Stephen Raymond Nolan (born 20 August 1973) is a

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

radio and television presenter for

BBC Northern Ireland BBC Northern Ireland ( ga, BBC Thuaisceart Éireann; Ulster-Scots: ''BBC Norlin Airlan'') is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Northern Ireland. It is widely available across both Northern Ireland and the Republic of I ...

and BBC Radio 5 ''Live'', and is the highest earning broadcaster that the BBC employ in the Province.

Early life

Born in the

Shankill Road The Shankill Road () is one of the main roads leading through West Belfast, in Northern Ireland. It runs through the working-class, predominantly loyalist, area known as the Shankill. The road stretches westwards for about from central Belfast ...

area of

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

, Nolan was educated at the

Royal Belfast Academical Institution The Royal Belfast Academical Institution is an independent grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With the support of Belfast's leading reformers and democrats, it opened its doors in 1814. Until 1849, when it was superseded by what today is ...

and the Queen's University of Belfast, where he studied French and

Business Studies Business studies, often simply called business, is a field of study that deals with the principles of business, management, and economics. It combines elements of accountancy, finance, marketing, organizational studies, human resource management, ...

, graduating with a BA in 1995.

Career

Radio

In 2002, Nolan joined

Belfast CityBeat Q Radio (formerly known as Citybeat and Belfast CityBeat) is a Northern Irish radio station. It broadcasts to Greater Belfast on 96.7 MHz FM and on DAB Digital Radio across all of Northern Ireland. From 5 April 2007, Citybeat became avail ...

, where he won a Sony Radio Academy Award. The following year, he was hired by

, where he has worked since 2003, presenting ''

The Stephen Nolan Show ''The Nolan Show'', hosted by Stephen Nolan, airs on weekdays on BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle from 9:00am – 10:30am. Nolan has also moved onto a network platform, hosting '' Question Time Extra Time'' every Thursday night and a three-ho ...

'' on BBC Radio Ulster. Since 16 July 2005, Nolan has presented his own weekend phone-in show for

BBC Radio Five Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcas ...

, airing from 10 pm to 1 am every Friday and Sunday, and 9pm to 12am every Saturday. Until 2017, Nolan also hosted ''Question Time Extra Time,'' a simulcast of BBC One's '' Question Time'', followed by a continuation of debates on Five Live. In 2006, he was involved in a charity 'boxing' match with Gerry Anderson in aid of '' Children in Need''. On 13 October 2021 he released the podcast ''

Nolan Investigates ''Nolan Investigates'' or ''Nolan Investigates: Stonewall'' is an investigative journalism podcast, released all at once on 13 October 2021, looking into the BBC's relationship with the LGBT charity and lobby group Stonewall. On 10 November, ...

''.

Television

Nolan has presented several television programmes. ''Nolan Live'' on BBC Northern Ireland is a weekly television debate and phone-in show. ''Fair Play'', also on BBC Northern Ireland, was a weekly consumer watchdog programme. ''Mission Employable'' was a series focusing on helping a group of unemployed people to find their dream career. He has also presented the BBC's '' Children in Need'' Northern Ireland broadcast. Since 2008 he has presented ''Panic Attack'', a new game airing on Friday nights in Northern Ireland. The show was repeated nationwide in a daytime slot starting in February 2010. In 2008 he stood in for Matthew Wright on Five's ''The Wright Stuff''. In 2011, Nolan presented a documentary focusing on the Shankill Butchers. Since 2012, Nolan has hosted a weekly TV version of ''The Stephen Nolan Show'' on BBC Northern Ireland every Wednesday. In 2013, a new series ''Story of a Lifetime'', hosted by Nolan began with episode one focusing on the life of his Radio Ulster colleague

Hugo Duncan Hugo Duncan (Hugh Anthony Duncan) (born 26 March 1950, in Strabane) is a singer and BBC broadcaster born in Strabane, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland on 26 March 1950. His nickname is "The wee man from Strabane" or "Uncle Hugo". In the early 70 ...

. His television and radio shows have been accused of having a pro- Unionist bias and have been referred for impartiality/bias by

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

to the BBC. Nolan has defended himself against such claims. The BBC released details of the broadcaster's pay for 2020–21 which was up £15,000 to more than £405,000. In the last three (available) years, Nolan was paid over £1m from BBC licence fee revenues.

Awards

In total, Nolan has won twelve Sony Radio Academy Awards. Of these, seven are Gold, giving him the record for the most Golds in the history of the awards. Five of these were awarded during his time with Belfast CityBeat radio, including: UK Speech Broadcaster of the Year 2003 and for his show, ''The Stephen Nolan Show'', The Speech Programme Award of the Year 2006. He also won the Royal Television Society's Regional Presenter of the Year Award in 2005 and 2006, as well as being nominated for the National Presenter Award in 2008.

Personal life

Nolan often discusses starting work aged 12, in a video store while at school. Religion is a regular feature on his radio shows. In 2015, he stated he was an atheist and as a result he issued an apology for breaching BBC guidelines. In February 2021, Nolan criticised online trolls on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and said: "It's clear I have a weight problem." Nolan lives in Mahee Island in

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to th ...

References

External links

*
''The Nolan Show''
(BBC Radio Ulster)
''Stephen Nolan''
(BBC Radio 5 Live) {{DEFAULTSORT:Nolan, Stephen 1973 births Living people Mass media people from Belfast Alumni of Queen's University Belfast Radio personalities from Northern Ireland BBC Radio Ulster presenters BBC Radio 5 Live presenters Television presenters from Northern Ireland British social commentators British political commentators British political writers British political philosophers Irish social commentators Irish political writers Irish political philosophers British opinion journalists Journalists from Belfast Atheists from Northern Ireland