Jenny Powell (born 8 April 1968) is an English television and radio presenter. After appearing on '' No Limits'', she went on to present series such as ''

Wheel of Fortune The Wheel of Fortune or ''Rota Fortunae'' has been a concept and metaphor since ancient times referring to the capricious nature of Fate. Wheel of Fortune may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Art * ''The Wheel of Fortune'' (Burne-Jo ...

'', '' UP2U'', ''

Gimme 5 ''Gimme 5'' was a children's television programme that broadcast on Saturday mornings on ITV from 25 April 1992 to 27 August 1994. The programme was a live two-hour show which included live guests, cartoons, competitions, and games. For serie ...

'', '' Live Talk'', ''

Wordplay Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, phone ...

'' and '' Daybreak''.

Early life

Jenny Powell was born on 8 April 1968 in Ilford, England. Powell's parents are of

Cape Coloured Cape Coloureds () are a South African ethnic group consisted primarily of persons of mixed race and Khoisan descent. Although Coloureds form a minority group within South Africa, they are the predominant population group in the Western Cape. ...

descent from South Africa. She attended Woodford County High School for Girls in

Woodford Green Woodford Green is an area of Woodford in north-east London, England, within the London Borough of Redbridge. It adjoins Buckhurst Hill to the north, Woodford Bridge to the east, South Woodford to the south, and Chingford to the west. Epping Fo ...

and the

Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts The Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts is a performing arts conservatoire based in Woking, England. It was founded in 1911 by Italia Conti, an actress. The first production at Italia Conti Academy was the play ''Where the Rainbow Ends''. For ...

in London.

Career

Powell began her career in 1985 as the ad voiceover for the 6th and

7th 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube (algebra), cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion ...

volumes of the ''

Now That's What I Call Music! ''Now That's What I Call Music!'' (often shortened to ''Now!'') is a series of various artists compilation albums released in the United Kingdom and Ireland by Sony Music and Universal Music (Universal Music Group, Universal/Sony Music Entert ...

'' series. In 1986, she went on to present the

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

music series '' No Limits'' and then moved to Saturday morning television for children, first co-presenting '' UP2U'' for

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

during the summers of 1988 and 1989, then ''

'', on ITV. She was also a presenter of ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British Record chart, music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show ...

'' in 1989. In 1995, she became the hostess on

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 ...

's version of ''

''. In 1992 she was a contestant on ''

Cluedo ''Cluedo'' (), known as ''Clue'' in North America, is a murder mystery game for three to six players (depending on editions) that was devised in 1943 by British board game designer Anthony E. Pratt. The game was first manufactured by Wadding ...

'', teaming up with gossip columnist

Nigel Dempster Nigel Richard Patton Dempster (1 November 1941 in Calcutta, India – 12 July 2007 in Ham, Surrey) was a British journalist, author, broadcaster and diarist. Best known for his celebrity gossip columns in newspapers, his work appeared in the ''Dai ...

, facing off against newsreader

Lisa Aziz Lisa Soraya Aziz (born 19 June 1962) is a British news presenter. She is best known as the presenter of the Morning News on LBC. Before this she worked for ITV Westcountry as a co-presenter for the evening news programme: The West Country Tonig ...

and actor

Kevin Lloyd Kevin Reardon Lloyd (28 March 1949 – 2 May 1998) was a British television actor, who came to prominence in the role of DC Alfred "Tosh" Lines in Thames Television's police drama series ''The Bill''. Early life Lloyd was born in Derby in ...

. In 1997, Powell appeared on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

's ''

Brass Eye ''Brass Eye'' is a British satirical television series parodying current affairs news programming. A series of six episodes aired on Channel 4 in 1997, and a further episode in 2001. The series was created and presented by Chris Morris, writte ...

'', a satirical spoof documentary series produced by Chris Morris. Powell has also presented ''

Soap Fever ''Soap Fever'' is a British television Entertainment programme on ITV2 presented by Liza Tarbuck, Denise Welch, Emma Kennedy, Jordan Davies, Jenny Powell and towards the end of its run Fiona Phillips and Penny Smith. Each week the show would fea ...

'', ''Live Talk'', ''Getaway'' and ''Our House'' for

UKTV Style HGTV (formerly Home) is a British free-to-air television channel interior home and garden-orientated lifestyle television channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland, currently owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel originally ...

. She then presented a

stand-up Stand-up comedy is a comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories, ...

series titled ''Stand Up Jenny'', and was a regular on ITV's ''

Loose Women ''Loose Women'' (previously known as ''Live Talk'' from 2000 to 2001) is a British talk show that broadcasts on ITV1 weekdays from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm. The show focuses on a panel of four female presenters who interview celebrities, talk about ...

