Natasha Kaplinsky

Natasha is probably most famous for being the ‘face of Five’, anchoring the channel’s main evening news programme. .
 
She joined Five from the BBC, where as co-host of the 6 O’clock News, again she was one of the corporation’s best-known faces.   She joined the BBC in November 2002 as co-host of Breakfast.  With Dermot Murnaghan, she co-presented a daily three-hour live show combining news, current affairs and softer items, developing a reputation for incisive interviewing with a gentle touch where necessary. She then moved on to co-present the Six O’clock News for two years, with George Alagiah, finishing in October 2007.
 
Natasha was the subject of one of the programmes in the popular BBC1 television series, Who Do You Think You Are? in September 2007, in which she traced the moving wartime story of her father’s Jewish family in Belarus, and her father’s turbulent background as an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa.
 
Natasha also enjoys the chance to host the occasional entertainment programme. Whilst at the BBC she hosted New Year Live, and joined Terry Wogan to co-present Making Your Mind Up, (the show which decided the UK’s contestant for the Eurovision Song Contest) and Children In Need, all for BBC1. She presented one of the Proms in the 2006 season for the BBC. In 2005 she hosted the BBC’s Bafta red carpet coverage, and The VE Day Celebrations, live from Trafalgar Square. Other appearances have included the Royal Variety Show, co-presenting the final of BBC-2’s Restoration with Griff Rhys-Jones and has also appeared as a guest on That Sunday Night Show with Adrian Chiles,  Have I Got News For You, The Kumars at No 42, and several episodes of the BBC comedy My Hero.
 
In Spring 2004 she discovered a hidden talent when she took part in a new peak-time Saturday night programme called Strictly Come Dancing … she went on to become the first winner of what turned into a TV institution. She took part again in most of the second series – though this time as co-presenter with Bruce Forsyth – and in Summer 2005 hosted a one-off special, Strictly African Dancing, as part of the BBC’s Africa Lives season. As part of the same season, Natasha also returned to her African roots, to present Breakfast from Kenya, her childhood home, and film a special report in South Africa.
 
Natasha grew up in Kenya and was six when she first saw a television set. Her family moved to Sussex where she went to school before studying English at Oxford University.
 
She worked in the press offices of Neil Kinnock and John Smith before spotting an advertisement for a news presenter with Meridian in the South East. She was taken on to present early-morning bulletins but soon found herself anchoring the station’s evening news magazine. She moved to Carlton in London to host news and current affairs programmes including their flagship nightly news show.
 
In 2000 she joined Sky News and was a leading member of the presenting team when the channel won a Bafta for Best News Channel.
 
She is a patron of the medical relief agency Merlin and The Willow Foundation, which organises special days for seriously ill young adults.   Since 2010 she has been an Ambassador for Save The Children, visiting projects in India and South Africa, as part of the No Child Born To Die campaign.  This connection made her the natural choice for her latest role, as host of ITV’s new entertainment show, Born to Shine, which will be produced in partnership with Save the Children.