Jenni Falconer

Jenni Falconer was born in Glasgow where she lived until the age of seven, at which point her family relocated to the South of England. In 1994 she moved to Leeds to attend university, majoring in Spanish and Italian, with minors in Latin, Geography and Management Studies.  Jenni’s break into television occurred during her first term when work experience at a local radio station coincided with a memorable appearance on ‘Blind Date’ (she picked Donda, the 18 stone Fish n Chip Shop owner!). Together, they led to a presenting opportunity with ‘Les Clips’, a BBC Scotland production, which was transmitted on her 19th birthday.  In March 1995 she became the co-presenter of BBC Scotland’s outdoor and leisure series, ‘The Big Country’ and was involved with the show throughout its three-year duration. Television did not manage to take her away from student life, and she commuted to and from lectures as required.  In 1997, whilst still at university, Jenni began presenting twice weekly strands on the regional magazine show ‘Tonight’. A contract with Yorkshire Television soon followed, including becoming a reporter on ITV’s live consumer show, ‘We Can Work It Out’ and ‘3D’. This meant making the difficult decision of how to juggle her education and career. Jenni made the decision to put her degree ‘on hold’, but fortunately, has never looked back!

1999 & 2000 saw Jenni co-present ‘We Can Work It Out’ whilst also narrating the second series of the highly successful ‘Pleasure Island’ for the ITV Network in 2000. In 2001, she joined the BBC1 flagship programme ‘Holiday’, and also reported for the BBC 2 water sports show ‘Aqua’.  She joined ‘GMTV’ in September 2000 where she anchored Entertainment Today (2000-2008), GMTV’s showbiz entertainment show with Ben Shephard. This gave Jenni the opportunity to interview the likes of Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Tom Cruise, Justin Timberlake, Leonardo Di Caprio, Johnny Depp, Kate Winslett, Martin Scorcese and Clint Eastwood…

During 2001/ 2002, and whilst continuing to present on ‘GMTV’, Jenni also continued to film for ‘Holiday’ (BBC1), as well as making an ITV1 special with Cilla Black, ‘Sing With A Star’ (Oct 2002) and narrate ‘Pleasure Island’ and ‘Girls Behaving Badly’ for ITV1. 2003 proved to be just as busy – reporting GMTV’s coverage of “I’m A Celebrity – Get Me Out Of Here”, co-hosting the ITV1 primetime specials ‘Drop the Celebrity’ with Mark Durden-Smith and ‘Entertainment Today’ returned for its fourth series. In November 2003, she was announced as Scotland on Sunday’s “Most Eligible Female”, and in December, she hosted the outside broadcasts for the live ‘Pop Idol 2003 Final’ (ITV1).

2004 was another non-stop year. Whilst continuing to host ‘Entertainment Today’, Jenni travelled the world in five star luxury filming for the prime time holiday series ‘How to Holiday’ (ITV1). She also presented a number of film specials for ITV1 including, amongst others, ‘Harry Potter’, ‘The Aviator’, ‘War of the Worlds’ & ‘Mission Impossible 3’, ‘Finding Neverland’ plus hosted the live ITV2 coverage of ‘The Television BAFTAs and British Soap Awards.’  In January 2005, Jenni Falconer hosted the three hour live coverage of the ‘Tsunami Concert’ (Five) with Dave Berry, followed by the ‘Scottish Tsunami Concert’ with Robbie Coltrane. In September 05 she co-presented ‘Britain’s Worst Celebrity Driver’ (Five) with Quentin Wilson and in April 06 hosted ‘Hollywood Grand Prix’ for Sky One – an exclusive access all areas look at the annual Long Beach Pro / Celeb Grand Prix (including training with Vinnie Jones as he prepares to race).

In July 2006, Jenni took on her toughest challenge yet when she agreed to be a ‘rider’ in the BBC1 / SportRelief show, ‘Only Fools on Horses’. After nine nights of gruelling competition, she over came all adversity (and several bad falls) to be crowned Champion!  Jenni became the new face of ‘The National Lottery’ in Sept 2006, hosting two new unique shows for them (Saturday and Wednesday evenings, BBC1). She continued to present Movie Premiere Specials for ITV1 (including ‘Mission Impossible 3’, ‘Blood Diamond’, ‘Casino Royale’ among others) and also had a fortnightly column for No.1 magazine, Scotland. In May 2007 Jenni hosted the ITV2 coverage of ‘The British Soap Awards.’  Autumn 2007 proved to be busy one! ‘Entertainment Today’ (ITV1) returned for its eighth series in September. At the same time, she hosted ‘The National Lottery Awards’ with Dale Winton for BBC1 and continued to host the ‘National Lottery Draws’ for BBC1 and in October 2007, Jenni took over as “Ring Master of the Big Top” when she hosted the hit TV show, ‘Cirque de Celebrite Two’ for Sky1.  Jenni Falconerhas hosted ‘Fantasy Homes By The Sea’ for UK TV as well as hosting the daily quiz show ‘Word Play’, for Five. She continues to present on ‘GMTV’ as well as hosting the ‘National Lottery’ draws for the BBC and most hosted the first ‘Scottish Royal Variety Show’ (STV).

She also champions women in sport, particularly in Golf and to boot, she is a very busy mum of one.