Katie Puckrik (born July 12, 1962) is an American broadcaster and

newspaper columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the form of a short essay ...

. Born in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography an ...

, Puckrik is best known for hosting British youth magazine shows '' The Word'' and ''

The Sunday Show ''The Sunday Show'' is a British entertainment show that was broadcast on BBC2 from 5 March 1995 to 28 December 1997. Donna McPhail and Katie Puckrik hosted the first two series, Puckrik was replaced by Paul Tonkinson for the third series. For ...

'' in the 1990s. She also created and hosted the British television talk show ''Pyjama Party'' and subsequently its American remake ''Pajama Party''. She runs a fragrance-themed YouTube series and blog called "Katie Puckrik Smells", writes a column for magazines and newspapers including ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'', and is a stand-in DJ on

BBC Radio 6 Music BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC, specialising primarily in alternative music. BBC 6 Music was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years. It is available on ...

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content ...

and most recently

Talkradio TalkRadio (previously styled as talkRADIO) is a talk radio station broadcasting nationally in the United Kingdom, which was relaunched on 21 March 2016. Based in London and owned by Wireless Group, a subsidiary of News Corp., it is the sist ...

. She also co-hosts the history podcast ''

We Didn't Start the Fire "We Didn't Start the Fire" is a song written and published by American musician Billy Joel. The song was released as a single on September 18, 1989, and later released as part of Joel's album ''Storm Front (album), Storm Front'' on October 17, 1 ...

'' with

Tom Fordyce Tom Fordyce is a former BBC Sport journalist. He wrote text commentaries on cricket and tennis, also writing features on various other sports and blogging from a number of different events. Fordyce attended Westminster School, where he was a pref ...

Biography

Puckrik travelled widely in her childhood, owing to her father's military background. She spent time in

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh List ...

Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the ca ...

, as well as her native USA. She moved to London permanently in 1984 and worked as a singer and dancer, working on Michael Clark's ''I Am Curious, Orange'' in 1988 and the

Pet Shop Boys The Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of primary vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, they have sold more than 50 million records worldwide, and were listed as the most successful duo ...

' 1991 ''Performance'' tour. Following the end of this tour, she auditioned to become a presenter 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 late-night magazine show ''The Word'', beating more than five thousand hopefuls for the job. She co-presented the show's second and third series from 1991 to 1993 alongside

Dani Behr Dani Behr (born 9 July 1970) is an English former singer, actress, voice-over artist, and television presenter. Early life Behr was born in Mill Hill, London, of South African Jewish descent. Her father is a partner in London estate agents Be ...

Terry Christian Terence Christian (born 8 May 1960) is a British broadcaster, journalist and author. He has presented several national television series in the UK including Channel 4's late night entertainment show '' The Word'' (1990–1995) and six series o ...

and Mark Lamarr before moving on to present Channel 4's coverage of the

Glastonbury Festival Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contempo ...

in 1994, ''4 Goes to Glastonbury'', alongside

Mark Kermode Mark James Patrick Kermode (, ; ; born 2 July 1963) is an English film critic, musician, radio presenter, television presenter and podcaster. He is the chief film critic for ''The Observer'', contributes to the magazine ''Sight & Sound'', pre ...

. In 1995 she moved to the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

, contributing showbiz reports to Mark Radcliffe and Marc Riley's

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

show ''The Graveyard Shift'', presenting the first two series of

BBC Two 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 ...

's ''The Sunday Show'' with Donna McPhail, and fronting BBC Radio 5 Live's arts magazine ''Entertainment Superhighway'', having previously presented ''Fashion Icons'', a six-part series exploring fashion trends for BBC Radio 5 in February and March 1992. In 1996, Puckrik left the BBC to devise, produce and present ''Pyjama Party'' for ITV's post-primetime schedule. As part of a revamp of programming which saw the

ITV Network ITV is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition to BBC Television (established in 1936). ITV is the oldest commercial network in the UK. Since the passi ...

form a uniform schedule through the night for the first time, ''Pyjama Party'' aired on Saturday evenings from January 1996. ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

'' described the show as one in which "young women in frilly nightwear try to recreate their conspiratorial teenage years". In 1999, at the age of 37, she published an autobiography, ''Shooting from the Lip'', in which the chapters were named after songs with personal significance. In 2017, she presented a two-part radio series on

power pop Power pop (also typeset as powerpop) is a form of pop rock based on the early music of bands such as the Who, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Byrds. It typically incorporates melodic hooks, vocal harmonies, an energetic performance, and ...

. In 2019, she presented a two-part BBC TV series on

yacht rock Yacht rock (originally known as the West Coast soundThat ' ...

, titled ''I Can Go For That: The Smooth World of Yacht Rock''. It was accompanied by a three-part BBC radio series. Since January 2021, Puckrik has hosted the ''We Didn't Start the Fire'' podcast with

explaining the subjects referenced in lyrics of the song "

" by

Billy Joel William Martin Joel (born May 9, 1949) is an American singer, pianist and songwriter. Commonly nicknamed the " Piano Man" after his album and signature song of the same name, he has led a commercially successful career as a solo artist since th ...

. Another podcast series presented by Puckrik started in October 2021, ''dot com'', exploring the people behind the internet.

Bibliography

* (Autobiography)

References

External links

*
Katie Puckrik Smells
Katie Puckrik's fragrance-themed YouTube series.

Basenotes, February 9, 2009
The Queen of Mean - Katie Puckrik Interviews Sarah Silverman
Guardian UK, October 6, 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Puckrik, Katie American expatriates in the United Kingdom American television personalities American women television personalities People from Virginia Living people 1962 births