Zoë Louise Ball (born 23 November 1970 in Blackpool, Lancashire) is an English television and radio personality, most famous for becoming the first female host of the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show and less recently for her presenting of 90s kids show Live & Kicking.

Biography

TV career

The daughter of children's TV presenter Johnny Ball, Zoë Ball grew up in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire and was educated at a convent school and a sixth form college. Her first TV appearance was as a child in the studio audience of Saturday morning children's show Saturday Superstore, on which her father was appearing as a guest.

She began her television career as a runner at Granada Television and researcher on BSkyB. She worked as a researcher for quiz shows for two years. Her presenting jobs have included hosting The Big Breakfast and The Priory on Channel 4, BBC One's Saturday morning children's programme Live & Kicking and pre-school programme Playdays. Between 1996-1998 she was a regular presenter on Top of the Pops usually alternating with fellow presenters and DJs Jayne Middlemiss and Jo Whiley. The three only ever presented together once on Christmas Day 1997.

Ball co-hosted the 2002 BRIT Awards with Frank Skinner, following which motherhood meant that she took less TV work.

In 2005 after co-hosting the BBC reality show Strictly Dance Fever, Ball became a contestant on its sister show Strictly Come Dancing, partnering with Ian Waite. Ball and Waite ranked 3rd place.

Performance

Week #	Dance	Judges' score
Craig Revel Horwood	Arlene Phillips	Len Goodman	Bruno Tonioli	Total
1	Waltz	8	9	9	9	35
2	Rumba	7	8	8	9	32
3	Jive	7	6	8	8	29
4	Foxtrot	9	9	9	9	36
5	Samba	8	9	9	9	35
6	Quickstep	8	9	9	10	36
7	Tango	9	10	9	10	38
8	Cha-Cha-Cha American Smooth	8 9	7 9	8 9	9 9	32 36
9	Viennese Waltz Paso Doble	9 8	9 8	9 8	9 9	36 33
10	Tango Samba	9 9	10 9	9 10	10 10	38 38
Christmas Special 2005	Foxtrot	9	9	10	10	38
Christmas Special 2006	Rumba	9	10	9	10	38

At the end of 2006, Ball co-hosted ITV1's Extinct, with Sir Trevor McDonald.

In January 2007, she presented the second series of ITV1's Soapstar Superstar, taking over from Fern Britton and Ben Shephard, who hosted the first series.

In March 2007, she hosted ITV talent search Grease Is the Word.

Radio career

Although known primarily for her TV work, it was in radio where Ball 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.

Ball 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 Sara Cox.

Though regarded as professional, Ball twice received a BBC warning for swearing on the radio - first when she used the word "bastard" while being interviewed by Chris Evans during his stint on the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show (she was publicising her appointment to The Big Breakfast at the time); then, as host of the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show, for using the expression "f****** brilliant" to describe a night out she had.

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 also stood in for Ricky Gervais whilst he filmed the second series of The Office. She eventually left XFM at the end of 2004.

She has recently made brief appearances on radio presenting documentaries for BBC Radio 2, and also sat in for Dermot O'Leary for 3 weeks in February 2006.

In September 2007, she celebrated 40 years of Radio 1 by hosting a show with Sara Cox.

From August 2008 Zoe will be hosting the weekend breakfast show on BBC Radio 6.

Personal life

While at BBC Radio 1, Ball began a relationship with DJ and musician Norman Cook (a.k.a. Fatboy Slim). The couple married in August 1999.

The couple have one son, Woody (born December 2000), and live in Shoreham.

The marriage later survived a trial separation in early 2003, during which Ball had an affair with DJ Dan Peppe.

References

External links

• Zoë Ball at the Internet Movie Database