''. In 2005, she was one of the competitors in the ITV reality series ''

Celebrity Wrestling ''Celebrity Wrestling'' is a British television programme, broadcast on ITV in 2005. It involved two teams of celebrities, competing against each other in wrestling style events. The series was presented by Kate Thornton and Rowdy Roddy Piper. ...

'', competing under the name ''The Avenger''. Powell has remained on television since 2000. She was a presenter on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

's ''

To Buy or Not to Buy ''To Buy or Not to Buy'' is a British reality television series made between 2003 and 2010 for BBC One in the UK. The final series was the eleventh and contained 90 episodes, in one of two formats—either 30 or 45 minutes in length. It aired on ...

'', and presented on ITV's '' Bingo Night Live'' in June 2008. From 23 March 2009, she presented a quiz show, ''

'' on

Five 5 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 5, five or number 5 may also refer to: * AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era * 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era Literature * ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram * ''5'' (comics), an awa ...

in the old ''

Going for Gold ''Going for Gold'' is a British television game show that originally aired on BBC1 between 12 October 1987 and 9 July 1996. It was revived for Channel 5 from 13 October 2008 to 20 March 2009. Background 1987–96 ''Going for Gold'' was origi ...

'' slots. In 2010, Powell was a contestant on Channel 4's '' Celebrity Come Dine with Me'' and BBC One's ''

Celebrity Masterchef ''MasterChef'' is a competitive cooking reality show produced by Endemol Shine UK and Banijay and broadcast in 60 countries around the world. In the UK, it is produced by the BBC. The show initially ran from 1990 to 2001 and was revived in 20 ...

''. In 2012 and 2013, she appeared in two episodes of

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 ...

's ''

Lemon La Vida Loca ''Lemon La Vida Loca'' is a British mock reality show created and written by, and starring, comedian Leigh Francis and actress Laura Aikman. The show's title is derived from Ricky Martin's 1999 hit single, "Livin' la Vida Loca". The series foll ...

''. In 2017, she joined ITV's ''

Bigheads ''Bigheads'' is a British television game show produced by Primal Media that aired on ITV (TV channel), ITV From 23 April 2017 until 28 May 2017 and is hosted by Jason Manford with Jenny Powell and Kriss Akabusi as commentators. Contestants we ...

'' as a commentator. In January 2018, Powell participated in '' And They're Off!'' in aid of

Sport Relief ''Sport Relief'' was a biennial charity event from Comic Relief, in association with BBC Sport, established in 2002. It was the idea of Kevin Cahill, CBE, who had joined Comic Relief in 1991 to establish a new department as Director of Educati ...

. She also participated with her daughter Pollyanna on the fifth series of ''

Big Star's Little Star ''Big Star's Little Star'' is a British game show that began on ITV on 4 September 2013 and is presented by Stephen Mulhern. The show sees three celebrity contestants and their children or grandchildren answering questions about each other to wi ...

'' where they won £12,000 for charity. In January 2019, she took part in the quiz series ''Celebrity Catchphrase'', alongside Ade Edmondson and Jason Manford. In April 2019, she appeared on the

5Star 5Star (stylized as 5STAR) is a British free-to-air television channel owned by Paramount Networks UK & Australia and a sister channel of Channel 5. It originally launched as the female-orientated Five Life on 15 October 2006, and was relaunch ...

series ''Celebs on the Ranch'', set in

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, a spin-off from ''

Celebs on the Farm ''Celebs on the Farm'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British television series that began broadcasting on 5Star from 20 August 2018, presented by Stephen Bailey. The first series consisted of 10 episodes, and was won by Gleb Savchenko. ...

''. From 9th January 2021 Powell started presenting a brand new Weekend Breakfast Show on

Greatest Hits Radio Greatest Hits Radio is a classic hits radio network in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Bauer. Overview The network launched on 5 January 2015 as the "Bauer City 2 Network", and rebranded on 7 January 2019 due to the success of Ra ...

. On 26th November 2022, Powell co hosted the

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 ...

North West Awards along with

Adam Thomas Adam Thomas (born 11 August 1988) is an English actor, known for his roles as Donte Charles in the BBC One school-based drama series '' Waterloo Road'' (2006–2009, 2022–present) and Adam Barton in the ITV soap opera ''Emmerdale'' (2009� ...

Personal life

In 2006, Powell married Toby Baxendell and they have two daughters, Pollyanna and Constance, together. However, in 2009, Powell announced she had separated from her husband. She now lives with her daughters in

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

References

External links

*
Jenny Powell on Greatest Hits Radio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Powell, Jenny 1968 births Living people People from Ilford English television presenters English people of South African descent People educated at Woodford County High School For Girls Top of the Pops presenters