BBC 2012 TV Presenters

Seven-and-a-half years on Blue Peter established Matt Baker as one of the best loved and most versatile presenters in the show's history, winning him 2 BAFTAs for Best Children's presenter and a Royal Television Society award.

Matt is a key face across the BBC as the co-host of The One Show, Monday to Thursday evenings and ongoing co-presenter of BBC One's top rating & award-winning Sunday night Countryfile series. He also presented Secret Britain for BBC One and was a finalist in Strictly Come Dancing 2010. Matt also took part in the 2011 Strictly Live Tour where he won a record-breaking number of shows.

As a boy, Matt was a British gymnastic and sports acrobatics champion, later joining the BBC Grandstand team as a world gymnastics presenter and commentator. He is also a hang-gliding world record holder.

Matt has covered the World Gymnastics Championships, Glasgow Grand Prix Gymnastics and European Gymnastics Championships for BBC Two as well as the London Marathon for BBC One. He was a key commentator for BBC's coverage of the gymnastics events at the 2008 Olympic Games from Beijing and the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships 2009 from London's O2 Arena.

In November 2011, Matt undertook his most daunting challenge to date: The One Show Rickshaw Challenge. He spent eight days pedalling a rickshaw from Edinburgh to London, covering over 480 miles and interviewing guests along the way. The feat saw Matt raise an incredible £1.9m for BBC Children In Need.

Matt will be part of the BBC’s presenting team for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Clare Balding

Clare Balding is a freelance presenter, writer and broadcaster. She has worked in radio for 15 years and been a leading sports presenter on television since becoming the face of the BBC's racing output in 1998. Since then, she has worked on four Olympic Games, three Paralympics and three Winter Olympics. Clare can turn her hand to any sport from Horse Racing to Rugby League, Swimming to Golf or Tennis. She is equally at home on radio or TV and is renowned for her versatility and reliability.

Clare has been part of BAFTA Award winning programmes, has been voted RTS Sports Presenter of the Year, Racing Journalist of the Year, has presented Sony Award winning programmes and been praised for 'perfect presentation' by the judges of the Broadcast Awards. She has presented Ramblings on Radio 4 since 1999 (a thrice yearly walking series) and in 2010 presented Britain By Bike on BBC4. She presented Crufts for the BBC and, from 2010, for More4.

Clare is an expert at live major event presentation, such as the Lord Mayor's Show or Trooping the Colour, but she also has an uncanny knack of getting the most out of interview subjects as illustrated on Radio 4's Saturday Live.

Alongside her sporting commitments Clare could also be found hosting Countryfile and Britain’s Hidden Heritage for BBC One.

Sue Barker

Former World No 3 tennis player, French Open champion and Wimbledon semi-finalist, Sue started work as a sports broadcaster with Australia's Channel 7 in 1985. She then joined BSB in 1990 and later moved to Sky Sports.

She made her BBC Sport TV debut co-presenting the evening highlights programme from Wimbledon ‘93 with Harry Carpenter.

Since then she has gained a wealth of experience presenting world class competitions, including coverage of other major tennis tournaments, a number of Summer and Winter Olympics, Commonwealth Games, The Grand National, The Derby and World and European Skating Championships.

In addition, her credits also include hosting Grandstand and Sunday Grandstand, Sports Personality Of The Year and A Question Of Sport. Among her many accolades are the 1998 TRIC award for Sports Presenter/Reporter of the Year and the 2001 RTS sports presenter award.

Manish Bhasin

Manish Bhasin began his career with BBC at Radio Leicester in 1999 and, apart from a two year period, has been with the corporation ever since. He spent 5 years at BBC Radio Leicester as Sports presenter/commentator including the drive time “Drive at 5” programme presenting the latest news and sport.

In February 2004 Manish joined BBC’s “Football Focus” previewing the weekend’s top football action.

Manish had previously been at ITV’s Central News from 2002-2004, where he presented in-depth coverage of the region’s essential sport, including a comprehensive analysis of the financial crisis at Leicester City, and during his successful tenure Manish was nominated for “Regional Sports Presenter or Commentator of the Year” at the Royal Television Society Sport Awards.

Manish has also presented the BBC’s coverage of three major cricket tournaments.

Huw Edwards

Huw Edwards is presenter of BBC News at Ten, Britain's most popular television news programme.

