Meet the Host of NIGHT

Brandon McMillan is an animal trainer and behaviorist who has spent the better part of his 31 years learning about and working with all types of animals—from household pets to the wildest of untamed beasts.

Born into a family of animal entertainers, McMillan has been training wild animals since the age of four. Thanks to his father, who gave him a shovel on his fourth birthday to help clean the animal pens, McMillan developed an attachment to animals at an early age. He jokes that he’s been “picking up tiger poop” as far back as he can remember, but his early years around the animal performers certainly gave him valuable skills that he uses in his current career as a Los Angeles -based animal trainer.

Since becoming an animal trainer, Brandon has trained lions, bears, tigers, reptiles and even insects for such films as The Jungle Book II, I Am Sam, Soul Plane, Red Dragon and television’s 24, Jackass and Carnivale. Even with no formal training, Brandon has built such expertise with animals that he now teaches others how to train wild animals, priding himself on his blue-collar educational background.

“My school was the school of hard knocks,” he says. “All my educational background is from 100% experience in the field-- no books, no classrooms.” When asked if he feels he’s garnered a sixth sense because of all his interactive animal experience, Brandon replies with an emphatic, “No!” He doesn’t see it that way. “I don’t have any special powers, just cut and dry experience. Having a sixth sense won’t save my life if an animal is coming at me, but experience will.”

In his spare time, Brandon brings his vast animal knowledge to the domestic world when he trains dogs at his prestigious canine obedience school, The K9 Mind. However, as much as Brandon loves man’s best friend, his wild side and the need for an adrenaline rush always beckon him back to the wild beasts.

“I just need the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up at least once a day,” he admits. “It lets me know that I am alive and living, not just alive. There’s a big difference.”