Who Is Glenn Shephard? Meet the ‘Below Deck Sailing Yacht’ Captain Amid Season 5

Bravo fans have gotten to know Captain Glenn Shephard ever since he made his reality TV debut on Below Deck Sailing Yacht in 2020. As the Below Deck spinoff returns for season 5, fans are wondering who Glenn is off camera.

Who Is ‘Below Deck’ Star Glenn Shephard?

Captain Glenn is the captain of Parsifal III, which is a mega sailing yacht. He has had the responsibility for a long time, and has served as the team’s leader ever since Below Deck Sailing Yacht premiered in 2000.

The reality star was born in Montreal. While he is often out on the water, he lives and works in Spain when he’s on land.

‘Below Deck’ Star Glenn Shephard Is an Experienced Yachtsman

Glenn has more than 20 years of experience working in the sailing industry, and he served as the captain of mega yacht Parsifal III for a decade before he made his reality TV debut.

He first began yachting while traveling in Rome. Glenn saw an advertisement in the hostel he was staying at, which explained they were looking for someone to help prepare a boat for the summer and serve as a deckhand on the vessel as he sailed around the islands surrounding Sicily.

“I thought, when I saw it, ‘This sounds too good to me true.’ I thought somebody was playing a prank on someone to get their phone to ring off the hook all weekend,” Glenn told BravoTV.com about seeing the ad. “But I took the number and called the guy and met him and a couple days later I was living on this boat in Fiumicino near [the] Rome airport. And I ended up staying on that boat until Christmastime.”

After gushing that the experience was “magical,” Glenn noted that he’s spent “the rest of [his] life” trying to “recreate that summer.”

“Coming from Montreal, Canada, and seeing Stromboli and Volcanoes and Lipari island and living on this boat and scuba diving and I just fell in love with the idea of cruising on a little boat in the Mediterranean,” he continued. “It was like, ‘Wow, what is this all about?’”

Glenn added that he loves his job because of the “travel, the money and the freedom that you can take time off regularly, and not just a two week vacation or a month vacation.” He continued, “But you can take six months or a year off. Have the money, go do your thing. When you need to work, you can get straight back into it.”

Is ‘Below Deck’ Star Glenn Shephard Married?

Glenn is in a longtime romance with girlfriend Danelis “Dani” Jimenez. In November 2022, rumors began to swirl that the couple took a major step in their relationship and got engaged when fans spotted her wearing a ring. However, Glenn shut down the speculation in an Instagram post at the time.

“Neither of us are married nor engaged, but I can report we are very much in love, and for us, that’s what counts,” he captioned several photos from their trip to Piramides de Teotihuacan. “PS for those that sent us congratulations, I can assure you they were not wasted, our relationship is worth celebrating.”

The couple seems to still be going strong today, and Glenn posted a selfie of them at Hvar Island, Croatia, in September 2024.