Claudia Winkleman
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Claudia Anne Irena Winkleman, born on January 15th, 1972, is a celebrated English broadcaster and writer. She's most recognized for her dynamic co-hosting of the BBC One dance competition, Strictly Come Dancing, a role she's held from 2010 to 2025. More recently, she's captivated audiences as the presenter of the gripping BBC One reality series, The Traitors, a performance that earned her a BAFTA award in 2023. Beyond television, Winkleman also graced the airwaves with her Saturday mid-morning show on BBC Radio 2, from 2020 to 2024.
Born into a Jewish family in London, Claudia's early life was shaped by her parents, author Eve Pollard and journalist Barry Winkleman. Growing up in Hampstead, her parents' divorce at age three led to remarriages, introducing her to step-siblings, including actress Sophie Winkleman and her brother Oliver. Her education began at the City of London School for Girls, followed by a degree in art history from New Hall, Cambridge.
Winkleman's broadcast journey began in 1992, with frequent appearances on the BBC series Holiday, which even led to a globe-trotting documentary. She also lent her interviewing skills to shows like This Morning, and in the late 90s, she honed her presenting talents on various digital channels and a stint on L!VE TV. She hosted a range of programs, including the dating show Three's a Crowd, Talking Telephone Numbers, and the children's Saturday morning show Tricky.
Her first significant television role came in 2001 with Central Weekend. From 2002 to 2004, she anchored BBC Three's entertainment update show, Liquid News, sharing duties with co-presenters and conducting celebrity interviews. In 2003, she presented daily updates for Fame Academy and later for its celebrity version, Comic Relief Does Fame Academy. She also co-hosted the reality show The House of Tiny Tearaways and took the helm of Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two, offering in-depth analysis of the main competition.
Throughout 2007 to 2012, Winkleman fronted numerous prime-time programs. She hosted Comic Relief Does Fame Academy, co-presented the Eurovision Dance Contest, and was involved in the UK's Eurovision selection process. She also covered the Oscars for Sky Movie Premiere, offering live, all-night coverage. Her sharp wit and engaging personality made her a popular guest on panel and talk shows, and she narrated the BBC Three documentary series Glamour Girls. In 2009, she hosted ITV1's Hell's Kitchen and stepped in to present backstage on Strictly Come Dancing. In 2010, she became a co-presenter for the Film programme, lauded for her passionate advocacy of cinema.
From 2013 onwards, Winkleman took on new challenges. She presented the BBC Two sewing competition, The Great British Sewing Bee, until 2016. She also appeared on The Big Fat Anniversary Quiz and shared a personal story about a Halloween costume incident on Watchdog, which led to tighter safety standards. In 2016, she hosted a BBC special with Michael Bublé and, from 2018, presented Britain's Best Home Cook and The Makeover Show. Her hosting of The Biggest Weekend on BBC Two and BBC Radio 2 in May 2018 further showcased her versatility. In 2022, she embraced the role of host for the highly successful BBC reality gameshow, The Traitors UK, returning for subsequent series and a much-anticipated Celebrity Traitors UK. In 2023, she hosted Channel 4's The Piano, a competition show that gave amateur pianists a platform, and the show was renewed for further series and specials.
Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two, a companion show devised to run alongside the main competition, was originally hosted by Winkleman from its inception. In 2011, Zoe Ball took over, but Winkleman returned to the Strictly fold in 2010 as co-host of the Sunday night results show alongside Tess Daly. Following Bruce Forsyth's departure in 2014, her role expanded to include the main show. In October 2025, Winkleman and Daly announced their departure from the show.
Her writing career began as a travel writer for The Sunday Times and The Independent, and later Metro. As her broadcasting career progressed, her writing evolved to opinion-led lifestyle journalism for publications like Cosmopolitan and Tatler. Between 2005 and 2008, she penned a weekly column for The Independent titled "Take It From Me."
