Claudia Winkleman

Claudia Anne Irena Winkleman (born 15 January 1972) is an English television and radio presenter, writer, and journalist.

Claudia Anne Irena Winkleman was born into a Jewish family in the Westminster district of London on 15 January 1972, the daughter of author and journalist Eve Pollard and her husband Barry Winkleman.

She grew up in the Hampstead area of London.

Her parents divorced when she was three, and both married other people when she was seven.

Her mother married newspaper editor Nicholas Lloyd, while her father married children's author Cindy Black.

Her father's marriage to Black gave her a younger half-sister, actress Sophie Winkleman, who would later marry Lord Frederick Windsor.

Her mother's marriage to Lloyd gave her a younger half-brother named Oliver.

She was educated at the City of London School for Girls and New Hall, Cambridge, where she obtained an MA in art history.

During the late 1990s, Winkleman presented a number of programmes on smaller digital channels.

She had a stint on the cable channel L!VE TV, but soon left to pursue other projects.

In 1992, she began appearing frequently in the long-running BBC series Holiday, and this continued throughout the mid-1990s.

This culminated in a special documentary in which she travelled around the world for 34 days reporting from Japan, India, Costa Rica and Dubai.

Throughout this period, she appeared as a reporter on other shows, particularly This Morning interviewing various celebrities.

In 1996, Winkleman hosted Granada programmes God's Gift (taking over from Davina McCall) and Pyjama Party (co-hosted with Katie Puckrik and Michelle Kelly).

Winkleman also presented a number of gameshows including the dating show Three's a Crowd, LWT show Talking Telephone Numbers, the second series of Granada TV show God's Gift and Fanorama.

In 1997 she was the co-host of children's Saturday morning TV show Tricky.

She was also an occasional team captain on a gameshow called HeadJam, hosted by Vernon Kay.

Winkleman's first major television job was in 2001, on the regional discussion programme Central Weekend.

Between 2002 and 2004, Winkleman began her first daily TV role when she hosted the BBC Three Entertainment update show Liquid News, taking over from Christopher Price on the now defunct BBC Choice.

She shared the presenting duties with Colin Paterson, and later Paddy O'Connell.

The show featured celebrity interviews.

In 2003, Fame Academy appointed Winkleman to present a daily update show on BBC Three, in conjunction with its second series.

She repeated the show in 2005 for the much shorter celebrity version Comic Relief Does Fame Academy.

Also in 2005, Winkleman co-hosted The House of Tiny Tearaways, a BBC Three reality TV show.

She also began hosting Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two, a supplementary programme to Strictly Come Dancing, taking over from Justin Lee-Collins.

Winkleman then presented several more reality shows including End of Story, and Art School.

Winkleman presented many prime time programmes.

In 2007, she took over from Cat Deeley as the main host for the third series of Comic Relief Does Fame Academy, co-hosting with Patrick Kielty.

She co-hosted the inaugural Eurovision Dance Contest 2007 alongside Graham Norton for BBC One in September of that year and again in 2008.

In 2007, Winkleman was the face of Sky Movie Premiere's coverage of the 79th Academy Awards, repeating it for the 80th Academy Awards in 2008.

The show was broadcast live in conjunction with the ceremony itself, running right through the night into the early hours of the morning.

Winkleman has made many guest appearances on panel and talk shows, including: Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Would I Lie to You?, Have I Got News for You, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and Lily Allen and Friends.

She co-presented the UK selection process for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 called Eurovision: Your Decision, this time accompanied by Eurovision stalwart Terry Wogan.

In March 2008, Winkleman rekindled her partnership with Kielty when the pair hosted the final leg of Sport Relief 2008.

In February 2008, she appeared on the British version of the comedy improvisational show Thank God You're Here, hosted by Paul Merton.

Winkleman narrated the 2008 BBC Three show Glamour Girls, a documentary series about glamour modelling in Britain.

She has presented various television shows for BBC, including Strictly Come Dancing (2010–present), and The Traitors (2022–present).

She also hosts the Saturday mid-mornings show on BBC Radio 2, but is due to leave in April 2024.

Winkleman has been nominated three times for the British Academy Television Award for Best Entertainment Performance for her work on Strictly Come Dancing.

She received her fourth BAFTA nomination and first win for her work on the reality show The Traitors.