, floods, hail and lightning.
In January 2005, George brought his camera to the remote Danakil Depression in the harsh Ethiopian desert and was lowered 60 feet into the smoking crater of the active Erta Ale volcano. He spent a half hour filming on top of the freshly hardened surface of the lava lake wearing a protective heat suit. [2]
This made him the first person to have ever filmed from the inside of three of the world’s most fearsome forces – a tornado, the eye of a hurricane, and an active volcano. He was able to intercept all four of the major U.S. land falling hurricanes in 2005, including devastating Hurricane Katrina in Gulfport, Mississippi. While he filmed the storm, the city around him was disintegrating in the incredible winds.
Some of his other accomplishments include documenting mountain gorillas in Rwanda, climbing Mount Nyiragongo volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and documenting numerous destructive tornadoes across the United States. He has also filmed forest fires, floods, lightning, and great white sharks. In 2006, he and his wife Michelle were married on the crater’s edge of the erupting Yasur volcano on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu. The ceremony was documented for his television series Angry Planet. [3]
Kourounis entered television work with numerous appearances in weather documentary programs featuring severe weather and natural disasters. Kourounis has been a guest on television programs, including CTV Newsnet, Anderson Cooper 360, BBC-TV and Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet. [4]
Kourounis co-created and hosts a television series titled Angry Planet. for OLN in Canada, The Travel Channel in Europe and The Weather Channel in Australia.
The series features Kourounis traveling to worldwide locations and examining various extreme forces of nature, typically at close range. The series premiered in March 2007 and production of the third season is currently underway. [5]
The show has featured Kourounis participating in such adventures as tornado chasing, rappelling into erupting volcanoes, driving into the eye of hurricanes, enduring extremes of heat and cold and boating on a lake of sulphuric acid in Indonesia. Kourounis often teams up with scientists or local experts who assist in the adventures. Filming has taken place on all 7 continents.
Kourounis was nominated for a 2008 Gemini award for his work on Angry Planet.