Bhagavan Antle

Mahamayavi Bhagavan Antle was born on March 15, 1960 in Salinas, California. He spent his formative years developing a love of animals on his parents’ cattle ranch in Arizona. He went by “Kevin” in school due to the difficulty about pronouncing his foreign name. Later, as a young man, Bhagavan traveled to China where he received a Doctoral degree in Chinese medicine, and picked up the nickname “Doc.” Doc was approached by Exxon Corporation representatives, and was asked to make a presentation with a tiger at the Exxon Annual Convention in 1982. A year later, Doc was training tigers for Exxon’s “Put A Tiger In Your Tank” advertising campaign. His tigers were being seen in print and film all around the world. His tigers participated in the Exxon campaign for more than 6 years, becoming his first Animal Ambassadors. Over the next couple of decades, Doc’s celebrity as an elite animal trainer grew. The calls came pouring in from Hollywood and New York City. He and his animals made half a dozen appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He was booked by Britney Spears for the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards, and worked on music videos for P. Diddy and Ashante, as well as multiple video projects for Janet Jackson. Doc and his team of animal actors have also been featured on the big screen including Dr. Dolittle and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective as well as working on Disney’s Mr. MaGoo, Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book and Mighty Joe Young. The Rolling Stone magazine recently interviewed Doc and put together a compilation video entitled: Doc Antle’s Animal Actors.