Sir Simon Schama's Biography

Simon Schama was born in London on 13 February 1945.

He studied at Christ's College, Cambridge.

After stints teaching at Cambridge, Oxford and Harvard, in 1997 Simon Schama became Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University.

He is also a contributing editor of the Financial Times and the author of numerous books on art and history and the presenter of over fifty documentaries including The Power of Art, A History of Britain, The Story of the Jews, and The Face of Britain: The Nation through its Portraits.

In 2015 the BBC announced that Simon Schama would co-present with Mary Beard and David Olusoga, a BBC Two series entitled Civilisations.

Beard had previously described Schama's appointment as history czar by Michael Gove as "playing to the populist gallery".

Simon Schama is keen on Bordeaux wine and Brazilian music.

He was knighted in 2019.

In September 2022, the BBC revealed it had commissioned a series with the working title Simon Schama's History Of Now.