| Hardeep Singh Kohli | |
|---|---|
| Born | Hardeep Singh Kohli 23 January 1969 [1] London, England, United Kingdom |
| Nationality | British |
| Ethnicity | British Indian |
| Alma mater | University of Glasgow |
| Occupation | Broadcaster |
| Religion | Secular Sikh[2] |
| Spouse | Shamila (1990-2009) |
| Children | Son and daughter |
| Relatives | Sanjeev Kohli (brother) |
Hardeep Singh Kohli (born 23 January 1969[1]) is a British writer and radio and television presenter.
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Kohli was born in London and moved to Glasgow in Scotland when he was four.[3] His parents came to the UK from India in the 1960s. The family's roots lie in the Punjab. His mother was a social worker, and his father a teacher, then a property landlord.[3] His first school was Hillhead Primary School in the West End of Glasgow, after which he attended Meadowburn Primary. He briefly lived in Little Sutton in Cheshire.
At age eight, he moved to St. Aloysius College, a private Roman Catholic school in central Glasgow. Kohli gained eight As in his O-grades, and four As and a B in his Highers. He then studied Law at the University of Glasgow.[4]
While studying, Kohli managed a few restaurants and began working as an usher at the Citizens Theatre.[5]
After graduating, he joined the BBC Scotland graduate production trainee scheme.[6] He moved to BBC Television Centre, London to direct children's TV, and Janet Street Porter's series Reportage. He directed It'll Never Work, which won awards from the Royal Television Society and BAFTA.
Kohli left the corporation in 1996 to begin working independently.[7] He wrote, directed and starred in Channel 4's Meet the Magoons in 2004,[8] which was axed after one series after a poor reception. Nancy Banks Smith and A. A. Gill were lukewarm; however, the show was entered for a Golden Rose at the Montreux Comedy Festival. Kohli presented a documentary In Search of the Tartan Turban, which explored cultural identity as a Briton and a Scot belonging to an ethnic minority. The producers won a children's BAFTA and produced a brief Channel 4 daytime schools series, Hardeep Does... that covered a variety of different topical issues including sex, religion and pets.[9]
In January 2007, Kohli had a three-part series on Channel 4, £50 Says You'll Watch This, exploring gambling. The show involved Kohli taking part in a celebrity card game, visiting casinos in Las Vegas. In October 2006, February 2007 and January 2009 he appeared on the BBC political panel programme Question Time, and was an occasional presenter on Newsnight Review, Saturday Live on BBC Radio 4 and Loose Ends.
In May 2008 Kohli presented a cooking series for UKTV with John Torode.
Kohli participated in a celebrity edition of The Apprentice in order to raise money for charity.[10] Sport Relief Does The Apprentice was part of the BBC's annual charity initiative Sport Relief and aired on 12 and 14 March 2008. He was the first Celebrity Apprentice to be "fired". He also appeared on Gordon Ramsay: Cook Along Live. In September 2006, Kohli took part in the first series of BBC One's Celebrity MasterChef programme, reaching the final along with Roger Black and ultimate winner, Matt Dawson.
Kohli was the presenter for series two of CBBC game show Get 100. In 2008, he appeared in the Scottish segment of the BBC's Children in Need appeal, anchored by Jackie Bird and Des Clarke, and was a judge for the Man Booker Prize.
In June 2009 Kohli was one of five volunteers who took part in a BBC series of three programmes Famous, Rich and Homeless about living penniless on the streets of London.[11]
From 2007-2009 Kohli wrote Hardeep is your Love, a column for Scotland on Sunday,[12] on topics that mainly concerned food and family and being ashamed of enjoying Harry Potter.[13] Scotland on Sunday axed the feature in August 2009.
Kohli occasionally writes for The Guardian and The Independent. Kohli wrote a book about food and travel in India, Indian Takeaway. In August 2009 he performed a one man show, The Nearly Naked Chef (a reference to Jamie Oliver's The Naked Chef), at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.[14] The show received mixed reviews from local and national press. According to The Guardian, "the impression is of a man who has wrongly assumed that comedy is as easy as it looks. It isn't, as Kohli proves".[15]
In 2008, Kohli filmed a documentary about Scientology, mainly the so-called Free Zone, titled A Beginner's Guide to L. Ron Hubbard. The documentary is presented as a road trip, in which he travels from London via East Grinstead, Moscow and Munich to an undisclosed Russian location of a Ron's Org.
The father of two children - a boy and a girl,[16] he was divorced in 2009. His younger brother is the film and TV actor and writer Sanjeev Kohli.[3][17][18]
In February 2008, he was third out of four candidates in the election for Rector of the University of Glasgow.[19]
In June 2008, The Herald reported: "Properties owned and rented by comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli have been branded "grubby and dirty" and substandard as the celebrity was issued with warnings over his conduct as a landlord. Mr Kohli... was also denied three-year licences for two flats which are part of a raft he owns and leases through his father's company in Glasgow's west end. [20][21]
In July 2009, Kohli was suspended from his roving reporter role on The One Show for six months after a complaint by a female member of staff for inappropriate behaviour.[22] After he apologised, it was announced in March 2010 that it was possible he could return to the show.[23]