Natalie Jane Pinkham (born 20 September 1977) is a British television presenter and

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

pit lane reporter for

Sky Sports F1 Sky Sports F1 is a television channel created exclusively for Sky's UK and Ireland coverage of Formula One, with Sky having a package of rights from the 2012 season to the 2029 season. From 2012 to 2029, Sky Sports F1 has the exclusive rights ...

, having held the same post for

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadcasting of sports events, covering sport in ...

in 2011. She is also known for hosting '' Police Interceptors Special Edition'' on 5*. She appeared on ''

Live from Studio Five ''Live from Studio Five'' was an early-evening British magazine programme produced by Sky News for Channel 5. It was presented by Kate Walsh and a lineup of co-presenters. It featured interviews and discussions on topical issues, emphasizing sh ...

'' as a guest presenter and was a regular panellist on ''

The Wright Stuff ''The Wright Stuff'' is a British television chat show which was hosted by former tabloid journalist Matthew Wright from 2000 until 2018. It aired on Channel 5 on weekday mornings from 9:15 to 11:15am. The series characterised itself as "Br ...

''.

Early life and education

Pinkham was born in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-e ...

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and givin ...

mother Joy, and

property developer Real estate development, or property development, is a business process, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and re-lease of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of developed land or parcels to others. R ...

John, Natalie and her older DJ brother Sam, who presents the early morning show for

Virgin Radio Virgin Radio launched in the United Kingdom in 1993. In 2008, Virgin Radio UK was sold to TIML, a subsidiary of The Times of India group, and the name was changed to Absolute Radio; the Virgin Radio name was not included in the sale. In 2001, ...

, were raised at the family home in

Northants Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is kn ...

. Pinkham was educated at Queenswood School, an independent

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of " room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exte ...

with fellow presenter and friend

Georgie Thompson Georgina Jane Ainslie, Lady Ainslie (born 25 September 1977), better known as Georgie Thompson, is an English television presenter. Education Thompson was educated at Queenswood School, an independent boarding school for girls near Hatfield ...

; and then as a day girl at

Rugby School Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. ...

, before studying politics at the

University of Nottingham , mottoeng = A city is built on wisdom , established = 1798 – teacher training college1881 – University College Nottingham1948 – university status , type = Public , chancellor ...

. A capable 800m runner, she gave up the event to study at university.

Career

After graduation, she joined

Endemol Endemol B.V. was a Dutch-based media company that produced and distributed multiplatform entertainment content. The company annually produced more than 15,000 hours of programming across scripted and non-scripted genres, including drama, reality ...

as a researcher on

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 a ...

's ''

Ready Steady Cook ''Ready Steady Cook'' is a BBC daytime TV cooking game show. It debuted on 24 October 1994 and the last original edition was broadcast on 2 February 2010. The programme was hosted by Fern Britton from 1994 until 2000 when celebrity chef Ainsley ...

'', and then as an assistant producer on ''

International King of Sports International King of Sports is a multi-sport competition held yearly. The events were unusual sports rarely undertaken outside of this competition and were often variants of standard track and field sports. Adam Horder (AUS) was the winner in ...

''. She then worked for IMG/TWI as an assistant producer on ''

Superstars A superstar is a widely acclaimed celebrity. Superstar or superstars may also refer to: People * Warhol superstars, the associates of Andy Warhol * WWE Superstar, a branding term referring to a WWE wrestler * Superstar Billy Graham (born 1943) ...

''. Moving in front of the camera, she hosted the

Isle of Man TT The Isle of Man TT or Tourist Trophy races are an annual motorcycle racing event run on the Isle of Man in May/June of most years since its inaugural race in 1907. The event is often called one of the most dangerous racing events in the world ...

races for

Men and Motors Men & Motors was a men's lifestyle television channel in the UK. It was the last remaining station operated by the former Granada Sky Broadcasting joint venture, set up by Granada Television (now part of ITV plc) and satellite broadcaster Britis ...

, reported from the

Tennis Masters Cup The ATP Finals is the season-ending championship of the ATP Tour. It is the most significant event in the annual ATP calendar after the four majors as it features the top-eight singles players and top-eight doubles teams based on their results th ...

in the United States for Sky Sports and fronted Chelsea F.C.'s ''Blues News''. Pinkham co-hosted

ITV4 ITV4 is a British free-to-air television channel which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV network. The channel has a line-up that consists of sports, cult clas ...

's ''World Cuppa'' with

Absolute Radio Absolute Radio is a British National radio station owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Absolute Radio Network. It broadcasts nationally across the UK via Digital audio broadcasting and on 1215 kHz MW. History 1993–1997: Vi ...

