Gemma Cairney (born 19 March 1985) is an English television and radio presenter best known for her work on

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 ...

and

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 onl ...

. She most recently presented '' The Leisure Society'' on

where she interviewed cultural icons including

Goldie Clifford Joseph Price MBE (born 19 September 1965), better known as Goldie, is a British music producer and DJ. Initially gaining exposure for his work as a graffiti artist, Goldie became well known for his pioneering role as a musician in ...

Tracey Emin Tracey Karima Emin, CBE, RA (; born 3 July 1963) is a British artist known for her autobiographical and confessional artwork. Emin produces work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, neon text and ...

, Kelley Deal, Laurie Vincent from

Slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

and

Cosey Fanni Tutti Cosey Fanni Tutti (born Christine Carol Newby; 4 November 1951) is an English performance artist, musician and writer, best known for her time in the avant-garde groups Throbbing Gristle and Chris & Cosey. Tutti first performed under the name ...

. Previously she co-hosted ''

The Surgery ''The Surgery'' was a British radio show that aired on BBC Radio 1 weekly from 1999 to 2017. It was most recently hosted by Katie Thistleton and Doctor Radha Modgil, prior to its merger in November 2017 with a new show entitled '' Radio 1's ...

'' alongside Radha Modgil. She has also presented ''Gemma Cairney'' on BBC Radio 1 weekends 7am10am and later weekdays 4am6:30am, switching with

Dev Dev, sometimes capitalized as DEV, can be referred as: People Single names * Dev (born 1982), Indian actor * Dev (born 1984), British radio presenter, DJ and actor * Dev (born 1989), American singer * Dev, Indian actor First names * Dev Anand (19 ...

. More recently she has regularly covered for Lauren Laverne, Mary Ann Hobbs,

Chris Hawkins Christopher Charles Hawkins (born 23 September 1975) is a British radio presenter, DJ, and music pundit. Hawkins is a regular early morning presenter on BBC Radio 6 Music. He can also be heard presenting documentary programmes on BBC Radio 4 ...

Steve Lamacq Stephen Paul Lamacq (born 16 October 1964), sometimes known by his nickname Lammo (given to him by John Peel), is an English disc jockey, currently working with the BBC radio station BBC Radio 6 Music. Early life He attended The Ramsey Academ ...

Cerys Matthews Cerys Matthews (; born 11 April 1969) is a Welsh singer, songwriter, author, and broadcaster. She was a founding member of Welsh rock band Catatonia and a leading figure in the " Cool Cymru" movement of the late 1990s. Matthews programmes an ...

and

Craig Charles Craig Joseph Charles (born 11 July 1964) is an English actor, comedian, television and radio presenter. He is best known for his roles as Dave Lister in the science fiction sitcom ''Red Dwarf'' and Lloyd Mullaney in the soap opera ''Coronation ...

on BBC Radio 6 Music. Cairney is also an

Oxfam Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International. History Founded at 17 Broad Street, Oxford, as the Oxford Co ...

ambassador.

Early career and radio presenting

Prior to her career in radio, she was an assistant fashion stylist for multiple pop acts. Cairney was a presenter for the Channel 4 Produced Ad funded show called Bite for Ford Fiesta. Then, following a course at Point Blank Music College Cairney fronted several radio shows for Channel 4's

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

before landing the role of co-presenter for

Big Brother's Big Ears 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 ...

for Big Brother 2008 alongside

Iain Lee Iain Lee (born Iain Lee Rougvie; 9 June 1973) is an English broadcaster, writer, and former television presenter and stand-up comedian who hosts the phone-in talk show '' The Late Night Alternative'' on "pay to view" Patreon. Lee's career bega ...

. Cairney began her 1Xtra career co-hosting the Breakfast Show with co-presenter Trevor Nelson. Prior to starting on BBC Radio 1Xtra, she co-presented the Kiss FM breakfast show for two weeks in August 2008. She co-presented the BBC Radio 1Xtra breakfast show for 2 years before moving to a solo weekday afternoon show on the station from 14pm. In February 2012, it was announced that Cairney would take over Weekend Breakfast on BBC Radio 1.

