Andrea Byrne (née Benfield; born 1978) is an English journalist and

presenter A presenter is a person or organization responsible for the running of a public event, or someone who conveys information on media via a broadcasting outlet. Presenter may refer to: People * News presenter, person who presents news during a new ...

, currently working for ITV Cymru Wales, where she presents ''

Wales at Six ITV News'' Wales at Six'' is the evening news programme broadcast and produced by ITV Cymru Wales. Overview ''Wales at Six'' and all other ITV Wales news programming is broadcast live from studios at Assembly Square in Cardiff Bay, with a Nor ...

'' and ''

Wales This Week ''Wales This Week'' is a long-running Welsh current affairs television programme produced by ITV Cymru Wales (formerly HTV Wales). The programme deals with a wide range of topics relating to the Welsh public, and is usually told through the eye ...

''.

Personal life

Born in

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, Byrne graduated from Southampton University with a degree in

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

, before gaining a postgraduate diploma in journalism at Highbury College, Portsmouth. Latterly, she has gained a political diploma through the Open University. Byrne married Wales rugby player Lee Byrne on 1 January 2012. Byrne took a year-long sabbatical in June 2013, before returning to ITV Cymru Wales to anchor the relaunched ''Wales at Six''.

Career

Byrne started her journalism and media career as a local radio reporter for Guildford-based

County Sound Radio County Sound Radio was an analogue commercial radio station covering Surrey and north-east Hampshire in the United Kingdom. One of its closing forms in 2012-2014 formed Eagle Extra occupying 1566 MW following an internal split between older and ...

. She then joined local television station MyTV Portsmouth as a reporter, but when the station was forced to lay off staff, she was promoted to news editor at the station. When Portsmouth TV ceased broadcasting she moved to Oxford's local TV station, Six TV. Byrne's

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

career began in 2004 when she joined ''

Meridian Tonight ''ITV News Meridian'' is a British television news service broadcast and produced by ITV Meridian. Overview The news service is produced and broadcast from ITV Meridian's studios in Whiteley, near Fareham with reporters also based at bureaux i ...

'' as a reporter. She later moved to ''

Thames Valley Tonight ''Thames Valley Tonight'' was a regional news programme broadcast to part of the ITV Network in the Thames Valley area of southern England. The Thames Valley news region was launched on Monday 4 December 2006 and ceased to exist on 8 February 2 ...

'' as a reporter. It was while here that she produced a series of special reports on the Royal Air Force, reporting on pilots and their training at RAF Odiham before they were posted to Afghanistan, which was also shown nationally on

ITV2 ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a ...

and placed runner-up in the regional

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

awards. Following the departure of

Lucy Owen Lucy Owen (born 18 June 1971 as Lucy Jane Cohen) is a Welsh television news reader. Early life Owen attended Howell's School in Llandaff, Cardiff, and graduated from Royal Holloway, University of London, in English. She is of Jewish heritage. ...

BBC Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, BBC Cymru Wales is ...

' flagship news programme ''

Wales Today ''BBC Wales Today'' is the BBC's national television news programme for Wales, broadcast on BBC One Wales from the headquarters of BBC Cymru Wales in Central Square, Cardiff. According to the BBC, it is the world's longest-running television new ...

'' in November 2007, Byrne applied for the resulting vacancy on ''

.'' On 17 December, it was announced that she had beaten 80 other applicants to the post, and undertook her first show opposite Jonathan Hill on 14 January 2008. Prior to her debut, Benfield moved from Surrey to

Cardiff Bay Cardiff Bay ( cy, Bae Caerdydd; historically Tiger Bay; colloquially "The Bay") is an area and freshwater lake in Cardiff, Wales. The site of a former tidal bay and estuary, it serves as the river mouth of the River Taff and Ely. The body of w ...

. Since joining ITV Cymru Wales, Byrne has presented a number of various regional non-news programmes for the station, including the arts and entertainment series ''The Wales Show'', documentary series ''Tidal Wales'', ITV Cymru Wales weekly political programme ''Sharp End'' and coverage of the Royal Welsh Show and the National Eisteddfod. Byrne has also acted as a presenter of the ''

ITV Weekend News ''ITV Weekend News'' is the national news bulletins on the British television network ITV at a weekend. However it is often referred to on guides as ''ITV News'' (morning), ''ITV Lunchtime News'' (lunchtime), ''ITV Evening News'' (evening) and ...

'', debuting in June 2010. She has previously appeared as an occasional presenter for the '' ITV Lunchtime News'', '' ITV Evening News'' and '' ITV News at Ten'', as well as guest appearances for

GMTV GMTV (an acronym for Good Morning Television), now legally known as ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited, was the name of the national Channel 3 breakfast television contractor/licensee, broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 ...

and '' Daybreak''.

References

External links

Andrea Byrne
on Twitter
Andrea Byrne
Official Website
Meet the news team, ITV Cymru Wales
at

itv.com itv.com is the main website of ITV plc, the UK's largest commercial television broadcaster which operates 13 out of 15 regions on the ITV network under the ITV brand (or the UTV brand in Northern Ireland). The website offers online streaming, ...

Riva Media
– agent {{DEFAULTSORT:Byrne, Andrea 1978 births Living people People educated at Tormead School Alumni of the Open University Alumni of the University of Portsmouth Alumni of the University of Southampton British radio journalists English television journalists English women journalists ITN newsreaders and journalists ITV regional newsreaders and journalists People from Guildford British women television journalists British women radio presenters