Nick Grimshaw

Nick Grimshaw
Grimshaw at Vogue London Fashion Week reception at Winfield House, September 2014
Born	Nicholas Peter Grimshaw (1984-08-14) 14 August 1984 Oldham, Lancashire, England
Occupation	BBC Radio 1 host, radio and television presenter

Nicholas Peter "Nick" Grimshaw (born 14 August 1984) is an English television and radio presenter. As well as hosting various shows for BBC Radio 1, he is notable for his work on Channel 4, E4, BBC One, BBC Two and Channel 4 youth strand T4.

In September 2012, Grimshaw became the new host of The Radio 1 Breakfast Show, replacing Chris Moyles.^[1] Since April 2013, he has hosted the BBC Three comedy panel show Sweat the Small Stuff.

Radio

Grimshaw joined BBC Radio 1 in September 2007, presenting the BBC's youth strand Switch with friend and fellow DJ Annie Mac. He hosted the show for 9 months solo while Mac hosted a weekend lunchtime slot. From August 2008 to May 2009, Grimshaw hosted Radio 1's Weekend Breakfast Show. Grimshaw then went on to present the 10pm-midnight slot on BBC Radio 1 on 1 June 2009, following the departure of Colin Murray. He regularly joked over how long his position at BBC Radio 1 would last him and whether he would actually be able to complete his long list of "1000 Albums Everyone Says You Should Listen To But We Only Have Time To Play One Track So Here It Is" which was a nightly feature on his show. He managed to reach number 369, before he left for the breakfast show.^[2]

Other features on his show included "Peaceful Ponderings", an interactive minor problem-solving initiative broadcast on the Sunday night show he took part in with Annie Mac; "This Week's Musical Showoff", an interactive new music sharing initiative; "Fresh Off Stage", an interview with an important figure from the world of performing arts; and Rob da Bank's "Monday Night Pop Quiz", between a listener and a musician which culminated in an offensive word being broadcast live on air as the final answer. From 2010–12, Grimshaw was the main stand-in presenter for Scott Mills on BBC Radio 1.

On 11 July 2012 it was announced that Grimshaw would replace the long-standing Chris Moyles as host of The Radio 1 Breakfast Show.^[3] The last live show was broadcast on 12 September 2012,^[4] although the last show broadcast under the show's name was a pre-recorded episode entitled "The 1000 Albums Show".^[5] His first programme was on 24 September 2012.

In November 2012, Grimshaw attracted criticism from Magic Radio breakfast presenter Neil Fox for comments he made about Radio 1's decision to omit Robbie Williams's "Candy" from its A-List playlist – reportedly due to being "too old" for the station's target demographic.^[6] Some days later, Grimshaw was in the headlines again after it was claimed he refused to promote Rihanna's latest album because she cancelled an interview with him^[7] – a claim which Grimshaw denied, noting that his snub was intended to be "tongue in cheek".^[8]

On 24 October 2013, it was reported that Grimshaw's breakfast show had one million fewer listeners than Moyles' and that its audience figures were the worst for the station in over a decade, with BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 4 beating it in the ratings. At the time, Grimshaw's show was close to the record low of 5.5 million listeners, set by Sara Cox in 2003, toward the end of her three-year tenure hosting the show.^[9] In February 2014, the breakfast show recorded an enhancement of more than 700,000 listeners, which set the average number of listeners per week to 6.3 million.^[10] However, on 15 March 2014, it was reported that Grimshaw had lost another 510,000 listeners, for a weekly total of 5.78 million.^[11] The BBC claimed that this was part of the goal to attract younger listeners, while shedding the over-25s.^[12]

In March 2014, Grimshaw completed a twelve-hour bicycle ride for Sport Relief.^[13] The event raised more than £115,000.^[14] In 2014, he also took part in the Clash of the Titans event as part of John Bishop's team Team Bishop.

Television

Grimshaw's career started on UK entertainment channel E4, hosting daily shows. In September 2007, he crossed over to Channel 4, hosting the daily breakfast show Freshly Squeezed with Alexa Chung and more recently Jameela Jamil, airing 7am on weekdays. The pair went on to host various award shows for TV and coverage from music events and festivals for Channel 4. As well as hosting the radio show Switch for BBC Radio 1, Grimshaw and Annie Mac teamed up to host music show Sound for BBC Two. He presented the first ever BBC Switch Awards show with Kimberley Walsh of Girls Aloud on BBC One.^[15]

In Summer 2011, Grimshaw hosted a live 6-part series for Channel 4 on Saturdays entitled New Look Style the Nation, in which hopeful fashion designers competed for a job at New Look. As well as hosting the show, Grimshaw was the sole person to decide upon six people who turned up at the open auditions, two of which were then selected to compete further by two fashion experts.

Grimshaw appeared as a panellist on The Xtra Factor, 8 Out of 10 Cats and Never Mind the Buzzcocks. On 15 October 2012, he guest-hosted an episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks. On 30 April 2013, Grimshaw began hosting panel show, Sweat the Small Stuff, on BBC Three.^[16]

On 2 August 2013, Grimshaw hosted a panel show on Channel 4 called That Music Show^[17]

In late 2013, Grimshaw appeared in as many soap operas he could, filming cameo roles in EastEnders, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks and Home and Away.^[18] In 2013, he narrated Hotel of Mum and Dad for BBC Three.

On 11 November 2014, Grimshaw guest hosted an episode of The One Show with Alex Jones.^[19]

Films

In 2012, Grimshaw had a cameo appearance in the UK release of the Disney film Wreck-It Ralph as Calhoun's deceased fiancé Brad Scott who was killed by Cy-Bugs.

Personal life

Grimshaw attended the University of Liverpool between 2003 and 2006, studying Communication and Media Studies, but failed his final year, graduating with a DipHE rather than a Bachelor's degree.^[20]

On 17 August 2012, Grimshaw came out as gay.^[21][22] He appeared at number 8 on The Independent‍ '​s list of the 101 most influential LGBT people in Britain 2012.^[23] In 2015, he was named one of GQ's 50 best dressed British men.^[24]

Grimshaw launched and judged Column Idol 2014, an annual competition set up by charity Media Trust with The Sun newspaper to find new writing talent.^[25]

Grimshaw is godfather to actress Sadie Frost and actor Jude Law's son, Rudy, and former Queens of Noize DJ Mairead Nash's son, Arlo.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nick Grimshaw.

• The Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw at BBC Programmes
• Nick Grimshaw at the Internet Movie Database
• Nick Grimshaw on Twitter