Dawn O'Porter (born Dawn Porter; 23 January 1979) is a Scottish writer, director, and television presenter.

Early life

Dawn O'Porter was born in

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

, Scotland, and raised in

Guernsey Guernsey ( ; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; ) is the second-largest island in the Channel Islands, located west of the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy. It is the largest island in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, which includes five other inhabited isl ...

. She studied acting at the

Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts Liverpool is a port city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population of (in ), Liverpool is the administrative, cul ...

. In her third year decided that acting was not for her and did

work experience Work may refer to: * Work (human activity), intentional activity people perform to support themselves, others, or the community ** Manual labour, physical work done by humans ** House work, housework, or homemaking ** Working animal, an ani ...

on the television series '' Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned'' rather than participate in a school production. Porter's father is Scottish and lives in Scotland.

Television career

Porter attempted to slim down to a

size zero Size zero or size 0 is a dress size, women's clothing size in the US catalog sizes system. Size 0 and 00 were invented due to increasing body sizes and therefore the changing of clothing sizes over time (referred to as vanity sizing or size infla ...

by using drastic dieting regimes for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

documentary '' Super Slim Me''. Porter presented the product-testing section of '' How to Look Good Naked'' on Channel 4. In 2008, Porter presented a

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

series of four documentary films, ''Dawn...'' (14 February–6 March), exploring attitudes to

nudity Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. While estimates vary, for the first 90,000 years of pre-history, anatomically modern humans were naked, having lost their body hair, living in hospitable climates, and not ...

lesbianism A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homo ...

dating Dating is a stage of Romance (love), romantic relationships in which individuals engage in activity together, often with the intention of evaluating each other's suitability as a partner in a future intimate relationship. It falls into the cate ...

and

pregnancy Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring gestation, gestates inside a woman's uterus. A multiple birth, multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Conception (biology), Conception usually occurs ...

(including

childbirth Childbirth, also known as labour, parturition and delivery, is the completion of pregnancy, where one or more Fetus, fetuses exits the Womb, internal environment of the mother via vaginal delivery or caesarean section and becomes a newborn to ...

). Porter appeared in ''Seriously Dirty Dancing'', a tribute to her favourite film ''

Dirty Dancing ''Dirty Dancing'' is a 1987 American romance film, romantic drama film, drama Dance in film, dance film written by Eleanor Bergstein, produced by Linda Gottlieb, and directed by Emile Ardolino. Starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, it tel ...

'', for Channel 5. Later that year, she made a four-part series called ''Extreme Wife'' for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

. In the first programme, ''Dawn Porter: Free Lover'' (30 September 2008), Porter travelled to

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, California, to investigate

polyamory Polyamory () is the practice of, or the desire for, romantic relationships with more than one partner at the same time, with the informed consent of all partners involved. Some people who identify as polyamorous believe in consensual non-mon ...

, then she travelled to former Germany to visit ZEGG in

Belzig Bad Belzig (), until 2010 Belzig, is a historic town in Brandenburg, Germany located about southwest of Berlin. It is the capital of the Potsdam-Mittelmark district. Geography Bad Belzig is located within the Fläming hill range and in the cent ...

, a German

free love Free love is a social movement that accepts all forms of love. The movement's initial goal was to separate the State (polity), state from sexual and romantic matters such as marriage, birth control, and adultery. It stated that such issues we ...

commune. The programme highlighted the world of free love, such as ritual sensuous oil sessions with naked people covered in warm olive oil, and included discussions with the people who lived in the commune. It premiered with 1.75m viewers (10.7% share). In the second programme, ''Dawn Porter: Mail Order Bride'' (7 October 2008), Porter travelled to

Odesa Odesa, also spelled Odessa, is the third most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern ...

, Ukraine, with a group of American men in their search for a partner. The third programme, ''Dawn Porter: Geisha Girl'' (14 October 2008), saw Porter travel to

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

, Japan, and spend a week in a

geisha {{Culture of Japan, Traditions, Geisha {{nihongo, Geisha{{efn, {{IPAc-en, lang, ˈ, ɡ, eɪ, ., ʃ, ə, {{IPA, ja, ɡei.ɕa, ɡeː-, lang{{cite book, script-title=ja:NHK日本語発音アクセント新辞典, publisher=NHK Publishing, editor= ...

house. In the fourth and final programme, ''Dawn Porter: Polygamist's Wife'' (21 October 2008), Porter investigated women who are prepared to share their husbands with other women. This included a stay in Centennial Park,

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, US. In February 2009, Porter narrated the

series '' Undercover Princes.'' In May 2009, it was announced that Porter would present a documentary, ''The Booby Trap'', exploring breast cancer, for

Sky1 Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non- terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989 ...

. The show aired on 6–7 July 2009, under the title ''My Breasts Could Kill Me''. It premiered with 181,000 viewers (0.9% share). Porter has her own television production company Hot Patootie TV. On 11 November 2011, Porter made an appearance in '' Derren Brown – The Experiments'' entitled "The Secret of Luck" and later filmed six episodic advertisements for Andrex Washlets. She appeared in E4 drama '' Skins'' and has appeared on the television show '' Balls of Steel''. In 2012, Porter organised an

Oxfam Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent non-governmental organizations (NGOs), focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International. It began as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief ...

"get together" alongside friend Gemma Cairney, and raised money for Oxfam by selling clothing previously owned by celebrities. In 2014 Porter hosted and co-produced a series for Channel 4 called ''This Old Thing'' exploring vintage clothing. Porter hosts ''Soul Food'' on Munchies for Vice.

Writing career

O'Porter writes for many publications, on feminism and aspects of women's lifestyle. In 2006, she published '' Diaries of an Internet Lover''. In May 2013, she released her first novel, ''Paper Aeroplanes'', the fictional tale of an intense female friendship loosely inspired by her own childhood in Guernsey. Her publication, ''The Cows'', was released in 2016 and has since been featured on the Sunday Times Best Sellers list. In October 2019, HarperCollins published her novel, ''So Lucky''. In October 2022, HarperCollins published another of her novels, ''Cat Lady.''

Charity work

O'Porter was one of the founding members of the charity Help Refugees (now called Choose Love).

Personal life

In August 2012, Porter married Chris O'Dowd and changed her name to Dawn O'Porter. In January 2015, O'Porter gave birth to a son. In 2017, O'Porter gave birth to a second son.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Oporter, Dawn 1979 births Living people British television presenters British television producers British women television producers Alumni of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts British expatriates in the United States People from Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire Guernsey writers