Konnie Huq
|
Konnie Huq (born July 17, 1975 in Ealing, London) is a television presenter on British television. She was educated at Notting Hill High School in London and Robinson College, Cambridge, where she studied economics. Her parents moved to England from Bangladesh in the 1960s and she grew up in Ealing. Her parents are of the Islamic faith but Konnie herself is not Muslim. She has two sisters, Rupa and Nutun.
Huq currently presents the children's show Blue Peter and up until recently, the CBBC Channel's UK Top 40. She was the first Asian presenter of Blue Peter, when she joined on the 1 December, 1997.
One of her most memorable early moments on Blue Peter was going to Bangladesh and visiting her extended family who she hadn't seen in a long time. In the 2004 Blue Peter summer expedition to India, Konnie became an extra in a Bollywood film and practised dancing alongside the stars of the film. Also, for the 2004 Blue Peter Welcome Home appeal, she made an emotional visit to Angola on behalf of Blue Peter, in the hope of reuniting children with their families of which they had been separated with due to war. In 2005, she took part in the BBC reality TV show Comic Relief Does Fame Academy, in aid of Comic Relief, she was the third person to be voted off. She also travelled to Uganda, and met orphan children, on behalf of Comic Relief. She is currently a celebrity ambassador for the British Red Cross.
Her boyfriend, former Blue Peter co-presenter Richard Bacon was sacked from the show in 1998 after admitting having taken cocaine.
Prior to joining Blue Peter, Konnie also presented on Five's Milkshake as well as interviewing Neil Kinnock for the children's programme Newsround. When she was 14, she was a guest on Blue Peter with the National Youth Music Theatre, where she sang a solo.