Huw has been a BBC journalist for more than 25 years, and has anchored some of the BBC's biggest outside broadcasts, including the Royal Wedding, the Inauguration of President Obama, the main ceremonies at the Olympic Games in Beijing 2008, and the Commonwealth Games in Delhi 2010.

He will present coverage of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012 and the main ceremonies at London 2012.

For the past decade, Huw has been the BBC's voice at Trooping the Colour, the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance, and the State Opening of Parliament. He has presented many Budget and Election specials, and since 2006 has hosted the daily programme BBC News at 5 on the BBC News Channel.

Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards' achievements on the track have earned him a place in history as one of the World's greatest and most admired athletes. Almost 17 years after his incredible efforts in Gothenburg, Jonathan Edwards still holds the world record for the triple jump at 18.29m.

In 2000 Jonathan won a gold medal during the Sydney 2000 Olympics and returned home to a hero's welcome. After a career that spanned 15 years, Jonathan made his last competitive triple jump at the World Athletics Championships in Paris in 2003; he retired soon after as one of Great Britain's most successful athletes.

Jonathan has received several awards in recognition of his sporting achievements including BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1995; an MBE in 1996 and then a CBE in 2001.

Since retiring Jonathan became one of BBC Sport’s key pundits and commentators covering all the major athletics events, including the Olympics in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008. Jonathan has now moved into presenting and recently presented all of BBC Sport’s coverage of the Indoor Athletics season and fronted programmes for BBC Radio 4.

In 2011 Jonathan presented the London Marathon, Great North City Games and Great North Run, as well the Short Track Speed Skating Championships from Sheffield.

Chris Hollins

From the USA Masters Golf to the World Cup, to Royal Ascot and Wimbledon, Chris Hollins is recognised as one of television's most popular sports presenters.

Chris was the main sports reporter on BBC Breakfast from October 2005 to March 2012, on air on Monday to Thursday mornings as well as often co-hosting the show. He is one of the presenters of BBC One's Watchdog as well as a number of other leading programmes across BBC One and BBC Two. He is probably best known to many as the winner of Strictly Come Dancing 2009.

Before moving to BBC Breakfast, Chris was sports presenter for BBC News 24 and also reported for Grandstand and Football Focus. He began his career at Sky Sports in 1994, followed by spells at Channel One, GMTV, Meridian and Channel 5.

A talented sportsman, Chris played football for QPR and Aldershot. (His father is John Hollins MBE, the former Chelsea and England footballer.) He also took part in Sky One's The Match, playing a full 90 minutes on the celebrity side. 

In 2011, Chris was a key part of the BBC team covering The Royal Wedding. Chris also took part in Celebrity Antiques Road Trip for BBC Children In Need.

Jake Humphrey

Jake has a busy sporting calendar in 2012; he will be broadcasting at the European Championships in Poland and Ukraine, hosting Summer Olympics coverage for BBC One and BBC Three, as well as continuing to anchor the BBC’s award-winning Formula One coverage - a role he has performed since the sport’s return to the broadcaster in 2009.

Additionally, Jake is the host of BBC Three’s monthly live debate show Free Speech, a forum for young people to engage with politics through both a studio panel and social media platforms. He is also a co-host of the institution that is Sports Personality of the Year, and led the BBC’s live New Year countdown on London’s Embankment in 2011. These are both roles he looks forward to reprising again.

Jake originally joined the CBBC on-air team back in 2002, for the terrestrial and new digital channel launch. He went on to present Fame Academy’s daily live show, before hosting the CBBC Comic Relief Does Fame Academy coverage during Red Nose Week in March 2003, 2005 and 2007.

Jake also began hosting Saturday morning live show Sportsround in 2005, covering major international sporting events such as the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, the World Cup from Germany and the Cricket World Cup from Antigua in 2007.

Jake started presenting Football Focus in 2006, and went on to host Score, Final Score and Match of the Day from Austria and Switzerland for BBC1, BBC3 and BBC Red Button. He became the face of Formula One as the sport made its return to the BBC in 2009, and 2012 will be his fourth season at the helm of the award-winning coverage.

In 2009 Jake also began presenting live Championship Football coverage on BBC’s Match of the Day, before going on to join the BBC1 and BBC2 anchor team for the Delhi Commonwealth Games in 2010.

