Laura Woods (Irish presenter)
Laura Woods | |
|---|---|
| Born | Joanne Laura Woods 12 May 1977 Dublin, Ireland |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Education | Sociology and French |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Dublin |
| Occupation | Television presenter |
| Employer | TV3 |
Joanne Laura Woods is an Irish television presenter and former radio continuity announcer. Having begun her television career presenting young people's programming on RTÉ, she went on to present numerous game shows for the broadcaster.
Early life
As a teenager Woods was involved in acting with the Trinity Players Drama Society; she also studied dance for 16 years. She studied sociology and French in Trinity College, Dublin, and obtained a post-graduation diploma in journalism and media from Griffith College Dublin.
Career
Whilst in her third year at Trinity, Woods began her broadcasting career by working as a continuity announcer on RTÉ Radio. In 1999, she presented the Breakfast Show on Trinity FM. She joined RTÉ Television as a continuity announcer in 2000.
Moving from continuity announcing in September 2002, Woods became the face of iD[1](renamed iD Two in late 2004) and remained there until May 2005. In 2004 she began co-presenting three series of The Cafe with Aidan Power. Woods anchored RTÉ's coverage of the Festival of World Cultures in 2005 and 2006, and joined Dave Fanning in Hyde Park to cover Live8 in July 2005. In September 2005, she began hosting SMS, but left the show to concentrate on presenting the Irish National Lottery game show Winning Streak from January–March 2006 while regular presenter Derek Mooney was presenting You're a Star.[2]
Woods hosted another Irish National Lottery game show Fame and Fortune in June 2006, and went on to present the show's successors, The Trump Card from June–August 2007, and The Big Money Game from June–August 2008.[3] In 2007, she also began presenting an event guide on 2fm's The Will Leahy Show and made an appearance on the People in Need Telethon. She appeared as a judge on It's My Show[4] and participant on Anonymous[5] in the first half of 2008. Then work at RTÉ for Woods dried up.[6]
Woods has since moved to independent station TV3, where she was a panellist on the Midday programme, and she now co-presents the breakfast show Ireland AM alongside Mark Cagney, Aidan Cooney and Sinead Desmond, while Alan Hughes is on honeymoon and Anna Daly is on her maternity leave.[6] Over the years, she has interviewed a wide variety of celebrities, including Brad Pitt, Will Smith, Ben Affleck and Cate Blanchett.
Personal life
On 1 September 2008, Laura announced on The Will Leahy Show that she had gotten engaged to her boyfriend, Mark on August 28, describing it as "very romantic". She married on 12 September 2009 after the next series of The Big Money Game – coincidentally the previous series had finished over the weekend and Laura wore her engagement ring on the final show. On 25 May 2010, again on The Will Leahy Show, Laura announced she is expecting her first baby in November this year.[when?]
References
- ^ "Me and My Car/Laura Woods", Irish Independent. URL last accessed 2008-03-16.
- ^ "Laura's winning streak with tv role" Irish Independent. URL last accessed 2008-03-16
- ^ "Antonio comes up trumps on gameshow" Wicklow People. URL last accessed 2008-03-16
- ^ "It's My Show" It's My Show website. URL last accessed 2008-03-16
- ^ "Anonymous" Anonymous website. URL last accessed 2007-03-16
- ^ a b Murphy, Catherine (16 October 2011). "Female TV Presenters: There is only one Queen Bee". Sunday Independent. Retrieved 16 October 2011.