With a PhD in Zoology from the University of Cambridge, he has worked at the BBC Natural History Unit, the Zoological Society of London (on venomous mammals and Indonesian biodiversity), and University College London, where he occasionally teaches. He now works at the Natural History Museum in London, England.

Gavin Scott was born in Salisbury, England. He grew up in the Dorset countryside where, as a young child, he was often found covered in mud at the bottom of the garden, holding up a grass snake or some other interesting creature to draw. Gavin studied Natural History Illustration in college and later went on to enter the world of character design and children's illustration. He lives with his family in Somerset, England.