Jake’s BBC Sport credits also include live afternoon coverage of the Beijing Olympics, Euro 2008, the 2007 Fifa Women's World Cup in China, Sports Personality of the Year, the 2008 & 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, live Super Bowl coverage on BBC and NFL highlights from Wembley.

Jake also hosts BBC3’s football coverage and has co-presented live 2012 Olympics countdown shows for BBC1 News .

Having hosted the Track Cycling World Cup at the Olympic Velodrome for BBC2 in February 2012, Jake will be part of the team presenting the BBC’s coverage of Euro 2012 and the London Olympics.

Mishal Husain

Mishal is well known internationally for her work on BBC World News, where she fronts the flagship programme ‘Impact with Mishal Husain’. She also presents news bulletins on BBC One.

Mishal has reported from around the world for the BBC for over ten years and presented live on location from the Beijing Olympics, Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan, Cairo during the Egyptian revolution, and the Royal Wedding. She also co-hosted a special programme to mark one year to go to the London Olympics and will appear in BBC coverage of the Diamond Jubilee in June.

Mishal has made two critically acclaimed documentaries for BBC2: 'How Facebook Changed the World' on the use of social media by 'Arab Spring' activists and a series on the life of Mahatma Gandhi in 2009.

She has also reported for ‘From our Own Correspondent’ on Radio 4.

John Inverdale

John Inverdale is one of Britain’s leading sports presenters, having worked on just about every major event from Olympic Games, football and rugby world cups, to Wimbledon, the Ryder Cup, Grand Nationals, World Athletics Championships, Champions League and FA Cup finals.

He began his career as a reporter on the Lincolnshire Echo before moving to BBC Radio Lincolnshire in 1982. His first job with network radio was in 1986 as a sports reporter for BBC Radio 2 and a news reporter for Radio 4’s 'Today’ programme. In 1988 he became presenter of 'Sport on 2' which he hosted for six years until the advent of Radio 5 live when he moved to a daily news programme. John continues to present for Radio 5 live on all top sporting events.

His television career began with BSB in 1990 as a presenter of rugby and football, and on the BBC he fronted Rugby Special from 1994 until 1997. He hosted his own BBC ONe sports chat show, 'Onside', for seven series, as well as ‘Grandstand’ and other major sports programmes, including Wimbledon.

Away from sport John hosted 'The World's Strongest Man' on both the BBC and Channel Five, fronted a three-part investigation into the history of gambling for BBC One. For 12 years, he wrote a weekly column for the Daily Telegraph. He currently writes for several newspapers.

In 1997, John was named Broadcaster of the Year at the Sony Awards, and in 1998 Radio Personality of the Year by the Variety Club. He has also been a regular presenter on BBC Radio 2.

John will be a presenter for the BBC coverage of the 2012 Olympics.

Hazel Irvine

Hazel Irvine is one of BBC Sport’s most experienced and versatile broadcasters. She presents the corporation’s golf coverage, is the BBC’s face of snooker and a key member of the team reporting from major multi-sport events.

She presented from the Beijing Olympics in 2008, marking her sixth consecutive Summer Olympic Games, and has also worked on every Winter Olympics since 1994.

A presenter of the BBC's athletics coverage for 11 years and of ‘Ski Sunday’ for a decade, her many credits also include Wimbledon, the London Marathon, the Boat Race and football, having reported from four football World Cups and European championships.

In addition to presenting and reporting, Hazel is also an experienced commentator. In 2006 and 2008 she provided commentary on the opening and closing ceremonies at the Turin and Beijing Olympics as well the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.

She has also worked for BBC News, covered New Year’s Eve for BBC television and been involved in a whole range of programmes and events from the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings and the Edinburgh Military Tattoo to presenting BBC Scotland’s Children in Need appeal for 10 years.

Hazel led the presentation of the BBC's BAFTA award-winning coverage of the Berlin World Athletics Championship in 2009 and was the recipient of the 2007 Royal Television Society's Sports Presenter of the Year. She also won the RTS award for best Regional Presenter/Reporter in 1999.

Gary Lineker OBE

Gary Lineker is equally as well known for his huge achievements as a footballer as he is for a long career as a key face of the BBC’s football coverage.

