Chris Smith (newsreader)

Chris Smith
Born Christopher Smith
24 January
Kettering, England
Nationality British
Occupation Radio presenter
Employer BBC

Christopher Smith, known professionally as Chris Smith, is an English radio newsreader. He is most famous for presenting Newsbeat on BBC Radio 1 and co-hosting the That's What He Said Podcast alongside Greg James.

Early life

Smith was born in Kettering, England and grew up in Raunds,[1] where he was a Bus Prefect. His great grandfather was George Ernest Smith, who built and made the bricks for Selwyn College, Cambridge. He studied English at Queens University Belfast and was offered on-the-job training at a radio station afterwards.[2] Then, he started reading the news on air.

Radio

Smith first broadcast on Chiltern Radio in Dunstable, where he started as an intern and became trainee journalist afterwards. He then moved to the newly launched Heart 106.2 in London. He was the newsreader and cohost on the Christian O'Connell breakfast show on XFM London. When O'Connell moved to Virgin Radio (now Absolute Radio), Smith joined him. He left in 2007 and began reading the news on BBC Radio 1. He took over from Tulip Mazumdar as the regular afternoon newsreader in May 2011. These bulletins have been simulcast on BBC Radio 1Xtra since September 2012. He regularly presents both the 12:45 and 17:45 Newsbeat programmes.[3]

Smith joins Radio 1's Greg James Show regularly and takes part in a number of segments during the show, when he is free of Newsbeat duties. He takes part in various games, such as Mayor of Where and What's My Age Again. Smith is also co-host of the "Greg James - That's What He Said Podcast", that started in October 2013 and is released every Friday.[4] On the podcast, Smith has established himself as a singer/songwriter by writing, producing and singing 'The Ghost Owl' song and the theme tune to the game 'Mug on a Dog'.[5]

In March 2015, Chris travelled to Uganda alongside Greg, 1Xtra's Yasmin Evans and other celebrities including Alex Jones, Richard Hammond and Dermot O'Leary to participate in Comic Relief's Operation Health, a project to refurbish the Iyolwa Health Centre in eastern Uganda. Radio 1 listeners raised £551,405.[6][7][8]

Other work

Together with Greg James, Smith has written a children's book called "Kid Normal". It was published by Bloomsbury on the 13th July 2017 in the UK.[9] It was released in three languages, English, Spanish and German.[10]

Smith features on the George Michael song, "Outside". The track samples Smith reading the sentence "George Michael has been arrested in a park in Los Angeles" as part of a news bulletin.[11] His voice is also heard towards the end of the Bad Education Movie reading out a news story about the resignation of a fictitious Conservative Member of Parliament for Cornwall.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.northantstelegraph.co.uk/news/radio-1-s-chris-supports-church-campaign-1-4319955
  2. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/production/article/art20131118160239569
  3. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/production/article/art20131118160239569
  4. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02nrw8h
  5. ↑ https://soundcloud.com/chris-smith-582/the-ghost-owl
  6. ↑ http://www.comicrelief.com/news/comic-relief%E2%80%99s-operation-health-launches
  7. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3zNdDkhTzk76YYPrTDWSjMM/greg-yasmins-uganda-blog
  8. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b055knjy
  9. ↑ http://www.bloomsbury.com/in/kid-normal-9781408884522/
  10. ↑ http://www.thebookseller.com/news/bloomsbury-sells-kid-normal-foreign-rights-440961
  11. ↑ "How I featured on a George Michael song". Retrieved 2016-12-26.
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