Mary-Ann Ochota ( ''O-hot-ah''; born 8 May 1981) is a British broadcaster and

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

specialising in anthropology,

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

, social history and adventure factual television.

Biography

Ochota was born and grew up in

Wincham 200px, Map of civil parish of Wincham in the former borough of Vale Royal Wincham is a civil parish and village in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is about three miles nort ...

Northwich {{Infobox UK place , static_image_name = Northwich - Town Bridge.jpg , static_image_caption = Town Bridge, the River Weaver and the spire of Holy Trinity Church , official_name = Northwich , country ...

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 ...

, to an Indian mother and a Polish father. She studied at the sixth-form college of

Sir John Deane's College Sir John Deane's Sixth Form College is a sixth form college in Northwich, Cheshire, UK. It was formerly Sir John Deane's Grammar School, which was founded in 1557. History Sir John Deane (in the 16th century, the title indicated a presbyter ...

. From 1999 to 2002 she studied Archaeology and Anthropology at

Emmanuel College, Cambridge Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican mon ...

, specialising in Social Anthropology. She represented her college in the 2013

University Challenge ''University Challenge'' is a British television quiz programme which first aired in 1962. ''University Challenge'' aired for 913 episodes on ITV from 21 September 1962 to 31 December 1987, presented by quizmaster Bamber Gascoigne. The BBC ...

Christmas Special, reaching the final, against

Gonville and Caius College Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of th ...

, Cambridge. In 2008, she married children's author Joe Craig. Ochota gave birth to their son in July 2018.

Presenting

Ochota has reported for Channel 4's foreign affairs documentary strand, ''

Unreported World ''Unreported World'' is a British foreign affairs program made by ITN Productions and broadcast by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. Over the course of its forty-two seasons, reporters have travelled to dangerous locations all over the world i ...

''. Her first film for the series, ''India's Slumkid Reporters'' was broadcast in September 2013, her second, ''Kickboxing Kids'' was broadcast in 2014 She contributed to series 1 and 2 of the ITV archaeology programme ''

Britain's Secret Treasures ''Britain's Secret Treasures'' is a British documentary shown on ITV hosted by Michael Buerk and Bettany Hughes. The programme features fifty archaeological discoveries that have been made in England, Wales and Scotland by members of the public. ...

'' presenting the history of artefacts including the Pegsdon Mirror, Putney 'Brothel' Token, Stone Priory Seal Matrix, Lincoln Roman Statue, Canterbury Pilgrim Badges and the wreck of . In ''Britain's Secret Homes'' (ITV, 2013), she presented the stories of life at Creswell Crags, Derbyshire; St Mungo's Home for Working Girls, London; the Knap of Howar,

Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

, and the Broch of Mousa,

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

. Ochota presented the three-part series, ''Raised Wild'' for Animal Planet (broadcast as ''Feral Children'' in the UK), investigating cases of 'feral' children, defined as children either raised by or with animals, or children who had survived for a significant period in the wild. There were three episodes in Season 1, in Uganda, Ukraine and Fiji. Ochota was the co-presenter for Series 19 (2012) of

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 archaeology show ''

Time Team ''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned online in 2022 for two episodes released on YouTube. Created by television producer Tim ...

'' with

Tony Robinson Sir Anthony Robinson (born 15 August 1946) is an English actor, author, broadcaster, comedian, presenter, and political activist. He played Baldrick in the BBC television series ''Blackadder'' and has presented several historical documentaries ...

. She has contributed to current affairs radio programme ''Weekend World Today'' on the BBC

World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

(''Our Daily Bread'') and is a regular reviewer on the

Sky News Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...

paper preview. In 2016, Ochota presented the series "Best of enemies" for German television, in which she travelled around Britain to find out what the British really think about the Germans. The series was aired on the German channel ARD-alpha in English with German subtitles.

Other work

Ochota featured as a model in several commercials including

Kellogg's The Kellogg Company, doing business as Kellogg's, is an American multinational food manufacturing company headquartered in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States. Kellogg's produces cereal and convenience foods, including crackers and toaste ...

Special K Special K is an American brand of breakfast cereal and meal bars manufactured by Kellogg's. The cereal was introduced to the United States in 1955. It is made primarily from grains such as lightly toasted rice, wheat and barley. Special K used ...

. She has been chairman and interviewer at the annual

Institute of Art and Ideas The Institute of Art and Ideas (IAI) is a British philosophy organisation founded in 2008. Overview Cambridge University described it as "engaged in changing the current cultural landscape through the pursuit and promotion of big ideas, boundary-p ...

Crunch arts festival and HowTheLightGetsIn Philosophy festival, blogs for ''

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 publis ...

'' and writes regularly for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' on countryside issues and outdoor activities. Her first book, published by Headline in 2013, in association with the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

and

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 ...

accompanied the TV series of the same name, ''Britain's Secret Treasures''. Ochota joined the

Clipper Round the World Yacht Race The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race is a biennial race that takes paying amateur crews on one or more legs of a circumnavigation of the globe in 11 specially-designed identical yachts owned by Clipper Ventures. Professional skippers and addi ...

in 2012 on Leg 8, racing ''Edinburgh Inspiring Capital'' from

Qingdao Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...

, China to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, USA. She sailed as a fully active crew member, and blogged for international adventure magazines whilst at sea. She has written about her love of the outdoors and adventure activities, including

wild camping Wild camping or dispersed camping is the act of camping in areas other than designated camping sites. Typically this means open countryside. This can form part of backpacking (hiking), or bikepacking, possibly along a long-distance trail. Cou ...

orienteering Orienteering is a group of sports that require navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain whilst moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a s ...

and UK

scuba diving Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chris ...

. Her second book, ''Hidden Histories: A Spotter's Guide to the British Landscape'', was published in 2016. She has raised funds for the

RNLI The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is the largest charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, as well as on some inland waterways. It i ...

, the mental health charity

Mind The mind is the set of faculties responsible for all mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will, and sensation. They are responsible for various m ...

, and Hope and Homes for Children. Ochota is a co-presenter (with Clive Anderson) on the

Smithsonian Channel The Smithsonian Channel is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through its media networks division under MTV Entertainment Group. It offers video content inspired by the Smithsonian Institution's museums, research facilit ...

series ''Mystic Britain''.

References

Notes ;Sources *

External links

Ochota's blogger profile at Independent Newspaper

Knight Ayton, Ochota's page

Britain's Secret Treasures book, written by Mary-Ann Ochota
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ochota, Mary Ann English television presenters British women television presenters English anthropologists British women anthropologists Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge English female models Living people 1981 births People educated at Sir John Deane's College People from Northwich English people of Indian descent English people of Polish descent 21st-century anthropologists 21st-century English women 21st-century English people