Mariella Frostrup

Mariella Frostrup (born 12 November 1962) is a Norwegian-born journalist and television presenter, well known on British TV and radio, mainly for arts programmes. Her 'gravelly' voice was once voted the sexiest female voice on TV, and research to find 'the perfect voice' has indicated that Frostrup's voice is one of the best. Her voice is often used on TV commercials as well.

Biography

Frostrup was born in Oslo but moved with her family as a child to Ireland, living in Kilmacanogue, a small village south of Dublin in County Wicklow. Her Norwegian father, who died aged 44, was a journalist on the Irish Times, and her Scottish-born mother an artist. In 1977, she left Ireland and moved to London. There, she worked as a public relations executive for Phonogram Records, between 1980 and 1990; marshalled the PR for the Live Aid concert at Wembley in 1985; and, after leaving Phonogram, swiftly broke into television as a film critic, presenting Thames Television's Video View from 1990 and after Thames lost the London ITV franchise, reprised the role straight afterwards on The Little Picture Show for Carlton Television from 1993.

Frostrup has interviewed many different celebrities, writers and other artists and has presented a variety of different TV programmes, including one on travel, and has appeared in other TV shows such as the series Have I Got News for You and the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous. She made several guest appearances as herself in the series Coupling including an episode where one of the characters fantasizes about her, then meets her in person.

Frostrup presented the BBC Radio 2 show, The Green Room, and also regularly presents Open Book (most Sundays and Thursdays) on Radio 4. Her political views have been described as "a bit left-of-centre".

She writes for The Guardian, The Observer, The Mail on Sunday, Harpers & Queen and the New Statesman. She is also an art critic and has been on the judging panels for the Man Booker Prize, the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Evening Standard British Film Awards.

In September 2007 she chaired a question-and-answer session with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, at the Labour Party Conference in Bournemouth, Dorset.

In 2008, Mariella received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from Nottingham Trent University in recognition of her outstanding contribution and commitment to journalism and broadcasting.

Currently she presents the weekly book show on Sky Arts 1 called The Book Show where she interviews her extensive list of guests on their recent works and their "favourite heroes and heroines from fiction". She also presents the regular BBC Radio 4 programme "Open Book", interviewing authors and publishers and reviewing new fiction and non-fiction books.

In September 2009, the nature film The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos was released in the United Kingdom, for which Frostrup provided the voice-over.

Personal life

Frostrup was briefly first married (1979–1984) to Richard Jobson, former lead singer with the punk rock group The Skids. She is now married to Jason McCue, a human rights lawyer, seven years her junior, whom she first met on a charity trek in Nepal when she was 39, and by whom she has since had two children, as she recounted in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mirror in August 2007.

She is close friends with actress Gina Bellman, one of the stars of the aforementioned Coupling, in which she had a cameo role alongside Angus Deayton.

Advocacy

She has been active in the charity sector for two decades, having worked on Bank Aid and Comic Relief along with various fundraising initiatives for Oxfam, The Children's Society and Save the Children. Campaigning for women’s rights and gender equality has become her main focus; she has recently made several trips to Africa to meet women and young girls in their communities, and experiencing firsthand the realities and inequalities of the lives that they lead.

Last year, she created, along with 3 other trustees, The Gender Rights and Equality Action Trust. This foundation aims at fostering gender equality and raising awareness and funds to support grass roots gender equality projects in Africa and beyond. The GREAT Initiative works in partnership with Femmes Africa Solidarité, a renowned African charity.

Bibliography

• Frostrup, Mariella - Dear Mariella: an Indispensable Guide to Twenty-First Century Living - Bloomsbury, 2004 ISBN 9780747574415

External links

• Short profile on BBC website
• Mariella Frostrup at IMDb
• Journalisted - Articles by Mariella Frostrup
• The Book Show on Sky Arts website
• The GREAT Initiative