On the radio, Winkleman hosted the six-part comedy quiz series Hot Gossip in 2008. She also hosted Claudia Winkleman's Arts Show on BBC Radio 2, featuring interviews and discussions on the arts. She filled in for Dermot O'Leary and Ken Bruce on several occasions. In April 2016, she launched her own Sunday night show on BBC Radio 2, Claudia on Sunday, which later ended due to the COVID pandemic. In November 2020, she took over Graham Norton's Saturday mid-morning slot on BBC Radio 2, with her last show broadcast in March 2024.
Winkleman has actively participated in charitable causes. She answered telephones for the Disasters Emergency Committee in 2007, supported The National Missing Persons Campaign, and contributed to Refuge's campaign against domestic violence. In 2008, she took part in a stand against excessive airbrushing in Heat magazine. She was a presenter for BBC's Comic Relief in 2011 and served as a judge and host for the FilmNation shorts at the British Film Institute in 2012. In March 2025, she was appointed a trustee of the British Museum, expressing her honor and hope to contribute to its mission.
In her personal life, Claudia Winkleman married film producer Kris Thykier in June 2000, and they have three children. A deeply personal incident occurred on October 31st, 2014, when her eight-year-old daughter was severely injured when her Halloween costume caught fire, prompting government action on costume safety standards. Her half-sister, Sophie, is married to Lord Frederick Windsor, a member of the British royal family.
In recognition of her contributions, Winkleman was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2025 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting.
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Claudia Anne Irena Winkleman (born 15 January 1972) is an English broadcaster and writer. She is best known for co-presenting the BBC One dance competition Strictly Come Dancing (2010–2025) and presenting BBC One reality series The Traitors (2022–present), the latter for which she won her first BAFTA award in 2023. Winkleman also hosted her Saturday mid-morning show on BBC Radio 2 from 2020 to 2024.
== Early life ==
Claudia Anne Irena Winkleman was born into a Jewish family in the Westminster district of London on 15 January 1972, the daughter of author and journalist Eve Pollard and her husband Barry Winkleman. She grew up in the Hampstead area of London.
Her parents divorced when she was three, and both had re-married by the time she was seven. Her mother married newspaper editor Sir Nicholas Lloyd, while her father married children's author Cindy Black. Her father's marriage to Black gave a sister, actress Sophie Winkleman, who would later marry Lord Frederick Windsor. Her mother's marriage to Lloyd gave her a brother, Oliver.
Winkleman was educated at the City of London School for Girls before attending New Hall, Cambridge, where she graduated in art history.
== Career ==
=== Television ===
==== 1991–2000 ====
In 1992, Winkleman began appearing frequently in the long-running BBC series Holiday, and this continued throughout the mid-1990s. This culminated in a special documentary in which she travelled around the world for 34 days, reporting from Japan, India, Costa Rica and Dubai. Throughout this period, she appeared as a reporter on other shows, particularly This Morning, interviewing various celebrities. During the late 1990s, Winkleman presented a number of programmes on smaller digital channels. She had a stint on the cable channel L!VE TV, but soon left to pursue other projects. In 1996, Winkleman hosted Granada programmes God's Gift (taking over from Davina McCall) and Pyjama Party (co-hosted with Katie Puckrik and Michelle Kelly).
Winkleman also presented a number of gameshows, including the dating show Three's a Crowd, LWT show Talking Telephone Numbers, the second series of Granada TV show God's Gift, and Fanorama. In 1997 she was the co-host of children's Saturday morning TV show Tricky. She was also an occasional team captain on a gameshow called HeadJam, hosted by Vernon Kay.
==== 2001–2006 ====
Winkleman's first major television job was in 2001, on the regional discussion programme Central Weekend. Between 2002 and 2004, Winkleman began her first daily television role when she hosted the BBC Three Entertainment update show Liquid News, taking over from Christopher Price on the now defunct BBC Choice. She shared the presenting duties with Colin Paterson, and later Paddy O'Connell. The show featured celebrity interviews.
In 2003, Fame Academy appointed Winkleman to present a daily update show on BBC Three, in conjunction with its second series. She repeated the show in 2005 for the much shorter celebrity version Comic Relief Does Fame Academy. Also in 2005, Winkleman co-hosted The House of Tiny Tearaways, a BBC Three reality TV show. She also began hosting Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two, a supplementary programme to Strictly Come Dancing, taking over from Justin Lee-Collins.
