Joel Nirmalan Defries (born 14 March 1985) is a British-born presenter, who worked on the

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's Flagship (broadcasting), flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News ...

children's programme ''

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Te ...

'' from 2008 to 2010. He previously worked on the

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

television station, C4.

Career

Born in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, Defries' New Zealand media career began at the alternative radio station Channel Z, before going on to host the music jukebox show ''

Select Live Select Live and Select were music video request shows that screened every day on the C4 music channel in New Zealand. The shows operated for fifty weeks a year from 2003 to 2010, with videos added to the playlist each week. The original format ...

''. Defries presented a new New Zealand-based live music show called ''Live at Yours''. He became a household name among young New Zealanders and saw a rapid rise in popularity. He also made a successful move into radio where he presented a Sunday morning show for the Edge called ''Joel's Take Out''. He was a former presenter of Vodafone Select Live. Defries decided to return to the UK to take up other opportunities in radio and TV. On 5 September 2008, it was announced that he would replace

Gethin Jones Gethin Clifford Jones (born 12 February 1978) is a Welsh television presenter. He was an active rugby union player while at Manchester Metropolitan University and, after graduation, he began his television career on Welsh language channel S4C ...

as a presenter on the children's TV show ''

'', and joined the other members of the team, Andy Akinwolere and

Helen Skelton Helen Elizabeth Skelton (born 19 July 1983) is an English television presenter and actress. She co-presented the BBC children's programme ''Blue Peter'' from 2008 until 2013, and since 2014 has been a presenter on '' Countryfile''. She also co ...

, on 23 September 2008. He went to Turkey with the ''Blue Peter'' team filming the 2009 Summer Expedition. The 2009/10 series of ''Blue Peter'' returned on 22 September 2009. Joel announced on 29 November 2010 that he would be leaving the show on 14 December 2010. In 2010 Joel learnt to fly a

hang glider Hang gliding is an air sports, air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or Composite ma ...

for ''Blue Peter'' with Airways Airsports instructor

Judy Leden Judy Leden, MBE (born 1959) is a British hang glider and paraglider pilot. She has held three world champion titles,Flying with Condors by Judy Leden twice in hang gliding, once in paragliding. Biography Judy Leden's flying career began while ...

MBE with the aim of flying with Lucy a

peregrine falcon The peregrine falcon (''Falco peregrinus''), also known as the peregrine, and historically as the duck hawk in North America, is a cosmopolitan bird of prey ( raptor) in the family Falconidae. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-grey ...

During 2009 Defries presented the 26 episodes of the

CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...

programme Keep Your Enemies Close, a children's game show that tests friends by wrenching them apart and forcing them to work with their rivals instead.

Personal life

He went to sixth form at

Fortismere School Fortismere School (simply referred to as Fortismere) is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in Muswell Hill, Greater London, England. In 2016, it was ranked by ''The Sunday Times'' as the 12th best comprehensive school in ...

in London, in Haringey, and is six feet tall exactly. He is Jewish, but says he is not religious and has only actually visited a synagogue twice. This was explored by the BBC during a ''Blue Peter'' episode titled "Joel's Journey" broadcast on 27 January 2009. It featured him exploring his Jewish heritage, and then looking at modern day Jewish life in the UK by spending time with a religious family. The climax of the programme was his visit to Auschwitz – where he met Freda Winemann – a

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

Survivor who was returning to Auschwitz for the first time. Defries is a supporter of

Fulham F.C. Fulham Football Club is an English professional association football, football club based in Fulham, London, which compete in the . They have played home games at Craven Cottage since 1896, other than a two-year period spent at Loftus Road whil ...

BBC 606 show 21/02/2010
BBC Radio 5 Live, 21 February 2010

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Defries, Joel 1985 births Living people Blue Peter presenters British television personalities English Jews People from Muswell Hill