Anna Williamson (born 23 July 1981) is an English television presenter and dating agent. She is known as the former co-presenter of children's programmes '' Rescue Robots'' ''

Toonattik ''Toonattik'' was the flagship children's strand of the British breakfast television station, GMTV (known on-air as CITV at weekends), which ran from 5 February 2005 to 26 December 2010. The strand aired on weekend mornings from 07:25 (some ...

'' and ''

Action Stations! ''Toonattik'' was the flagship children's strand of the British breakfast television station, GMTV (known on-air as CITV at weekends), which ran from 5 February 2005 to 26 December 2010. The strand aired on weekend mornings from 07:25 (sometim ...

'' on

CITV CITV (short for Children's ITV, also known as the CITV Channel) is a British free-to-air children's television channel owned by ITV plc. It broadcasts content from the CITV archive and acquisitions, every day from 6 am to 9 pm which ...

. In 2019, Williamson began appearing as a dating agent on the E4 reality dating series ''

Celebs Go Dating ''Celebs Go Dating'' is a British dating reality series. It began broadcasting on 29 August 2016 on E4, with the first series having 15 episodes. Paul Carrick Brunson and Anna Williamson currently appear as the dating agents, with Tom Read Wi ...

''. Williamson has also worked as an entertainment reporter and showbiz presenter on the

ITV Breakfast ITV Breakfast Broadcasting Limited (previously known as GMTV Limited) is the national ITV breakfast television licensee, broadcasting in the United Kingdom. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc in November 2009. The breakfast license r ...

programme '' Daybreak'' in 2011, as well as appearing on ''

Big Brother's Bit on the Side This is a complete list of shows about and relating to ''Big Brother UK'' and ''Celebrity Big Brother''. The civilian edition ran from 2000 to 2018 and the celebrity edition ran from 2001 to 2018. ''Big Brother'' ''Big Brother'' was a daily sho ...

'' as a reporter.

Career

Singing

Williamson first came to fame as a singer in the girl band Girl Force created by Steve Deakin-Davies, composer and producer for a Polygram project called "Girl Force" released in 1997 by Polygram Record Operations Ltd (no 536 291–4) which taught listeners how to sing and write music. It was created on the back of the success of the

Spice Girls The Spice Girls are a British girl group formed in 1994, consisting of Melanie Brown, also known as Mel B ("Scary Spice"); Melanie Chisholm, or Melanie C ("Sporty Spice"); Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"); Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"); and Vict ...

. Blush also released a single called "Feel my vibe" written and produced by

Ricky Wilde Ricky may refer to: Places *Říčky (Brno-Country District), a village and municipality in the Czech Republic *Říčky v Orlických horách, a village in the north of the Czech Republic *Rickmansworth, a town in England sometimes called "Ricky" ...

, brother of

Kim Wilde Kim Wilde (born Kim Smith, 18 November 1960) is an English pop singer, DJ and television presenter. She first saw success in 1981 with her debut single "Kids in America", which peaked at No. 2 in the UK. In 1983, she received the Brit Award f ...

. The single was created by The Ambition Company and released on Solo records.

Television

Before joining ''GMTV'' in February 2005, Williamson presented ''

Milkshake! ''Milkshake!'' (stylised as milkshake!) is a British children's television programming block on Channel 5 and is currently aimed at children aged 3–7. History The block debuted on Channel 5's first full day on air, at 7.30am on 31 March 19 ...

'' on Channel 5 and a number of shows for the

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...

. In 2003, she presented a one-off

gameshow series called '' Rescue Robots'' and she guest-presented on

towards the end of the summer holidays of the same year. A year later in the autumn of 2004, she presented a

game show called ''Scary Sleepover''. On 6 March 2010, it was announced ''GMTV'' children's presenters

Jamie Rickers James Rickers (born 21 May 1974) is an English former television presenter, best known as the co-presenter of children's programmes '' Prove It!'', ''Toonattik'' and '' Up On The Roof'' on CITV. Career Television Rickers presented '' Up On The Ro ...

and Williamson would be made redundant following

ITV plc ITV plc is a British media company that holds 13 of the 15 regional television licences that make up the ITV network (Channel 3), the oldest and largest commercial terrestrial television network in the United Kingdom. ITV plc is listed on the ...

taking full control of ''GMTV'', their last broadcast aired on 9 May 2010. Williamson and Rickers have since occasionally presented

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

strands.Children's TV presenters lose their jobs as GMTV bosses continue to wield the axe
accessed 6 March 2010. From May 2011, she was an occasional entertainment reporter and ''TV Matters'' presenter for

programme '' Daybreak''. In 2013, she appeared on '' This Morning'' as an

agony aunt An advice column is a column in a question and answer format. Typically, a (usually anonymous) reader writes to the media outlet with a problem in the form of a question, and the media outlet provides an answer or response. The responses are wr ...

