Matt Smith (born 1967 in Liverpool) is a British broadcaster, and currently one of ITV Sport's main presenters.
Contents |
Matt is a Modern Languages and Political Studies graduate from Sheffield City Polytechnic, where he studied from 1985-89.[1] During that time he spent a year in Italy as part of his studies.[1] He once appeared as model in a photo-story in a 1980s teenage girls magazine to help a friend for a laugh. He was then offered an internship. with the Associated Press in Rome[1] before moving on to the Financial Times as a television producer.[1]
After leaving the FT, Smith joined the Business Unit at BBC News, and presented business reports on John Inverdale's programme on Radio 5 Live. He got his first. sport presenting role on Chris Evans' Radio 1 Breakfast Show.[1]
Matt has presented BBC Radio Four's final [2] children's programme, Go 4 It.
Until May 2008 he presented Weekend Breakfast on Radio 5 Live with Rachel Burden,[3] along with occasional cover on the Drive 4pm-7pm weekday show.
At the BBC, Smith worked initially on Midlands Today, Breakfast, and BBC News 24[1] before moving onto Football Fever, World Snooker[1] and international events including the Sydney Olympics[1] and Euro 2000, before joining ITV in the summer of 2001.
Matt was one of the presenters on the ITV Sport Channel.[1] Matt hosts coverage of UEFA Cup live matches and UEFA Champions League highlights. In the past, he has presented The Championship highlights programme every Sunday on ITV1 and UEFA Champions League Live matches on ITV4 until ITV lost the respective contracts. He has also occasionally presented ITV Granada's weekly football show Soccer Night.
During the 2002 World Cup in Korea/Japan Matt hosted a panel-based show featuring debate and World Cup highlights every evening during the tournament.[1] At Euro 2004, Matt was the senior reporter based with the England team.[1]
Matt has also hosted On The Ball[1] and Speed Sunday and has reported at ITV's boxing coverage. He is also the main presenter of ITV's Darts coverage since the sport returned to the channel in 2007 after a long absence, presenting the Grand Slam of Darts and the European Darts Championship.
In the space of a year, he has gone from being ITV's fourth choice sports presenter, to second, following the departure of both Gabby Logan and Jim Rosenthal from the network.
Now he regularly appears on primetime ITV4.
While appearing on Go 4 It, Smith was amusingly lampooned on the radio comedy impressions programme Dead Ringers, and given the catchphrase "Ace", which was supposed to be something Smith said, trying to sound "with it", on the programme.