Sarah-Jane Crawford Sarah-Jane Crawford is an English television and radio presenter, actress, voice-over artist, and DJ best known for her radio work with Hits Radio and formerly with BBC Radio 1Xtra, and television work with E! Network (which she is currentl ...

took over her slot on 1Xtra. On 10 January 2014, Radio 1 announced a schedule change that would see Cairney and early weekday morning show host

swap shows. They swapped on 29 March 2014. In April 2015 it was announced that Cairney would take over The Surgery on Wednesday evenings from former presenter Aled Haydn Jones and that Adele Roberts would replace her as the early breakfast show host. These changes took effect in June 2015. Cairney has presented a number of radio documentaries, including ''Amazing Grace'' (2015), ''What the F: the Story of Feminism'' (2014), ''Mali Music'' (2014),''Tempted by Teacher'' (2014) and ''Bruising Silence'' (2013). In January 2015, Cairney started a production company called Boom Shakalaka Productions Ltd. The company specialises in making various types of content, including podcasts and theatre. Boom Shakalaka produced a successful punk musical about depression at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2015 called ''My Beautiful Black Dog''. and a radio documentary for the BBC ''It's a Dogs Life''. In autumn 2008 and spring 2010 Cairney was the roving reporter for T4's Frock Me, hosting alongside

Alexa Chung Alexa Chung (born 5 November 1983) is a British television presenter, model, internet personality, writer, and fashion designer. She wrote the book ''It'' (2013). Her fashion label Alexa Chung, stylized , launched in May 2017 and closed in 2022 ...

and Henry Holland. Other TV appearances have included reaching second place on Pick Me

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

and a regular slot as a co-presenter of

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

's online series ''Bite''. In November 2010 she was a guest panellist 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, ...

's I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here Now! Cairney also hosted the television coverage of 1Xtra's live music events and contributed to the BBC's

Glastonbury Glastonbury (, ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbur ...

coverage. In October 2010 Cairney fronted the Turn Up The Style, Turn Down The Heat campaign for green organisation Global Cool at Britain's Next Top Model Live in London.

Television

Since 2008 Cairney has presented the BBC's Glastonbury festival coverage and in 2015 she co-hosted BBC1's New Year's Eve coverage alongside Nick Grimshaw. Cairney has also presented TV documentaries including ''Riots: The Aftershock'' (2012), ''Dying for Clear Skin'' (2012) on

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, cur ...

and ''Books That Made Britain'' (2016) 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, ...

Book

On 9 March 2017, Cairney's debut book, ''Open: A Toolkit for How Magic and Messed Up Life Can Be'' was published by PanMacmillan with an accompanying podcast series. The Paperback, ''Open Your Heart: Learn to Love Your Life and Love Yourself'' was published by PanMacmillan on 11 January 2018.

Writing

Cairney has a weekly column in

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...

magazine, Gemma Cairney on Make-Up.

Awards

Cairney won the Rose D’or Award for Best Music Programme and the Silver Winner for Best Music Special at the New York's Festivals World's Best Radio Programs for ''Amazing Grace'' on

presented by Gemma Cairney & produced by Jax Coombes. She is also a Silver Award Winner for Best Music Special at the New York's Festivals World's Best Radio Programs for

's ''Mali Music'' presented by Gemma Cairney & produced by Jax Coombes. In 2014 Gemma was given A Women to Watch Under 30 Award at Red Magazine's Women Of The Year Awards. She was awarded Sony Gold awards at the

Radio Academy Awards The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academ ...

for documentaries ''Tempted by Teacher'' (2014) and ''Bruising Silence'' (2013).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cairney, Gemma Living people Black British radio presenters BBC Radio 1 presenters 1985 births People from Birmingham, West Midlands People from Horsham BBC Radio 1Xtra presenters Fashion stylists English people of Kenyan descent