, and from 2013 to 2015, she appeared on ''

'' as a panellist and guest reporter. In 2014, Williamson participated in the second series of the

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 ...

celebrity diving show '' Splash!'', making her first appearance in Heat 2, she made it through to the Semi-final but no further, exiting the show on 8 February 2014. Note* Scores are out of a possible 30 points in total. In 2019, Williamson appeared in the sixth series of E4 reality dating series ''

'', as a dating expert.

Theatre

She appeared in ''Aladdin'' at The Capitol Theatre in Horsham, West Sussex which ran from 10 December 2010 until 3 January 2011. She appeared in ''Dick Whittington'' at the

New Wimbledon Theatre The New Wimbledon Theatre is situated on the Broadway, Wimbledon, London, in the London Borough of Merton. It is a Listed building, Grade II listed Edwardian era, Edwardian theatre built by the theatre lover and entrepreneur, J. B. Mulholland. B ...

Wimbledon, London Wimbledon () is a district and town of Southwest London, England, southwest of the centre of London at Charing Cross; it is the main commercial centre of the London Borough of Merton. Wimbledon had a population of 68,187 in 2011 which includes ...

. She appeared in the theatre production of ''Cinderella'' as the lead at

Milton Keynes Theatre Milton Keynes Theatre is a large theatre in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. It opened on 4 October 1999, 25 years after the campaign for a new theatre first started. Designed by architects Blonski-Heard with Kut Nadiadi and Robert Doe, the thea ...

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...

which ran from 7 December 2012 until 6 January 2013.

Writing

In 2017, Williamson released her debut book, titled ''Breaking Mad''. This was followed by a second book released in 2018, titled ''Breaking Mum and Dad''. A third book, titled ''How Not to Lose It'' was released in March 2019 and Williamson's fourth book, titled ''Where is the Love?'' was released in February 2022.

Podcast

Anna presents LuAnna: The Podcast with

Luisa Zissman Luisa Christina Zissman (born Louisa Christina Kalozois; 4 June 1987) is an English retail entrepreneur and reality television personality. She was the runner-up on the ninth series of ''The Apprentice'' and finished fourth on ''Celebrity Big ...

Personal life

Anna lives in Hertfordshire. She is qualified as a ChildLine counsellor and is one of their spokespeople along with the charity's founder

Esther Rantzen Dame Esther Louise Rantzen (born 22 June 1940) is an English journalist and television presenter, who presented the BBC television series ''That's Life!'' for 21 years, from 1973 until 1994. She works with various charitable causes, and foun ...

. In December 2012, she hosted a ChildLine Gala concert alongside

Jason Donovan Jason Sean Donovan (born 1 June 1968) is an Australian actor and singer. He initially achieved fame in the Australian soap ''Neighbours'', playing Scott Robinson, before beginning a career in music in 1988. In the UK he has sold over 3 mi ...

. She is also an ambassador for

The Prince's Trust The Prince's Trust ( cy, Ymddiriedolaeth y Tywysog) is a charity in the United Kingdom founded in 1976 by King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) to help vulnerable young people get their lives on track. It supports 11-to-30-year-olds who are u ...

and has cycled the Palace to Palace bike ride in October 2012. She is also an ambassador for mental health charity Mind. She has talked about being diagnosed with general anxiety disorder and panic disorder and signed up to have her placenta 'encapsulated' after the birth of her first child, because of theories it can help beat post-natal depression. On 8 July 2019, Williamson announced that she was pregnant and gave birth to her second child, a daughter, in December 2019.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Williamson, Anna GMTV presenters and reporters British television presenters Living people 1981 births