Christian O'Connell Christian Liam O'Connell (born 7 April 1973 in Winchester, Hampshire) is a British radio disc jockey, television host, writer, and comedian living in Australia. He presents ''The Christian O'Connell Show'' on weekday mornings on Gold 104.3 in ...

and

BBC Radio Five Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcas ...

's Steve Bunce during the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...

; whilst also presenting an internet World Cup show for ''Nobok Sports'' site. In recent years Pinkham has also hosted the International Rugby Awards with

Joel Stransky Joel Theodore Stransky (born 16 July 1967) is a South African former rugby union player. A fly-half, he is known for scoring all of South Africa's points, including the winning drop goal, against New Zealand in the 1995 Rugby World Cup final. ...

in 2004; the SALSA fashion show in 2004 with

Craig Doyle Craig Doyle (born 17 December 1970, Dublin) is an Irish television and radio presenter. To British viewers he is recognisable as working for the BBC and ITV and more recently BT Sport. Irish viewers also know him as the host of RTÉ One cha ...

; GOAL's Aura of Asia fundraising event with

Liz Bonnin Elizabeth Bonnin (born 16 September 1976) is a French science, wildlife and natural history presenter, who has worked on television in both Ireland and the United Kingdom. She presented morning show '' RI:SE'' and music show ''Top of the Pops'' ...

in 2005 and Extreme Sports Channel's coverage of the

Euro Beach Soccer League The Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL) is the premier competition in beach soccer contested between European men's national teams. The competition has been held annually since its establishment in 1998, making it the oldest beach soccer tournament in ...

and the Beach Soccer World Cup Draw with

Eric Cantona Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona (; ; born 24 May 1966) is a French actor, director, producer, and former professional footballer. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation, Cantona is credited as having made Manchester United a d ...

in 2006. Along with ITV Fixers 'The Big Fix', The Salon Prive dinner and the Boodles Tennis Invitational, all in 2010. Pinkham has also been a poker presenter, becoming the face of '' The Poker Channel'' for two years - hosting the British Poker Open, the

World Cup of Poker The World Cup of Poker (WCP) was an annual poker tournament which was established in 2004. The preliminary rounds are conducted online, and the finals were initially held in Barcelona, Spain, but since 2009, they have been moved to the Atlantis ...

, The Scandinavian Poker Awards with

Mads Mikkelsen Mads Dittmann Mikkelsen, (; born 22 November 1965) is a Danish actor. Originally a gymnast and dancer, he rose to fame in Denmark as an actor for his roles such as Tonny in the first two films of the ''Pusher'' film trilogy (1996, 2004), D ...

in 2007 and a ''How to Play Poker'' DVD for

Virgin Games Virgin Interactive Entertainment (later renamed Avalon Interactive) was the video game publishing division of British conglomerate the Virgin Group. It developed and published games for major platforms and employed developers, including Westwoo ...

. She also penned interviews with some of the world's top pros and filmed the

European Poker Tour The European Poker Tour (EPT) is a series of poker tournaments similar to those in the World Poker Tour (WPT), created by John Duthie, winner of the inaugural Poker Million tournament. It began in 2004 as part of the worldwide explosion in Tex ...

for Challenge and

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through its international sports unit, it operates two main channels— Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territorie ...

. Scheduled to present

Heart London History Heart London is a regional radio station owned and operated by Global Radio as part of the Heart network. It broadcasts a hot adult contemporary radio format. Across London and its neighbouring counties, it can be heard on 106.2 MHz. ...

's Friday evening show from January 2008, on 7 January 2008 it was officially announced that she would be competing in

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for t ...

's ''

Dancing on Ice ''Dancing on Ice'' is a British television series presented by Phillip Schofield alongside Holly Willoughby from 2006 to 2011, who then returned in 2018, and Christine Bleakley from 2012 to 2014. The series features celebrities and their prof ...

,'' partnered with Russian

Andrei Lipanov Professional skaters from the British television show ''Dancing on Ice'' are figure skaters who appear with celebrities in front of a panel of judges. Most of the professionals on the series are former ice dancers or pair skaters. Competit ...

and being taught to skate by ice legends Torvill and Dean. Pinkham was reported to earn £35,000 for taking part but exited in Week 2 on 20 January 2008 after a skate-off with ex-''

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Te ...

'' presenter

Tim Vincent Tim Vincent (born Timothy Russell Walker; 4 November 1972) is a Welsh actor and television presenter. He appeared on the children's programme ''Blue Peter'' between 1993 and 1997 and has presented several Miss World contests. For several years, ...

and his partner

Viktoria Borzenkova Viktoria Vitalyevna Borzenkova (russian: Виктория Витальевна Борзенкова; born 25 December 1981) is a Russian former Pair skating, pair skater. With Andrei Chuvilaev, she won the 2001 and 2003 Figure skating at the Wint ...

