Claudia Winkleman
About
Claudia is a television presenter, film critic, radio personality and journalist. She is best-known for her presenting role on Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two. With her quick wit and quirky sense of humour she has many a string to her entertainment bow.
Claudia Winkleman was educated at the City of London School for Girls and Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, obtaining an MA Hons degree in History of Art.
Winkleman’s first major television job was in 1991, on the regional discussion programme Central Weekend.
In 1992, she began frequently to appear 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.
Winkleman also appeared as a reporter on other shows, particularly This Morning interviewing celebrities, including Michelle Pfeiffer, Tony Blair, Sir Alan Sugar and Harrison Ford.
Between 2002 and 2004, Winkleman began her first daily TV role when she hosted the BBC Three Entertainment update show Liquid News.
In 2003, Fame Academy appointed Winkleman to present a daily update show on BBC Three, in conjunction with its second series. Reporting from behind the scenes of the show, Winkleman conducted daily interviews with contestants, experts and celebrity pundits.
Between 2005 and 2008, she wrote a regular Wednesday column for The Independent called Take It From Me, collating her various musings on the lighter sides of current affairs, celebrity news and anecdotes concerning her own life.
She also began hosting Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two, a supplementary programme to Strictly Come Dancing, taking over from Justin Lee-Collins.
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 also presented the Eurovision Song Contest. She co-hosted coverage of the inaugural Eurovision Dance Contest 2007 alongside Graham Norton for BBC One in September of that year.
Also 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.
In 2009, Winkleman appeared as presenter of Let’s Dance for Comic Relief, a no-rule dance contest to raise money for Comic Relief which is similar to Strictly Come Dancing, but with musical, pop and dance songs. In the same year, she presented a section of the Red Nose Day live telethon alongside Jonathan Ross.
Winkleman has also presented several Award Ceremonies including the Purple Heart Awards, The HSBC Awards, and The Campaign Digital Awards. In addition she has hosted promotional videos for companies such as John Lewis Partnership, C&J Clark and the British airport consortium BAA Limited.
As part of the celebration for London’s win for hosting the 2012 Olympics, Winkleman co-hosted the London 2012 party alongside Matt Baker on 24 August, on the BBC.
Claudia Winkleman is one of the most sought after television presenters working today and is available for a variety of corporate engagments. She is a fantastic awards host and presenter for any event.