Nathaniel George Terence Coombs (born August 1977) is a British television and radio presenter, podcaster, writer and founder of a London based media agency.

Education

Coombs was educated at the boys' independent school

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2-18 private, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose of ...

Dulwich Dulwich (; ) is an area in south London, England. The settlement is mostly in the London Borough of Southwark, with parts in the London Borough of Lambeth, and consists of Dulwich Village, East Dulwich, West Dulwich, and the Southwark half of H ...

South London South London is the southern part of Greater London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, Lon ...

, and at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

Early career

Comedy

He began his career as a stand up comedian and was a semi-finalist at the BBC New Comedy Awards and a runner-up of ''Stand-up Britain'' on ITV. He was also a Regional Finalist of the Jongleurs J20 competition and a Semi-finalist in both the Amused Moose & Laughing Horse New Act competitions. Early in his career appeared on 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 ...

Radio comedy program 'Spanking New' alongside comedians including Rhod Gilbert and Shappi Khorsandi which featured live performances from some of the UK's best new comedy talent. Whilst working as a comedian, Coombs created the innovative digital comedy show Chelsey OMG which he wrote and co-produced. The first series of the show, based on his character Chelsey Pucks, which originally appeared on Radio 1 comedy sketch show ''The Milk Run'', debuted on the online social networking site Bebo. The show drew critical acclaim for its interactive format, whereby the characters interact with the show's fans. Coombs appears in the show as Jens, a German fashion photographer. Coombs also co-starred in the

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

-nominated

drama ''Can You Hear Me Thinking?'' alongside

Judi Dench Dame Judith Olivia Dench (born 9 December 1934) is an English actress. Widely considered one of Britain's greatest actors, she is noted for her versatility, having appeared in films and television, as well as for her numerous roles on the stage ...

Television and Radio

Coombs is primarily a sports presenter — specialising in football and US Sports – and has worked with

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

, Channel 5,

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

Bleacher Report ''Bleacher Report'' (often abbreviated as B/R) is a website that focuses on sports and sports culture. Its headquarters are in San Francisco, with offices in New York City and London. ''Bleacher Report'' was acquired by Time Warner's Turner B ...

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

and

Talksport Talksport (styled as talkSPORT) is a sports radio station in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned by News Broadcasting. Its content includes live coverage of sporting events, interviews with the leading names in sport and entertai ...

NFL

In 2007 Coombs began presenting Channel 5's live NFL

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

coverage, alongside Mike Carlson broadcasting all '' Sunday Night Football'' and some ''

Monday Night Football ''Monday Night Football'' (often abbreviated as ''MNF'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that air on Monday nights. It originally ran on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from 1970 NFL season, 1970 t ...

'' games. He hosted Channel 5 coverage between 2007-2010 and also co-presented ''NFL: UK'', a weekly magazine show, also on Channel 5 that was shown on Saturday mornings, alongside

Trevor Nelson Trevor Ricardo Nelson, MBE (born 7 January 1964) is an English DJ and radio presenter. He is best known for presenting a range of shows across BBC Radio. Early life Born in Hackney to a family of St Lucian heritage, Nelson attended Centra ...

and Natalie Pinkham. In 2010 Coombs moved to BBC Radio Five Live where he anchored live games weekly. He moved to Channel 4 in 2012, hosting NFL Live every Sunday alongside

Mike Carlson Michael Carlson (born March 12, 1951) is a pundit of National Football League (NFL) coverage in the United Kingdom. He worked on Channel Five's coverage of the sport from 1998 to 2010 and Channel 4's coverage of the sport from 2010 to 2015. ...

, as well as the NFL International Series games and the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

. He also worked alongside Vernon Kay for a weekly NFL highlights show. In 2015, the BBC agreed to a TV deal with the NFL where Coombs was named as one of the hosts, anchoring the majority of the NFL London games between 2015-2022 as well as Super Bowl LVI. He currently anchors live coverage for the TalkSport radio network, including a weekly live show and contributes regularly to The Times.

Basketball

In 2020 Coombs was announced as the lead anchor on Sky Sports for

British Basketball League The British Basketball League (BBL) was a men's professional basketball sports league, league in Great Britain. Since its establishment in 1987 the BBL represented the highest level of basketball competition within the United Kingdom. The orga ...

(BBL) coverage working alongside former players including Kieron Achara MBE, Drew Lasker and Mike Tuck.

Football

Coombs has presented football coverage for

TalkSport Talksport (styled as talkSPORT) is a sports radio station in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned by News Broadcasting. Its content includes live coverage of sporting events, interviews with the leading names in sport and entertai ...

and

Goal A goal or objective is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan, and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. A goal is roughly similar to ...

. As one of ESPN UK's main live studio hosts between 2010-2013, he presented the live studio football show Talk of the Terrace in its various formats, as well as being the regular anchor for the channel's live

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

studio coverage. He also anchored live football coverage from

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

and

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

. Coombs often interviews players and provides features for other

football output. In 2013, he presented a range of football coverage for the global football site Goal.com and in June 2014 began work with

fronting much of its football video content, including a daily World Cup show which took a satirical look back at the previous night's action. Since 2013 Coombs has hosted on commercial UK Sports Radio station

as an anchor, where he has hosted various shows including Kick Off, Football First, Transfer Tavern and The European Football Show.

Other broadcasting

MLB

Coombs presented Major League Baseball (

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

) coverage, including the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...

, on BBC Radio, where he was the regular host of the weekly MLB show between 2010–2013.

The Nat Coombs Show

In 2018 Coombs launched his NFL podcast, The Nat Coombs Show, which he moved to ESPN in 2019.

Other work

Business ventures

Coombs has been involved with a number of media businesses, including founding and leading the creative agency Me:Mo.

Personal life

Coombs has followed the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

since he was a child and is a fan of the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. The Dolphins compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team ...

. He is a fan of the English football team

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

who he watches regularly and is the top ranked celebrity fan of ESPN's Five Time Award Winning
Fantasy Focus: Football 06010
daily podcast, hosted by Field Yates and Matthew Berry. Coombs makes an annual appearance on the podcast, usually during the week of which an NFL game will be played in Britain. He's married and lives in London .

References

External links

Vivienne Clore Talent AgencyNat Coombs official website
* New Media Age 4 June 2009
Nat Coombs Group
Facebook
Nat Coombs
Twitter
Tea with Tony La Russa (blog)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coombs, Nat 1977 births Living people British television presenters British comedians People educated at Dulwich College Alumni of University College London English television presenters Major League Baseball broadcasters NFL announcers