. In 2009, Pinkham co-hosted The

Goodwood Festival of Speed The Goodwood Festival of Speed is an annual motorsports festival featuring modern and historic motor racing vehicles taking part in a hill climb and other events, held in the grounds of Goodwood House, West Sussex, England, in late June o ...

with

Steve Rider Stephen Rider (born 28 April 1950) is an English sports presenter, and was the anchorman of ITV's football coverage. He anchored ITV's Formula One coverage from 2006 to 2008, and football coverage from 2006 to April 2010. He was the lead presen ...

and in 2009 and 2010 co-hosted The

Goodwood Revival The Goodwood Revival is a three-day festival held each September at Goodwood Circuit since 1998 for the types of racing cars and motorcycles that would have competed during the circuit's original period—1948–1966. History The first Revival t ...

with

and

Ben Fogle Benjamin Myer Fogle, (born 3 November 1973) is an English broadcaster, writer and adventurer, best known for his presenting roles with British television channels Channel 5, BBC and ITV. Early life Fogle is the son of English actress Juli ...

, respectively. In 2010, Pinkham guest presented Channel 5's ''

'' and continued to be a regular panelist on ''

''. She also hosted the World Series of Poker Europe for ESPN. Pinkham wrote regular pieces for the ''Mail on Sunday'' in the Health, Travel and Review sections. It was confirmed on 13 January 2011 that Pinkham was to join

Formula 1 Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

commentary team as a pit lane reporter for the 2011 season - a role she took up beginning with the

2011 Australian Grand Prix The 2011 Australian Grand Prix (formally the 2011 Formula 1 Qantas Australian Grand Prix) was a Formula One motor race held on 27 March 2011 at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne. It was the 76th race in the combined history of the Australian Gr ...

.Natalie Pinkham joins Radio 5 Live Formula 1 team
13 January 2011. BBC. In December 2011, it was announced she was working for Sky Sports covering the 2012 F1 season. Her main role for the 2012 season was pit reporting throughout the practice sessions, qualifying and the race alongside other commitments like interviews. For 2013, she replaced close friend Georgie Thompson as host of ''The F1 Show'' and over following years has become a key member of the

team. In 2021, Pinkham became the first woman to commentate on a Formula One session on British television when she led Sky's commentary of first practice at the

2021 Bahrain Grand Prix The 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2021) was a Formula One race which was held on 28 March 2021 at the Bahrain International Circuit, a motor racing circuit in the west of Bahrain. It se ...

, working alongside

Karun Chandhok Karun Chandhok (born 19 January 1984) is an Indian racing driver and television presenter who last competed in Formula E for Mahindra Racing. Previously, Chandhok has competed for Hispania Racing in Formula One in . Before this, he drove in t ...

and

Jenson Button Jenson Alexander Lyons Button (born 19 January 1980) is a British racing driver. He won the 2009 Formula One World Championship when he drove for the Brawn GP team. After his F1 career, he became champion of the 2018 season of the Super GT ...

. In February 2023, she presented the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team car launch alongside

Naomi Schiff Naomi Schiff (born 18 May 1994) is a Rwandan and Belgian racing driver and television presenter. She was born in Belgium, to a Belgian father and Rwandan mother, grew up in South Africa, and now lives in the United Kingdom. In 2020, Schiff ...

Personal life

Pinkham is married to Owain Walbyoff, who is Managing Director at

Games. In November 2010 the couple became engaged, and married in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

in July 2012. On 17 January 2015, Pinkham gave birth to their first child, a son named Wilfred Otto Walbyoff. On 20 June 2016, she gave birth to their second child, a daughter named Willow Mirela Walbyoff. A keen fundraiser and campaigner, Pinkham is on the board of trustees for Access Sport and is an ambassador for her mother's charity KidsAid and the

Motor Neurone Disease Association The Motor Neurone Disease Association (MND Association) focuses on improving access to care, research and campaigning for those people living with or affected by motor neurone disease (MND) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. MND is also know ...

. She's also a patron for

Hope and Homes for Children Hope and Homes for Children (HHC) is a British registered charity operating and working with children, their families and communities in several countries in Central and Eastern Europe and Africa, to help children grow up in safe and productiv ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pinkham, Natalie Living people Alumni of the University of Nottingham British television presenters British radio presenters People educated at Queenswood School People educated at Rugby School 1976 births People from Buckinghamshire Sky Sports presenters and reporters Motorsport announcers