British television presenter and actress
Kirsten O'Brien
|
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O'Brien in 2007
|
Born
| Kirsten Lindsey O'Brien
(
1972-02-23
)
23 February 1972
(age 52)
|
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Occupation(s)
| Presenter, actress
|
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Years active
| 1995?present
|
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Known for
| Presenting
SMart
(1999?2009), and
SMarteenies
(2002). Current Breakfast Show presenter on
BBC Radio Berkshire
.
|
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Spouse
| Mark Drake (m. 2010)
|
---|
Children
| 3
|
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Kirsten Lindsey O'Brien
(born 23 February 1972) is an English television presenter and actress. She is best known for her work presenting for the
BBC
, including the popular
CBBC
art programme
SMart
from 1999 to 2009, the
CBeebies
pre-school art spin-off programme
SMarteenies
in 2002. Since 2023 she has been the presenter of
BBC Radio Berkshire
's Breakfast Show.
Career
[
edit
]
O'Brien studied
media
and
communications
at the
University of Central England in Birmingham
, graduating in 1993.
[1]
She got her first broadcast experience on the university's student radio station which led to her first job in 1995 at
Tyne Tees Television
where she made her presenting debut on a children's science programme.
In 1996 she joined the team presenting the continuity links during the BBC's children's programming
CBBC
. She stayed there for three-and-a-half years during which time she became best known for her partnership with puppet
Otis the Aardvark
. Both O'Brien and Otis also co-presented with other people (and often solo). The 1997 Saturday morning spin-off
Saturday Aardvark
was entirely built around them. Puppeteer
Dave Chapman
would often reduce O'Brien to tears of helpless laughter with his ad-libs.
O'Brien left the CBBC on-air presentation team in 1999 but remained a regular on children's TV and radio. She co-hosted
SMart
and its spin-offs
SMart on the Road
and
SMarteenies
(for the pre-school
CBeebies
channel). On radio she was one of the presenters of
BBC 7
's
Little Toe Radio Show
. In 2004 she played
Peter Pan
in pantomime. The same year O'Brien successfully took part in a lumberjack competition for the BBC series
Bring It On
. She performed a sketch show during the
Edinburgh Fringe
in August 2006 entitled
Lesley's Lunch Hour - Not During Lunch, And Not Quite An Hour
along with double act partner Ruth Bratt. Then in 2007 she took her comedy show
Kirsten O'Brien - Confessions of a Children's TV Presenter
to Edinburgh.
Between 28 May and 15 June 2007, she co-presented
Springwatch Trackers
alongside
Steve Backshall
. Transmitted live on
BBC Two
from a farm in
Devon
and repeated later in the day on the
CBBC Channel
the show featured teams of boys and girls who were set a series of Tracker challenges.
She has been a guest on
Stephen Merchant
's on
BBC Radio 6 Music
,
Through the Keyhole
and several times on
Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive
.
O'Brien filmed
Kirsten's Topless Ambition
, a documentary for BBC3 that aired on 28 April 2009, in which she was "
facing a huge decision - whether to do what many other female presenters had done before her and take her clothes off for a lads' mag to try to clinch bigger, better presenting jobs and a more adult audience.
"
[2]
Ultimately she only received one offer and opted against doing this and decided to perform more stand-up comedy. She also stated on the show that she had been ready to leave
SMart
since co-presenter
Mark Speight's
death and felt it was not right to stay. Kirsten then stayed with CBBC to take over as host of game show
Gimme a Break
.
From 2009 to 2010, she made appearances on the morning show
GMTV
presenting on-location. On 19 February 2010 she and
George Lamb
presented
EastEnders
: The Aftermath
where they interviewed members of the cast about the live 25th anniversary episode. She took part in a celebrity version of TV show
Total Wipeout
, which aired on 2 January 2010.
In 2010 O'Brien, along with actor and friend
Will Mellor
, appeared in
The World's Toughest Driving Tests
, a driving challenge. They travelled the world mastering the biggest and hardest-to-drive vehicles to find out who is the better driver. In the first episode, which aired in February 2010, O'Brien won when she beat Mellor driving a Romanian
TR-85
combat tank. She went on to take wins in the third and sixth episode. Three wins, together with a draw in the fifth episode meant that Kirsten was the overall winner of the series.
[3]
On 31 December 2010, she appeared on BBC1's
Celebrity Mastermind
answering questions on
Reeves and Mortimer
(scoring 13) & 24 overall with 1 pass, coming third. She donated her fee to Teesside Hospice. On 9 January 2011, she was spotted at the
V&A Museum of Childhood
during filming of a secret new TV series. On 26 March 2011, she was a compere for one of the
Teenage Cancer Trust
shows at the
Royal Albert Hall
at which
Editors
headlined. On 3 March 2012, she appeared on
BBC 1
Let's Dance for Sport Relief
. She danced to
Van Halen
's
"Jump".
This was followed by an appearance on
Big Brother's Bit on the Side
in June 2012.
O'Brien was announced on 12 June 2013 as the co-presenter of
Heart Wiltshire
's Breakfast programme alongside Ben Atkinson.
[4]
In 2019 she became a presenter and newsreader for Andrew Peach's Breakfast Show on
BBC Radio Berkshire
. In 2023 O'Brien became the main presenter of the station's Breakfast Show.
[5]
Filmography
[
edit
]
Television
[
edit
]
Theatre
[
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]
Personal life
[
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]
O'Brien plays tennis, and has taken part in swimming, abseiling and netball events for charity. She suffers from
asthma
and is a keen
Middlesbrough F.C.
fan; she has been involved in charity work with the club, including the
Premier League
's Creating Chances programme.
[8]
She is married to Mark Drake. They became parents on 15 December 2011 when O'Brien gave birth to a baby boy whom they named Fox Michael Drake.
[9]
In September 2017 O'Brien tweeted that she had given birth to twins.
[10]
[
non-primary source needed
]
References
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]
External links
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]