Lucille Werner

Lucille Martine Werner (born 12 October 1967) is a Dutch television presenter and politician.

She was born in 1967 in the North Brabant city of Eindhoven to Pieter Werner (1936–1989) and Paula Ramselaar (born 1942), an analyst.

Werner suffered from a lack of oxygen during her birth, leaving her with cerebral palsy resulting in a limp.

She grew up with two sisters and one brother.

At age four, her family moved to the Colombian capital Bogotá, when her father was transferred there by his employer Philips.

They moved to the village Leek in Groningen after seven years abroad and later returned to Eindhoven.

She attended the high school Sint-Joriscollege at mavo level between 1980 and 1985.

She subsequently studied management and communication at hbo level at Schoevers in Groningen.

Her father committed suicide when Werner was 21 years old.

Starting in 1990, Werner interned at De 5 uur show, a talkshow on RTL 4.

In 1993, she got a job as an editor of the RTL program Showtime.

She also served as a correspondent and interviewed celebrities including David Bowie and Tina Turner.

Werner made her debut as a television host in September 1997, when the news show RTL Actueel premiered.

She co-anchored its segment about show business news.

After RTL Actueel was discontinued in June of the following year, Werner became host of several other RTL show business programs: Showtime, Big Entertainment Club, and the two-hour-long Hollands Hollywood on Saturdays.

She co-presented the last two of those shows with Michael Pilarczyk.

Besides, she encouraged viewers of Henny's House Party, a talent show for disabled people, to donate money to a charity.

Werner started presenting game shows in 1999.

Her first such show was Zomerkampioen in the summer with Jo De Poorter.

In the years 1999–2001, she served as one of the hosts of the new daytime phone-in quiz Puzzeltijd.

Werner signed a three-year contract with public broadcasting association AVRO in 2001.

Her first show there was Alle dieren tellen mee, which was alternately presented by Werner and Anniko van Santen starting in September, about animals.

She hosted another five-episode animal show called De dierentolk, in which a medium communicated with animals, two years later.

She presented Get the Picture between 2002 and 2004 before becoming the host of Lingo.

After that show was cancelled, Werner worked for SBS6 and KRO-NCRV.

Being born with a disability, Werner has also hosted a number of shows involving disabled participants including the pageant Mis(s)verkiezing.

She was elected member of parliament in the 2021 general election as a member of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA).

Werner became a game show host at AVRO in 2002.

Smarttest was broadcast starting in January for a short period in the early evening on weekdays.

In the second half of 2002, Werner became the sole presenter of Get the Picture and Capibara.

The former game show was on television in the early evening on weekdays and was hosted before by Paula Udondek, while the latter program had questions about animals and was broadcast on Saturdays.

Both programs went off the air in 2004, when she had presented over 500 Get the Picture episodes.

She is best known for hosting close to 2,000 episodes of the word game show Lingo in the years 2005–14.

Werner started her career at the Holland Media Group, anchoring news programs about show business.

Later, she became a host of game shows and moved to public broadcasting.

Werner began hosting the TROS word game show Lingo on 1 September 2005.

The program was broadcast every weekday in the early evening, and she succeeded Nancy Coolen.

When rumors reached the media in late 2006 that the network coordinator considered ending Lingo, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende reacted by asking the rhetorical question "How fond are we of presenter Lucille Werner?"

In 2007, Werner also hosted the five-episode spin-off Lingo Bingo Show, in which celebrities competed and raised money for the VUmc Cancer Center Amsterdam.

That same year, she was co-host on Friday of the new Evangelische Omroep talk show Knevel & Van den Brink, appearing as sidekick of Andries Knevel and Thijs van den Brink.