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Donal MacIntyre is the UK’s best-known undercover investigative reporter.

He was born in Dublin, Ireland on January 25, 1966 along with a twin brother, Des.

His parents, a well-known Irish playwright and an American-born teacher, divorced when he was four years old. He has an older brother, Darragh, who also works in the journalistic field, an older sister, Deirdre, a psychologist, and a younger brother, Tadhg, a champion canoeist and sports psychologist. His twin brother Des is chief investment officer for the city of New York.

Donal followed his older brother into journalism in his native Ireland and moved to work for the BBC in 1993. Having been a world-class canoeist for the Irish team he was the perfect choice for an “On The Line” undercover investigation into adventure sports.

Also for “On The Line” followed an exposé on the cruel practices in the greyhound industry, which resulted in the biggest animal cruelty case in Irish legal history.

He moved to ITV’s “World In Action” in 1996 and went undercover as a bouncer to expose nightclub drug dealing and marriage scams. The former investigation not only earned him a couple of television awards but also a price on his head.

Donal went back to the BBC for his landmark investigative journalism series “MacIntyre Undercover”, which aired in 1999.

The four hard-hitting programs, for which he lived four very different lives simultaneously, covered football hooligans, abuse in care homes, the fashion industry and Nigerian con men. The accompanying published diary “MacIntyre - One Man Four Lives” vividly reveals the exhausting process he went through.

Further death threats over the football hooligan investigation forced Donal to live in a safe house for a year.

The series subsequently resulted in several court cases, numerous convictions and a settlement over the fashion exposé.

A Reuters Fellowship saw Donal spend several months at Oxford University.

After a stint in the United States where he did a program on the Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh, Donal returned to the BBC for a new series of undercover investigations.

The first series of “MacIntyre Investigates” aired in 2002 and concentrated on crime with stories on mugging, the party drug yaba and the vice trade.

Breaking out of his undercover reporter mould, Donal presented a documentary series on the weather and its effects later that same year. “Wild Weather” used his sporting background and daredevil nature to best advantage in numerous entertaining stunts.

The following year he was back with a second series of “MacIntyre Investigates”, covering more care and environment based topics such as parents being abused by their children, abandoned babies, murdered New Zealand yachtsman and environmentalist Sir Peter Blake and illegal wildlife trade in gorilla babies.

At the beginning of the year Donal had signed with Five and the first program of “UK Undercover” on credit card fraud aired in April 2003, followed in October by another undercover investigation into elder abuse in care homes, for which he employed his younger brother Tadhg as the undercover man, and a third in December, dealing with the treatment of people with learning disabilities.

Judging Donal too well known by now to proceed with undercover work in Britain, Five sent him further afield for his next series.

“MacIntyre’s Millions” saw him investigating the illegal organ trade in India, the illegal wildlife trade in South East Asia and the illegal arms and explosives trade in Kosovo.

For the first half of 2004, Donal’s programs concentrated again on crime.

With “The Big Sting” Donal started a series of game shows designed to help police capture petty criminals, and “Gangster” was the first of a 3-part series dealing with Britain’s biggest crime families.

In November, Donal presented a new investigation for Five into the trustworthiness of dentists and doctors.

Donal is very active in the care field, supporting Mencap and other charities in their pursuit of fair treatment and justice for those who cannot speak up for themselves.

Besides being a frequent speaker on behalf of people with learning disabilities, he supports and participates in various events for Mencap, such as the London Marathon.

Going back to his first sporting love, canoeing, Donal was chosen to be part of the Irish team for the 2005 Wild Water World Cups in the Canadian doubles. Together with visually impaired team leader Wesley Bourke he achieved the 9th place in their class. Donal's younger brother Tadhg, competing in the Canadian singles, chalked up a 12th place.

Donal plans to swim the English Channel for charity in 2006.

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