Konnie Huq

Michael* · April 30, 2009

Konnie Huq

Biography

Konnie Huq (born 17 July, 1975), is a British television presenter. Huq's parents moved to England from Bangladesh in the 1960s, and she was born and grew up in Ealing, London, with her two sisters, Rupa and Nutun. She was educated at Notting Hill and Ealing High School in London, and Robinson College, Cambridge, where she obtained a degree in Economics.

In 1989, at the age of 14, Huq was a guest on Blue Peter with the National Youth Music Theatre, where she sang a solo. In 1992, ahead of the upcoming General Election, Huq interviewed Neil Kinnock for the children's programme Newsround. In 1997, several months prior to joining Blue Peter, Huq presented Five's early morning children's programme Milkshake!

Blue Peter

Huq currently presents the BBC children's television show Blue Peter and became its first Asian presenter when she joined on 1 December, 1997. She is currently the fourth longest running Blue Peter presenter of all time and its second longest-running female host. If she is still presenting the show at the end of 2007, she will have been the first Blue Peter presenter to have worked on the programme for an entire decade.

One of Huq's most memorable early moments on Blue Peter was going to Bangladesh, and visiting members of her extended family. In the show's 2004 "Summer Expedition" to India, Konnie became an extra in a Bollywood film, and practised dancing alongside its stars. For the programme's 2004 "Welcome Home" appeal, she made an emotional visit to Angola on behalf of Blue Peter, in the hope of reuniting children with the families they had been separated from due to war.

In March 2007 she apologised to viewers after a competition on the show was faked, saying "We'd like to say sorry to you because when this mistake happened, we let you down."

In May 2007, The Daily Mirror revealed that Huq was to leave Blue Peter to focus on presenting to an "older audience."

Other television work

Between 2002 and 2004, Huq co-presented the CBBC Channel's UK Top 40. More recently, she made her debut as a news presenter on the BBC Asian Network, in a series of documentaries on a new radio current affairs programme called the Asian Network Report.

In Early 2004 Huq was briefly a presenter for Top of the Pops.

She appeared on the CBBC series M.I.High as herself in the episode "The Big Freeze" broadcast on 22 January 2007. Huq was also rumoured to present the fourth series of hit reality TV show The X Factor, but television channel ITV confirmed in March that Dermot O'Leary will be the new host.

Comic Relief

In 2005, she took part in BBC One's reality TV show Comic Relief Does Fame Academy, in aid of Comic Relief, and was the third contestant to be voted off, after her rendition of Kim Wilde's Kids in America. She also travelled to Uganda and met orphan children, on behalf of Comic Relief, and is currently a celebrity ambassador for the British Red Cross.

Olympic Torch incident

On 6 April 2008, Huq was one of 80 carriers of the Olympic torch relay through London when on Ladbroke Grove a protester tried to grab the torch from her whilst Huq was about to give the torch to the next runner. On BBC News later that day she defended carrying the torch, saying she "did the procession because I believe in the Olympic values, the ideals, I think sport on a global scale is a brilliant thing, it transcends culture, race, money," despite what she calls China's "terrible track record when it comes to human rights." Huq was not hurt in the incident. Police wrestled the protester to the ground and arrested him. She however voiced concern over the Chinese torch guards, saying "They were very robotic, very full on, and actually I noticed them having skirmishes with our own police and the Olympic authorities before our leg of the relay".

Links

Blue Peter Video Blog

IMDB Profile

Asians in Media article on new Asian Network Report