Profile: Fearne Cotton
19 May 08
Fearne Cotton is one of the UK’s most in demand TV and radio presenters. At the age of 26, Fearne has a great deal of live and pre-recorded presenting experience under her belt having being spotted at the age of 15 by ITV’s ‘Disney Club’. This opportunity led to a three-year contract as co-presenter for GMTV’s live weekend youth series Diggit.
Following this Fearne made a strong name for herself as a children’s TV presenter hosting Finger Tips, Pet Swap and Mouse for CITV, Granada’s youth activity gameshow Pump It Up and Disney’s art animation series Draw You Own Toons, which saw her put her art A Level to good use.
In 2002, she co-hosted the 30th and final series of Record Breakers and presented the one off special Prom In the Park. She also presented a package of programmes for CBBC including two series of the youth science show Eureka and Call The Shots a show that went behind the scenes at the movies.
September 2002 saw Fearne sign an exclusive two year deal with the BBC, becoming the first presenter to host their flagship Saturday morning programme The Saturday Show (BBC1) alongside Sunday morning show Smile (BBC2).
In 2003, Fearne took part in Comic Relief Does Fame Academy and in her own words ‘murdered’ the song Driftwood by Travis. Later that year in September she began hosting her own show, the all new Top Of The Pops Saturday, a successful show that became a firm favourite on Saturday morning with pop fans.
In 2005 Fearne began hosting the main Top Of The Pops show alongside Top Of The Pops Reloaded on Saturday mornings. Throughout the summer she filmed a show in America with Reggie Yates for CBBC, ‘Only In America’ which was screened in autumn on the CBBC channel and later on BBC1.
Summer 2005 saw Fearne awarded one of the biggest breaks in her career when she got the chance to co-present the live coverage of the historic concert Live8. This was closely followed in November by Fearne being chosen as one of the presenting team for Children In Need alongside Terry Wogan and Natasha Kaplinski.
2006 witnessed Fearne sign her first radio deal with Radio 1, hosting a Friday morning show with fellow presenter, Reggie Yates. The show was a huge success and quickly both Fearne and Reggie were signed up to host the weekend breakfast show every Saturday and Sunday morning from 7am till 10am. October 2007 saw the duo move their Radio 1 slot to a Saturday afternoon as well as hosting the prestigious UK Top 40 on a Sunday afternoon.
During the summer of 2006, Fearne co-presented ITV1’s reality series Love Island alongside Patrick Kielty in Fiji for two months, an experience she regards as one of the best of her life. She then returned to UK screens at the end of October to host four live shows of Make Me A Super Model for Channel 5.
2007 got off to an amazing start with Fearne presenting the backstage coverage for ITV1 at The BRITS , followed by a trip to LA to host The Oscars Red Carpet coverage at the 79th Annual Academy Awards for Sky One. Fearne then opened Comic Relief with Lenny Henry and Jonathan Ross.
Later in 2007, Fearne was honoured to be asked to carry out the only UK interview with Prince William and Prince Harry in lead up to the Concert For Diana. The concert was a huge success and Fearne co-presented the day for the BBC, which was broadcast across the globe.
The remainder of 2007 saw a busy Fearne co-host Eurovision show Making Your Mind Up alongside Terry Wogan on BBC1, and launch her own prime time dating show with pal Holly Willoughby for ITV1, Holly & Fearne Go Dating. Alongside this, Fearne also took over the reigns at ITV2’s massively successful show The Xtra Factor, the spin off show to ITV’s huge entertainment programme The X Factor.
This year has so far seen a packed diary of shows, again presenting the backstage coverage at The BRITS and hosting the ITV1 special Guilty Pleasures, a music show based on the successful club night of the same name.
Fearne also recently caught the eye of US television, flying to LA to host her own one-off prime time special for NBC, Guinness World Records – Live. On the back of this, Fearne was then offered the co-host role on NBC’s successful reality show Last Comic Standing, which has so far seen her travel across the US looking for comedy’s next big thing.
With more prime time UK projects planned, a burgeoning US career and ongoing weekend Radio 1 shows, 2008 is turning out to be a very busy year for this talented young lady.
Biography copyright: James Grant management
