Ace and Vis

Ace and Vis, a.k.a. The Troublemakers of Radio, are radio DJs and television presenters from south-east London. They met whilst studying at the BRIT School in London.

Career

Known as Ace and Invisible (Vis), after winning a gold Sony Radio Academy Award for their lunchtime show on BBC Radio 1Xtra in 2004, playing garage and hip-hop. The two later co-presented BBC Radio 1Xtra's drivetime show from 4 to 7 pm on weekdays, before moving to the 4 to 7 pm weekend slot. They left BBC Radio 1Xtra in September 2012. They have also co-presented a show on the UK music channel Channel U (then Channel AKA, now Now 70s).

Recent programmes have seen the two presenters flipping pancakes in the street, attempting to fry eggs on the pavement, and interviewing Jimmy Savile and former 1980s WWE wrestling stars. Guests on their show include musicians and artists such as Chamillionaire, Ne-Yo and Missy Elliott.

They have also travelled to Japan, Germany and Ayia Napa, and were on the International Summer Tour '06 with TwiceasNice as part of their resident team of DJs.

Ace and Vis work closely with BBC Blast, often appearing at tour events to give young people an insight into working in radio.

Vis solo career

After leaving the BBC, Duane Jones (Vis) founded Renowned Group in 2013 with Wretch 32. The aim was to set up a company that would manage and publish an array of British talent, with clients such as Jacob Banks, KZ, Knox Brown and of course Wretch 32.

By the end of 2013, Duane set up the last piece of the Renowned Group property, founding independent production company Renowned Films with two talented producer directors Tim Withers and Max Welch. With its innovative approach to content development and broadcast, Renowned Films soon bagged its first commission for Trace Sports on Sky, a 12 part series called Winners Circle that was shown in 66 territories featuring sportspeople and athletes across Europe. Soon after came Football Freestyle for London Live, which remains the channel’s most viewed original commission to date. This was the start of the rise of Renowned Films as a sought after independent production company.

In 2015, the indie caught the attention of David Abraham the Chief Executive of Channel 4, and Jay Hunt, the channel’s Chief Creative Officer. Channel 4 took on an equity stake in Renowned Films. Shortly after, a commission from ITV came in the form of Pranksterz’ a prank show playing on cultural stereotypes. This was followed by The Women Who Kill Lions about female hunting and Top Dad with Ashley Walters, both for Channel 4. Most recently this summer was NYPD: Biggest Gang in New York? an investigative piece about police brutality for both BBC Three and BBC Two, as well as Hate And Pride Of Orlando about the Orlando gay club shootings for BBC Three.

As Renowned Films established itself as a key producer of noisy, cut-through, factual and factual entertainment features, documentaries and branded content for the BBC, Channel 4, ITV and MTV it caught the attention of US-based Critical Content, who last year bought Channel 4’s stake in the company.

As well as picking up the award for Best Small Indie of The Year at Edinburgh TV Awards 2019, this last year has already seen an exciting slate of commissions including Peng Life (Channel 4) and Generation Grime (Sky Arts), “Backyard Envy” (Bravo), Rated Awards (Channel 4), What’s Changed (BBC3) Who We Be (Spotify), The Modern Game and Orbital Striker (OTRO) and Copwatch America (BET). With more exciting commissions lined up for next year Renowned’s mission to make edgy, diverse and compelling content is well underway.

As well as his TV endeavours, Duane remains an integral part of the UK music scene, teaming up with GRM’s Posty to co-found Not For The Radio www.youtube.com/notfortheradio , one of the biggest youtube UK music interview platforms featuring exclusive sit downs with stars such as Stormzy, Bugzy Malone, and Giggs.

Ace solo career

Ace returned to Radio 1Xtra in 2014 to cover various weekend programmes. In May 2015 Ace officially re-joined 1Xtra to present weekend breakfast from 6 to 10 am. Following Trevor Nelson's move to weekend afternoons in January 2016, Ace became the new host of 1Xtra's Live Lounge - weekdays 10 am – 1 pm.