James Barr is British

radio DJ A radio personality is a person who has an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality who hosts a radio show is also known as a radio host (North American English), radio presenter (British English) or radio jockey. Radio personali ...

TV presenter A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces or hosts television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. It is common for people who garnered fam ...

podcaster A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...

and

comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...

, who presents the podcast ''A Gay and a Non-Gay'' with Dan Hudson. Barr is an

openly gay Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

man and advocate for

LGBT+ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The group i ...

and mental health issues. He has toured the UK with his comedy show ''Thirst Trap'', as well as presented on

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

, and also hosts ''The Breakfast Show'' on

Hits Radio Hits Radio is a network of 26 contemporary hit radio stations in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK. The network launched in 2018 with the rebranding of Bauer's Manchester station Key 103 and its merger with The Hi ...

with

Fleur East Fleur East (born 29 October 1987) is an English singer, songwriter, rapper and presenter. East competed on the second series of ''The X Factor'' in 2005 as part of the girl group Addictiv Ladies but was unsuccessful. In 2012, she signed with ...

and

Will Best William Trevorian Stuart Best (born 21 February 1985) is an English television presenter and entrepreneur. Best has presented numerous shows for Channel 4, ITV and the BBC including T4 on the Beach and '' Dance Dance Dance''. He has also written ...

. Barr has also written columns for ''

Attitude Attitude or Attitude may refer to: Philosophy and psychology * Attitude (psychology), a disposition or state of mind ** Attitude change * Propositional attitude, a mental state held towards a proposition Science and technology * Orientation ...

'' magazine, as well as covered

conversion therapy Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change an individual's sexual orientation, romantic orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to align with heterosexual and cisgender norms. Methods that have ...

for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, and hosted live coverage from the

Isle of Wight Festival The Isle of Wight Festival is a British music festival which takes place annually in Newport, Isle of Wight, Newport on the Isle of Wight, England. It was originally a Counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture event held from 1968 to 1970. Th ...

Brighton Pride Brighton and Hove Pride is an annual LGBT pride event held in the city of Brighton and Hove, England, organised by Brighton Pride, a community interest company (CIC) which promotes equality and diversity, and advances education to eliminate dis ...

and

Manchester Pride Manchester Pride is a Charity (practice), charity that campaigns for LGBT, LGBTQ+ Equality Act 2010, equality across the United Kingdom, predominantly in Greater Manchester. The Charity offers dialogue, training, research and policy analysis, a ...

. He is a patron of several

charities, including Student Pride.

Career

Early work as a presenter

In 2017, Barr hosted the 2017 Student Pride Festival in London, alongside his role as a presenter on

Heat Radio Heat Radio is a British digital radio station, owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK. It originally launched in 2003, related to the ''Heat'' magazine. Heat Radio currently broadcasts on DAB in London and nationwide online. As of Decem ...

. Across his roles as a presenter on MTV, ambassador for Student Pride, ''A Gay and a NonGay'' podcast, and columnist for ''

'' magazine, Barr has interviewed celebrities including

Ariana Grande Ariana Grande-Butera ( ; born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Regarded as a pop icon and an influential figure in popular music, Grande is known for her four-octave vocal range, which extends into the whistle re ...

Justin Bieber Justin Drew Bieber ( ; born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian singer. Regarded as a pop icon, he is recognized for his multi-genre musical performances. He was discovered by record executive Scooter Braun in 2008 and subsequently brought to the U ...

Taylor Lautner Taylor Daniel Lautner ( ; born February 11, 1992) is an American actor. He is best known for playing werewolf Jacob Black in ''The Twilight Saga (film series), The Twilight Saga'' film series (2008–2012). His accolades include a Scream Awar ...

, Chloe Grace Moretz,

Troye Sivan Troye Sivan Mellet ( ; born 5 June 1995) is an Australian singer-songwriter and actor. After gaining popularity as a singer on YouTube and in Australian talent competitions, Sivan signed with Universal Music Australia, EMI Australia in 2013 and ...

DNCE DNCE is an American dance-rock band consisting of lead singer Joe Jonas, drummer Jack Lawless, and guitarist JinJoo Lee. Bassist and keyboardist Cole Whittle was a part of the band from when it started in 2015 to when it went on hiatus in 2018. ...

and

Charli XCX Charlotte Emma Aitchison (born 2 August 1992), known professionally as Charli XCX, is a British singer and songwriter. She began posting songs on Myspace in 2008 before entering the London rave scene. Signing a recording contract with Asylum Re ...

, amongst others. He has also appeared as a panellist on '' Eurovision: You Decide'' and

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

docu-series Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. * Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

''I'm Coming Out''. Barr and Kristen Meinzer briefly hosted a

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

called ''When Megan Met Harry: A Royal Wedding Cast'', which covers the engagement and wedding of

Prince Harry Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, (Henry Charles Albert David; born 15 September 1984) is a member of the British royal family. As the younger son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales, he is fifth in the line of succession to ...

and

Meghan Markle Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (; born Rachel Meghan Markle, August 4, 1981) is an American member of the British royal family, media personality, entrepreneur, and former actress. She is married to Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, the younger son ...

''A Gay and a NonGay''

Barr began the podcast ''A Gay and a NonGay'' in 2016, after his friend Talia moved abroad and asked him to look after her boyfriend Dan Hudson. The podcast centres around topical discussion from gay and non-gay perspectives, with James providing the gay perspective, and Dan Hudson providing the

heterosexual Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions ...

perspective. According to Pods up North, the podcast has over two million listens as of 2020. The duo were due to take the show out on tour in 2020, but this was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. ''A Gay and a NonGay'' was nominated for the Best Entertainment Podcast in 2017 and won the Bronze Award for the 2018 Best Comedy Category at the

British Podcast Awards The British Podcast Awards is an annual awards ceremony intended to celebrate outstanding content within the British podcast scene. The British Podcast Awards is owned and operated by Haymarket Media Group, which also owns several media businesse ...

. Since then, Barr has been part of the judging panel for the awards.

Comedy show ''Thirst Trap''

In early 2019, Barr played a series of comedy shows at the Above the Stag Theatre, in Vauxhall, London. Titled ''Thirst Trap'', Barr took the show to the 2019

Edinburgh Fringe Festival The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

. After his appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe, it was reported that Barr would be working with STV Entertainment to develop ''Thirst Trap'' as a format.

Hits Radio Breakfast Show

In June 2019, it was announced that Barr would be joining ''

the X Factor ''The X Factor'' is a television music competition franchise created by British producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco Entertainment. It originated in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for '' Pop Idol'' (2001–200 ...

series 11 Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used in ...

runner-up

, and radio host Greg Burns as the new hosts of the ''

Breakfast Show'', launching on 12 July 2019. The show is aimed at audiences aged 25–44. Six weeks after launch, it was announced that Barr, Burns and East would be taking the Saturday morning breakfast show; ''Saturday mornings with Fleur East, Greg and James'' features highlights from the weekday ''Hits Radio Breakfast Show''.

Personal life

During an interview with ''Celeb Mix'' Barr spoke about his coming out experience, noting that he experienced a negative reception with his parents.

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

''A Gay or Nongay'' official website

James Barr official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barr, James British feminists British male feminists Comedians from London English gay writers English LGBTQ broadcasters English LGBTQ comedians English LGBTQ rights activists English male comedians English radio DJs English radio presenters English stand-up comedians English television personalities English television presenters Gay comedians Gay feminists LGBTQ DJs Living people MTV News Radio presenters from London Year of birth missing (living people)