Matt Baker (television personality)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Matt Baker
Matt Baker presenting the BBC's coverage of Crufts.
Born	23 December 1977 (1977-12-23) (age 30) Easington, County Durham, England
Occupation	TV presenter
Known for	Blue Peter presenter
Spouse	Nicola (2004-present)

Matthew Baker (born 23 December 1977 in Easington, County Durham) is a British television presenter.

Baker grew up on the family sheep farm and has one sister and two stepsisters. As a boy, he was a British gymnast and sports acrobatics champion. Later he attended Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, graduating with a diploma in acting.

During the late nineties Matt worked as a DJ and as part of various disco-dancing groups. Matt was one of the stars of the travelling, comedy disco-dancing show "Disco Inferno" touring clubs in the North of England as the character: Butch Vendor "The LA Bar Tender".

Baker got his first break on 25 June 1999 when he joined the children's TV programme Blue Peter, becoming its 28th presenter. His gymnastic background helped him in the physical challenges that he undertook, training as a stuntman as well as passing the recruitment courses for both the Royal Marines and the Parachute Regiment.

During his seven years at Blue Peter, he has presented with Katy Hill, Konnie Huq, Simon Thomas, Liz Barker, Zöe Salmon and Gethin Jones. He also won 2 BAFTA's for Best Children's Presenter (2 years in a row) and a Royal Television Society Award.

On 5 June 2006, whilst almost in tears, Baker announced his decision to leave Blue Peter at the end of its 2005-06 season,^[1] and his last live show was aired shortly afterwards, on 26 June. Matt's dog, Meg, was seen alongside him on the programme from 2000 onwards, and left with him.

In 2002, Baker played a version of himself in an episode of the BBC Drama series Cutting It. In 2003, Baker was a guest on the BBC's A Song For Europe contest to decide the UK entry to the Eurovision Song Contest, announcing the scores for the North of England.

In 2005, Baker briefly appeared as himself in an episode of the revived sci-fi series Doctor Who, whilst The Doctor was flicking through television channels.

Matt Baker married girlfriend Nicola in summer 2004. It was recently announced that they are expecting their first child in the summer of 2007, and Nicola has given birth to a baby boy, Luke.

In June 2006, Baker played the role of Dick from The Famous Five in The Queen's Handbag.

In the summer of 2006, he was a celebrity showjumper in the BBC's Sport Relief event Only Fools on Horses and he can currently be found commentating for the BBC covering Gymnastics.

He has most recently been seen as a reporter on The One Show, one of three main presenters on City Hospital and as a guest on Never Mind The Buzzcocks all for the BBC.

In March 2007, and again in 2008 he co presented Crufts.

In July 2007 he appeared alongside Jo Whiley on the Channel 4 programme Richard and Judy. He was reviewing The House at Riverton by Kate Morton as part of Richard and Judy's Summer Book Club.

Earlier this year he co-presented Animal Rescue Live with Selina Scott and the programme is expected to make a comeback in 2008.

He is currently taking part in a production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the Sunderland Empire taking to the stage with the amazing role of Caractacus Potts.

Currently, he co-presents Countryfile Summer Diaries on weekday mornings on BBC 1. He hosts Open Country for Radio 4 and host's Animal Rescue Squad for Five.

[edit] References