As one of the best known and widely admired players in the recent history of the sport, his tally of 48 goals for England places him second only to Bobby Charlton. He played for England from 1984 to 1992, notching up 80 appearances and serving as captain from 1990 to 1992.  At club level he played for Leicester City, Everton, Barcelona FC, Tottenham Hotspur and Nagoya Grampus Eight in Japan.

Gary was the PFA Footballer of the Year in 1986, the Football Writers’ Association Player of the Year in 1986 and 1992, runner-up for European Footballer of the Year in 1986 and took the FIFA Fair Play Award in 1990.

On television, he has presented ‘Match of the Day’ since 1999, was presenter of ‘Football Focus’ from 1995 to 1999 and has also broadcast on BBC Radio.  He is a six-time winner of the TRIC award for sports presenter of the year.

Gary Lineker was the face of BBC television’s golf coverage for three years, reported from the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and, for eight years, was a team captain on the BBC ‘s popular sports quiz ‘They Think It’s All Over”.

He was made an OBE in 1992.

Gabby Logan

A key member of the BBC’s presentation team, Gabby presents Final Score, Inside Sport, the Six Nations and the Autumn Rugby Internationals for BBC One. Gabby will also be in Poland and Ukraine with the England football team for Euro 2012. Gabby has hosted a live daily show on Channel 5, LIVE with Gabby Logan, the FIFA 2011 Women’s World Cup for BBC Three, Match of the Day, the One Show and was in South Africa in 2010 reporting on the England team for the FIFA 2010 World Cup and Bejing in 2008 for the Olympics.

A former international gymnast, Gabby began her broadcasting career in radio in 1992 and joined Sky Sports in 1996, where she quickly established herself as a football presenter. First joining ITV in 1998 to front On The Ball, during her nine years at the channel Gabby’s repertoire expanded and her presenting credits include the World Cup, Champions League and the Premiership, as well as the Boat Race and sports news reporting. In 2004 she co-hosted Sport Relief with Gary Lineker for the BBC, before joining the corporation in 2007. Following various stints on the station, Gabby began presenting a regular weekly Sunday morning show on BBC Radio 5 Live in February 2008.

From January 2010 to April 2011 she presented The Gabby Logan Show weekdays from 12pm – 2pm, which covered news and sport from across the UK as well as comprehensive analysis of Prime Minister's Questions every Wednesday. She is a columnist for The Times and has previously written for the Sunday Mirror, Independent and Yorkshire Post.

Trevor Nelson

As a pioneer in the Urban scene, Trevor started his broadcasting career at then pirate station Kiss FM, going onto A&R artists such as D’Angelo, signing Lynden David Hall at cooltempo/EMI records.

Broadcasting across three radio stations, Monday to Fridays on BBC 1Xtra; the official start to the weekend on Radio1 (Saturdays) and Radio2’s Soul show every Wednesday.

Behind the scenes Trevor was awarded an MBE for services to charity. He DJ’s regularly around the UK and Europe and is now in his 10th successful summer residency at Pacha, Ibiza.

In 2010 Trevor was awarded with a special GOLD lifetime achievement award at the Sony Radio Academy Awards.

Rishi Persad

Rishi is a presenter and reporter for BBC Sport working primarily on cricket and horse racing.

He grew up in Trinidad, just a 10 minute walk from the Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain. Rishi played a lot of cricket at school, both in Trinidad and in the UK, where he came to live aged 12 in 1986.

Prior to joining the BBC, Rishi was at Channel Four, where he was part of their Royal Television Society award-winning team at the Cheltenham Festival.

He joined the BBC in April 2003, and has worked on the London Marathon, Grand National, Cricket World Cup, Wimbledon, the Open golf championship and coverage of bowls.

Rishi has worked at two previous Olympics for the BBC in Athens and Beijing.

Sonali Shah

Part of the BBC presentation team for the London Olympics 2012, Sonali also co-presents British Olympic Dreams. During her time at the BBC Sonali has also covered the Commonwealth Games, the Cricket World Cup, the Boat Race, the London Marathon, the Epsom Derby, the Royal Wedding and Wimbledon. All this was on top of her day job – the BAFTA award-winning Newsround which she presented for five years.

Sonali began her professional broadcasting career in radio, in early 2002, she joined the BBC World Service as a producer, but quickly established herself as a presenter of World Business Report and The World Today. 

