Melvin Odoom is a British

radio DJ A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile D ...

and

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

. He is best known for presenting on

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

alongside

Rickie Haywood-Williams Richard Haywood-Williams is a British Disk jockey#Radio DJs, radio DJ and television presenter best known for his work with Melvin Odoom and Charlie Hedges on Kiss (UK radio station), Kiss FM, later BBC Radio 1 and the 2016 TV series ''Bang on ...

and Charlie Hedges.

Education

Odoom attended the

University of Bedfordshire The University of Bedfordshire is a public research university with campuses in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, England. The University has roots from 1882, however, it gained university status in 1993 as the University of Luton. The Universi ...

and studied a Media Performance degree. It was at Luton that Melvin met and lived with

. It was here that he also met actor and BBC voiceover artist

Nii Odartei Evans Russell Glynn Nii Odartei Evans (born 4 June 1980) is a British-Ghanaian actor, writer, filmmaker and voiceover artist best known for his work as a BBC announcer. Education He attended the University of Bedfordshire and studied Software Engineer ...

Career

Radio

Odoom, alongside

and Charlie Hedges, hosted Kiss Breakfast every weekday morning 6 - 9am, followed by ''Kiss Morning Anthems'' until 10am on Kiss 100. They won Silver at the Sony Radio Awards in 2009 within the category of "Breakfast Show Award", and was consistently known as the UK's biggest commercial breakfast show with 2 million listeners per week. In April 2019, the trio moved to

to present the late night show Monday - Thursday from 9 to 11pm. They would also occasionally cover day time shows. In April 2021, It was announced that

Clara Amfo Clara Amfo (born 22 May 1984) is a British radio broadcaster, television presenter, podcast host and voice-over artist. She is known for presenting her shows on BBC Radio 1. Early life and education Amfo was born in Kingston upon Thames in Lo ...

would be moving to evenings on the station to replace

Annie Mac Annie Mac (born 18 July 1978), is an Irish DJ, broadcaster and writer. She hosted a variety of shows on BBC Radio 1, including BBC Switch and ''Future Sounds''. She also DJed in various locations, including hosting her AMP (Annie Mac Presents ...

. As part of this reshuffle Melvin, Rickie and Charlie would be taking on the 10:30 - 12:45 show including the famous live lounge.

Television

Odoom and

have presented '' MTV Digs'' on MTV One, Monday to Saturday between 4 and 7pm and ''MTV Music Junkie'' together — a live studio music show. Odoom presented MTV One's coverage of the BRIT Awards 2010 alongside Haywood-Williams, and also presented coverage of the BAFTA awards alongside Kimberly Walsh for MTV One. In 2010, Odoom and Haywood-Williams also presented the backstage online content for

Sky1 Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non-terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

's '' Must Be the Music''. Odoom has presented two series of intros for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

, interviewing all the new up and coming bands for 2010 and hosted an MTV

Leona Lewis Leona Louise Lewis (born 3 April 1985) is a British singer, songwriter, actress and activist. Born and raised in the London Borough of Islington, she attended the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon. Lewis achieved nationa ...

special and presented

BBC Blast BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBC's online service. It is a large network of websites including such high-profile sites as BBC News and Sport, the on-demand video and radio services branded BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, the children ...

for

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream ...

. Odoom was presenting ''

Basil's Swap Shop ''Basil and Barney's Swap Shop'' (known as ''Basil's Swap Shop'' in the first two series) is a British children's television series that was produced for CBBC and ran on Saturday mornings on BBC Two and CBBC Channel from 5 January 2008 to 25 Se ...

'' with Basil Brush in 2008 on Saturday mornings, alongside his days of playing various characters for the long-running show '' Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow''. From 2013 until 2015, Odoom was a team captain on the

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 targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, cov ...

comedy panel show '' Sweat the Small Stuff''. In 2014, Melvin and Rickie presented an episode of '' The Hot Desk'' featuring

Mark Ronson Mark Daniel Ronson (born 4 September 1975) is a British-American DJ, songwriter, record producer, and record executive. He is best known for his collaborations with artists such as Duran Duran, Amy Winehouse, Adele, Lady Gaga, Lily Allen, ...

. Since 2015, Odoom and Rickie co-hosted

ITV2 ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial station ...

's red carpet show at the

BRIT Awards The BRIT Awards (often simply called the BRITs) are the British Phonographic Industry's annual popular music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain", or "Britannia" (in the early days the awards were sponsored ...

alongside

Laura Whitmore Laura Whitmore (born 4 May 1985) is an Irish media personality and model based in London. She was a video jockey for MTV in 2008, and has since presented television shows, such as ''This Morning'' (2014), ''Survival of the Fittest'' (2018) a ...

. On 18 June 2015, Odoom and Rochelle Humes were confirmed as the new presenters of '' The Xtra Factor'', replacing Sarah-Jane Crawford. They were replaced by Matt Edmondson and former ''

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'' (2001–2003 ...

'' contestant Rylan Clark-Neal for the 2016 series. Odoom and Rickie co-presented the Saturday night entertainment series '' Bang on the Money''. The series began on 16 April 2016 on ITV. On 12 August 2016, it was announced that Odoom would take part in the fourteenth series of ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (informally known as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly ballroom and Latin dance. Each couple is scored by a panel of usually 4 ...

''. He was partnered with

Janette Manrara Janette Manrara Škorjanec (born November 16, 1983) is a singer, Cuban-American television presenter, choreographer and professional dancer from Miami, Florida, US. Originally a singer, learning from her Cuban family, she formally studied dance ...

. The couple were the first to leave the competition having had the fewest public votes. But in an ironic twist of events Melvin and Janette went on to win the ''

'' Christmas special. In February 2017, Odoom took part in a celebrity edition of ''

Take Me Out A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production. Film In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup". Takes of each s ...

''. In 2017, Odoom and Haywood-Williams took part in '' Let's Sing and Dance for Comic Relief''. Since 2017, Odoom has hosted the

programme '' Lego Masters'', where teams battle to build the best Lego creations. During his week on '' Richard Osman's House of Games'' in 2020, Melvin became the first contestant to end a day on -1.

Other work

Melvin used to teach dance and drama to kids with behavioural issues and also worked at the Froud Community Centre in Manor Park,

Newham The London Borough of Newham is a London borough created in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. It covers an area previously administered by the Essex county boroughs of West Ham and East Ham, authorities that were both abolished by the ...

where he helped with afterschool clubs. A child actor, Melvin performed in a number of theatre productions and even gave speeches to governors for youth council.

Personal life

He is a celebrity ambassador for

The Prince's Trust The Prince's Trust ( cy, Ymddiriedolaeth y Tywysog) is a charity in the United Kingdom founded in 1976 by King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) to help vulnerable young people get their lives on track. It supports 11-to-30-year-olds who are u ...

charity, which is involved with helping young adults in life. He is also the brother of actress and writer Yonah Odoom. Odoom is not a huge follower of football but is a fan of Tottenham Hotspur F.C. and the

Ghana national football team The Ghana national football team represents Ghana in men's international football, doing it since 1957. The team consists of twenty players including the technical team. The team is nicknamed the Black Stars after the Black Star of Africa i ...

Filmography

;Television ;Film

References

External links

''Rickie, Melvin and Charlie''
(BBC Radio 1)
Agent - Somethin' Else Talent
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Odoom, Melvin English people of Ghanaian descent English radio DJs English television presenters Living people Alumni of the University of Bedfordshire BBC Radio 1 presenters Black British television personalities Kiss Network Year of birth missing (living people)