Ella Al-Shamahi is an archaeologist, palaeoanthropologist and Neanderthal specialist, and also a stand-up comic. She almost exclusively works “in places hard to get insurance” including Iraq and Yemen, where she’s been trying to find Paleolithic caves in to test a theory that early humans may have migrated out of Africa via land bridges between East Africa and Yemen. Al-Shamahi has been performing science stand-up for four years in the UK and the States, from the Bloomsbury Theatre to the National Geographic main-stage in DC. She has also taken three shows to the world-renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In 2018 she presented BBC Two’s science series, Neanderthals: Meet Your Ancestors, as well as Horizon: Body Clock – What Makes Your Body Tick. Neanderthals will air in New Zealand on Wednesdays from 24 April, 8.30pm, BBC Earth, SKY Channel 74. Also available on SKY Go and SKY On Demand.