Human: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

Human tells the story of how humanity went from being just one of many hominin species to the dominant form of life on earth.

Around 250,000 years ago, Homo sapiens appeared in Africa – one of at least seven hominin species alive at the time. Today, we are the most dominant animal on Earth, and the only remaining human species left on the planet.

It's an extraordinary story. But for 98% of it, we have no written record of what happened.

Now, following breakthroughs in DNA technology and remarkable new fossil evidence, we are able to tell this story in startling detail.

Presented by paleoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi, this series uses a combination of archaeology, travelogue and reconstruction to tell the story of how we became ‘us': modern humans. Ella will follow in the footsteps of our ancient ancestors – visiting internationally important archaeological sites to meet experts who can help her unlock the secrets of our deep historical past.

Series details

• Title: Human
• Format: Documentary
• Language: English
• Genres: History
• Premiere date: 2025-07-14
• Final broadcast date listed: 2025-07-14
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Web channel listed by TVmaze: BBC iPlayer
• Network country: United Kingdom
• Typical episode runtime: 58 minutes
• TVmaze community rating: 6.5/10
• TVMaze ID: 74410
• IMDb ID: tt37577847
• TVDB ID: 465475

Cast and credited roles

• Ella Al-Shamahi — Presenter

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 2025-07-14; final listed air date 2025-07-14; episode order: 5.

Source and licence

Adapted from Human on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.