Winkleman then presented several more reality shows, including End of Story and Art School.
==== 2007–2012 ====
Winkleman presented many prime time programmes. In 2007, she took over from Cat Deeley as the main host for the third series of Comic Relief Does Fame Academy, co-hosting with Patrick Kielty. She co-hosted the inaugural Eurovision Dance Contest 2007 alongside Graham Norton for BBC One in September of that year, and again in 2008. She co-presented the UK selection process for the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 called Eurovision: Your Decision, this time accompanied by Eurovision stalwart Terry Wogan. In March 2008, Winkleman rekindled her partnership with Kielty when the pair hosted the final leg of Sport Relief 2008.
In 2007, Winkleman was the face of Sky Movie Premiere's coverage of the 79th Academy Awards, repeating it for the 80th Academy Awards in 2008. The show was broadcast live in conjunction with the ceremony itself, running right through the night into the early hours of the morning. Winkleman has made many guest appearances on panel and talk shows, including Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Would I Lie to You?, Have I Got News for You, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and Lily Allen and Friends. In February 2008, she appeared on the British version of the comedy improvisational show Thank God You're Here, hosted by Paul Merton.
Winkleman narrated the 2008 BBC Three show Glamour Girls, a documentary series about glamour modelling in Britain.
In March 2009, Winkleman was announced as the host of the new series of Hell's Kitchen on ITV1. She fronted the nightly show live from the restaurant in East London in its fourth series in the spring. On 14 November 2009, she appeared on the main show of Strictly Come Dancing to present backstage, due to main presenter Bruce Forsyth being on sick leave. She co-hosted the show with Tess Daly and guest presenter Ronnie Corbett.
On 29 March 2010, she was named as one of the new co-presenters of the Film programme, replacing Jonathan Ross. The Guardian stated, through her recent hosting of Sky Television's coverage of The Oscars, Winkleman had "proved both a passionate and engaging advocate of cinema", while her husband Kris Thykier is a film producer with credits on several mainstream releases.
==== 2013–present ====
On 2 April 2013, Winkleman began presenting the BBC Two sewing competition The Great British Sewing Bee, until 2016. The show went off air for 2017, but was brought back in 2018, with Joe Lycett replacing Winkleman as presenter.
In 2015, she appeared on The Big Fat Anniversary Quiz. In May 2015, she appeared on an episode of Watchdog on BBC One in which she discussed, during a segment on dangerous Halloween costumes, that the previous year her daughter had been badly burned when the costume she was wearing caught fire. In November 2016, Winkleman presented the one-off BBC special Bublé at the BBC with Michael Bublé.
From 2018, she presented Britain's Best Home Cook and The Makeover Show for BBC One. In May 2018, Winkleman co-presented The Biggest Weekend on BBC Two and BBC Radio 2.
In 2022, she assumed the hosting duties for the widely acclaimed BBC reality gameshow The Traitors UK, where contestants navigate challenges testing loyalty and deception in a thrilling competition. A second series was announced in February 2023, with Winkleman returning as host, premiering on 3 January 2024. Winkleman returned to host the third series, premiering on 1 January 2025, followed by a much awaited Celebrity Traitors UK series in October 2025.
In 2023, Winkleman hosted a five-part Channel 4 competition show The Piano, which gave amateur pianists the chance to perform at London's Royal Festival Hall. It was announced that the show had been renewed for a second and third series, a Christmas special, and a documentary focusing on the winner of the first series, Lucy Illingworth.
==== Strictly Come Dancing ====
Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two was devised as a companion show to run conjoined with the second series of Strictly Come Dancing, and continues to run to date. It follows a similar format to the one Winkleman made popular on Fame Academy, and sees the presenter deliberating and dissecting the ins and outs of the main competition, accompanied by an array of dance experts, assorted guests and the competitors themselves. The show is aired every weekday at 6:30 pm on BBC Two throughout the course of the series.
Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two was originally hosted by Winkleman since its inception. In 2011, former contestant Zoe Ball took over as host from Winkleman.
In 2010, Winkleman became co-host of the Sunday night results show of Strictly Come Dancing, presenting alongside Tess Daly. Following Bruce Forsyth's departure in 2014, her role expanded to include presenting the main show.
On 23 October 2025, Winkleman and Daly jointly announced that they would leave the show following completion of the latest series and the recording of the Christmas Special.
=== Writing ===
Winkleman started her journalism career as a travel writer, writing columns about her various worldwide excursions. She did so in The Sunday Times and The Independent, but also contributed to the free daily London paper Metro in a similar capacity. As her television career and family evolved, she travelled less, and began to write more general work, opinion-led lifestyle journalism about womanhood, sex and relationships. She wrote for Cosmopolitan and Tatler amongst others. Between 2005 and 2008, she wrote a regular weekly column for The Independent called Take It From Me.
=== Radio ===
In April and May 2008, Winkleman hosted a six-part comedy quiz series taking a humorous look into the week's celebrity gossip, called Hot Gossip. The show was broadcast on a Saturday afternoon on BBC Radio 2; points were awarded to those who dished out dirt. The show featured pundits including Will Smith, Phil Nichol, Jo Caulfield, Rufus Hound and Jonathan Ross' brother, Paul.
She hosted a weekly show on BBC Radio 2 every Friday night between 10pm and midnight called Claudia Winkleman's Arts Show, consisting of interviews with people from the arts world, as well as reviews and debate. In July 2010, Winkleman sat in for Dermot O'Leary. She covered for Ken Bruce on several occasions from 2012 until 2014.
In April 2016, she began presenting her own Sunday night show on BBC Radio 2 called Claudia on Sunday from 7 to 9pm. In June 2017, Winkleman covered for Steve Wright in the Afternoon from 2 to 5pm.
In 2020, Claudia on Sunday was displaced from the schedules and subsequently ended due to the COVID pandemic. It was announced on 23 November 2020 that Winkleman had taken over the Saturday mid-morning slot on BBC Radio 2 from Graham Norton. Winkleman's last Saturday morning show was broadcast on 23 March 2024, with Romesh Ranganathan taking over.
== Charity ==
In 2007, Winkleman answered telephones at the BT Tower for the Disasters Emergency Committee in response to humanitarian crisis in Darfur. In May 2007, she helped relaunch The National Missing Persons Campaign, and also supported a Christmas campaign by the charity Refuge, which aimed to stop domestic violence.
In June 2008, Winkleman was depicted in Heat magazine with no make-up on as part of a stand against the excessive airbrushing of prominent women, which she described as "pretty terrifying".
On 18 March 2011, Winkleman was one of the presenters of BBC's Comic Relief.
In 2012, Winkleman was one of the judges and the host of the FilmNation shorts at the British Film Institute, which, as part of the Cultural Olympiad for the 2012 Summer Olympics, encouraged people aged 14–25 to get involved in filmmaking.
In March 2025, Winkleman was appointed a trustee of the British Museum. She said of the appointment: "I am deeply honoured to join the Museum's Board of Trustees and hope that I can in some small way help it to continue its mission to curate, conserve and explain our history for the benefit and education of all."
== Personal life ==
In June 2000, Winkleman married film producer Kris Thykier at Marylebone Town Hall. They have three children together.
On 31 October 2014, Winkleman's eight-year-old daughter was taken to hospital after being seriously injured when her Halloween costume caught fire. Winkleman stated that the costume had brushed against a lit candle in a pumpkin. The incident prompted the UK government to tighten the flame retardant standards of Halloween costumes.
Her half-sister, Sophie, married into the British royal family when she became the wife of Lord Frederick Windsor, the son of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent.
== Honours and awards ==
Winkleman was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2025 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting.
=== Awards & nominations ===
== Filmography ==
=== Television ===
=== Radio ===
== References ==
== External links ==
Claudia Winkleman at IMDb
Claudia Winkleman on Twitter
Claudia Winkleman's column for The Independent
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