In 2003, Sonali moved to Radio 5 live to help launch Jeff Randall’s Weekend Business, which went on to win a Sony Radio award. As well as reporting for Weekend Business, Sonali became a regular business presenter on the network, fronting Wake Up to Money and 5 live Money on Breakfast, Simon Mayo and Drive.

Sonali will be part of the BBC presentation team for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Bill Turnbull

Bill first joined Breakfast as a reporter in 1988, and says he feels like he's never really left.

He has been a presenter on the programme since 2001. Bill's first film for the programme all those years ago was about wild flowers, he says.

He went on to file more memorable stories for the programme from around Britain and Europe, including the Lockerbie disaster and the Romanian Revolution of 1989. It was, Bill remembers, a steep learning curve - learning the techniques of making television amid rapidly changing events.

As a news correspondent, Bill later covered everything from presidential elections to street riots in more than 30 countries.

He did a four-year stint as the BBC's Washington Correspondent - which included a rain-drenched appearance on Breakfast, live in the middle of a Florida hurricane.

He has also been a regular presenter of the BBC News Channel and Radio 5 Live, before joining the Breakfast presenting team full time.

Bill is married with three children. In his spare time he looks after his chickens, and rather more hazardously, four hives of bees. He likes to unwind by watching what he calls the finest football team in England... Wycombe Wanderers.

Dan Walker

Dan currently presents Football Focus, the long-running BBC One Saturday lunchtime football show as well as presenting the BBC’s Open Golf coverage.

You’ll also see him at The Grand National, Wimbledon and a number of the BBC’s other showpiece events.

Dan also presents his own football show on BBC World each week which goes into 295 million homes around the world. You’ll also find his online show (Friday Focus) weekly interviews and his blog on the BBC website.

Dan was an integral part of the BBC Sport team covering the 2010 FIFA World Cup and spent the summer reporting from a double-decker bus travelling across South Africa. The 5000 mile journey included visiting cities, townships as well as social projects and historical sights which provided UK viewers with a flavour of the host nation both inside and out of the stadia.

Earlier this year Walker presented a special Olympic themed episode of Songs Of Praise. In addition to presentation work on The Six Nations in the past Dan has also presented sports bulletins on the BBC News Channel and BBC Network News. You can also hear Dan as a regular guest on 5 live’s Tony Livesey Show every Wednesday evening providing his insight into the football world. He’s appeared on Celebrity Mastermind and he has been a guest on A Question Of Sport.

Dan’s first foray into broadcasting was co-presenting two shows on the University of Sheffield’s Sure FM student radio station – the midweek sports-themed evening show and ‘Dan & Edd In The Afternoon’, for which he and co-presenter Ed Hoyland were nominated for a BBC Radio One Student Radio award.

In 1999 Dan moved to a full-time career with a four year stint as a sports presenter and commentator for Manchester’s Key 103 radio. In his time at Key 103 he presented the regular midweek sports show and picked up three Sony awards, three New York Radio Awards and was nominated as commercial radio Presenter Newcomer of the Year.

Soon after, Dan moved into TV with a 6-month spell at Granada Television in Manchester as sports presenter and commentator on the Football League Review. In 2004 he joined the BBC regional news programme North West Tonight. In his 18 months there he was nominated for a number of awards and won the Royal Television Society Sports Award in 2005 for Regional Sports Presenter of the Year.

Sian Williams

Sian has been a broadcast journalist for the BBC for more than 26 years. She started in local radio in the North West of England, before moving to Radio 4 as a current affairs producer. She then switched to TV, where she was asked to present the BBC's rolling news channel, News 24.

Since then, she's anchored the BBC One news bulletins and broadcast from events all over the world, including the Pakistan earthquake and the Asian tsunami. In 2010, she co-presented BBC One's General Election Results Special.

Sian sat on the BBC Breakfast sofa for eleven years, seven of them as its main presenter. During her tenure, the number of viewers watching the programme more than doubled, making it the most popular morning show in the UK.

Sian left in April and is the new host of BBC Radio 4's Saturday Live, with the Reverend Richard Coles. She remains a key member of the BBC One news reading team and will be one of the channel's presenters for both the 2012 Olympics and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

Sian is the 2012 TRIC newscaster/reporter of the year.