- Personal Appearances
Topics:
- TV/Radio Presenter
Zoe Ball
Having the likes of Zoe Ball appear at any event would certain have the effect of adding prestige and glamour to your occasion.
Early Career
The daughter of children's TV presenter Johnny Ball, Zoë was educated at a convent school in Buckinghamshire. She began her television career as a runner at Granada Television and researcher on BSkyB. Her presenting jobs have included hosting The Big Breakfast & The Priory on Channel 4, BBC One's Saturday morning children's programme Live & Kicking and pre-school programme Playdays.
Her Break Through
Although known primarily for her TV work, it was in radio where she became a major British celebrity after she was recruited to co-host the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show in October 1997 with Kevin Greening. She eventually graduated to become the sole host - the first female DJ to do so. At this time, her hard-drinking, hard-partying antics contributed to the identification of the so-called "ladette culture" of the late 1990s. She later notoriously re-created the naked pose on a backturned chair made famous by Christine Keeler when doing an interview and spread with SKY magazine.
Zoë left BBC Radio 1 in March 2000 to raise a family. Her final Breakfast show was on the 30 March 2000, and she was succeeded by her friend Sara Cox.
Zoë co-hosted the 2002 BRIT Awards with Frank Skinner but otherwise has not undertaken much work in recent years due to motherhood. She returned to radio in mid 2002 when she joined London's Rock Station XFM, where she presented the Weekday Drivetime show until December 2003 & then in January 2004 took over a Friday evening music show for the station. She eventually left XFM at the end of 2004.
In 2005, after co-hosting the BBC reality show Strictly Dance Fever, became a contestant on its sister show Strictly Come Dancing, partnering Ian Waite. At the end of 2006, Ball co-hosted ITV1's Extinct, with Sir Trevor McDonald. In 2007, Zoë presented the second series of ITV1's Soapstar Superstar and Grease Is the Word
