Riyadh Khalaf (born 7 February 1991) is an Irish broadcaster, author, activist, and YouTube personality who has worked in the media industry in Ireland, Australia and the UK.

Early life

Born to Irish mother Lorraine and Iraqi father Sam, Khalaf is from Bray, County Wicklow. He attended

Newpark Comprehensive School Newpark Comprehensive School () is a mixed, Church of Ireland, state comprehensive secondary school in Blackrock, County Dublin, Ireland which was established in 1972 after the Department of Education purchased Avoca & Kingstown School, whic ...

Blackrock BlackRock, Inc. is an American Multinational corporation, multinational investment company. Founded in 1988, initially as an enterprise risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager ...

. Having not done well on his

Leaving Certificate A secondary school leaving qualification is a document signifying that the holder has fulfilled any secondary education requirements of their locality, often including the passage of a final qualification examination. For each leaving certificate ...

, he decided to pursue a career in media. He started his own

pirate radio Pirate radio is a radio station that broadcasts without a valid license, whether an invalid license or no license at all. In some cases, radio stations are considered legal where the signal is transmitted, but illegal where the signals are rec ...

station at the age of 16. He studied at Dún Laoghaire Further Education Institute and

Ballyfermot College of Further Education Ballyfermot College of Further Education (BCFE; ) is an educational institution in Ballyfermot, Dublin, Ireland, a college of further and higher education. Management Ballyfermot College of Further Education is managed by the City of Dubl ...

, graduating with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in Media Production Management.

Career

Khalaf began his

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel whilst still in school, although his videos prior to 2013 are no longer available. During his studies at Ballyfermot, Khalaf landed radio gigs at

Dublin's 98FM 98FM is a local radio station in Dublin, Ireland, operated by Bauer Media Audio Ireland, under a sound broadcasting contract from Coimisiún na Meán. The station broadcasts on the 98.1 MHz FM frequency. 98FM's broadcast antenna is locat ...

and

SPIN 1038 SPIN 1038 (or simply SPIN; pronounced "spin one-oh-three-eight") is a local radio station in Dublin, Ireland. It is owned by Bauer Media Audio Ireland and broadcasts on 103.8 FM under a sound broadcasting contract with the Broadcasting Auth ...

. Khalaf featured in the 2010

RTÉ One RTÉ One is an Irish free-to-air flagship television channel owned and operated by RTÉ. It is the most-popular and most-watched television channel in the country and was launched as ''Telefís Éireann'' on 31 December 1961, it was renamed ''R ...

documentary series '' Growing Up Gay'' in which he discussed

coming out 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, ...

to his at the time Catholic mother and Muslim father. The same year he took part in the Irish version of ''

Young, Dumb and Living Off Mum ''Young, Dumb and Living Off Mum'' is a British entertainment Reality television, reality series which aired on BBC Three. The series follows a group of young adults who have been waited on hand and foot their whole lives. The series sees them li ...

'' that was broadcast on

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso * Canal 3 Niger, a commercial television channel in Niger * Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala * Can ...

. He also presented for Ireland's first temporary LGBT+ radio station, Open FM. He reported for RTÉ's '' Two Tube'' in 2012 and in 2013 for KIIS 106.5 in Sydney and

KIIS 101.1 KIIS 1011 (official callsign: 3TTT) is a commercial FM radio station broadcasting in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, on a frequency of 101.1 MHz and is the Melbourne affiliate of ARN's KIIS Network. The station was formerly known as 3DB ...

in Melbourne. Khalaf publicly campaigned for marriage equality (the "Yes vote") in the

2015 Irish constitutional referendums The government of Ireland held referendums on 22 May 2015 on two proposed amendments to the Constitution of Ireland which had been recommended by the Constitutional Convention. The amendment to permit same-sex marriage in the Republic of Ireland ...

. His family's cars were attacked with acid in response. Upon relocating to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 2016, Khalaf briefly worked as a video producer for

MailOnline MailOnline (also known as ''dailymail.co.uk'' and ''dailymail.com'' outside the UK) is the website of the ''Daily Mail'', a tabloid newspaper in the United Kingdom, and of its sister paper ''The Mail on Sunday''. MailOnline is a division of dmg ...

. In 2017, Khalaf presented the six-part

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 ...

documentary series ''Queer Britain'' and was an interviewer for

Pride in London Pride in London is an annual LGBT pride festival and pride parade held each summer in London, England. The event, which was formerly run by Pride London, is sometimes referred to as London Pride. Pride in London celebrates the diversity of the ...

's ''Love Happens Here'' YouTube series. He produced and presented a short documentary ''I Am...'' in 2017. In May 2018, he began hosting a

NSFW Not safe for work, also called not suitable for work (NSFW), is Internet slang or shorthand used to mark links to content, videos, or website pages the viewer may not wish to be seen viewing in a public, formal, or controlled environment. The ...

chat podcast ''Unexpected Fluids'' for

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 Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

with Alix Fox. Khalaf created and uploaded ''Fighting for Pride: Swaziland'', a documentary to his YouTube channel as part of #CreatorsForChange in 2018. Since November 2018, Khalaf has been a relief presenter on BBC Radio 1. In 2019, Khalaf published his debut novel ''Yay! You're Gay! Now What? A Gay Boy's Guide to Life''. That December, he took part in ''

Celebrity Mastermind ''Celebrity Mastermind'' is a celebrity version of ''Mastermind'', a British television quiz show broadcast by BBC television. ''Celebrity Mastermind'' began in 2002 as a one-off special hosted by Magnus Magnusson, the original host of the main ...

''. Khalaf's other presenting work includes the

YouTube Red YouTube Premium (formerly Music Key and YouTube Red) is a subscription service offered by the American video platform YouTube. The service provides ad-free access to content across the service, as well as access to premium YouTube Originals ...

event Stream #WithMe to raise money for the

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

during the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

pandemic and a

BBC Sounds BBC Sounds is an Over-the-top media service, over-the-top audio streaming media, streaming and download service from the BBC that includes live radio broadcasts, Streaming media, audio on demand, and podcasts. The service is available on a wide ...

podcast, ''Obsessed with...

Normal People ''Normal People'' is a 2018 novel by the Irish author Sally Rooney. ''Normal People'' is Rooney's second novel, published after '' Conversations with Friends'' (2017). It was first published by Faber & Faber on 30 August 2018. The book became a ...

'', with

Evanna Lynch Evanna Patricia Lynch (born 16 August 1991) is an Irish actress and activist. She is best known for portraying Luna Lovegood in the ''Harry Potter'' film series. Born in County Louth, Ireland, Lynch made her film debut in '' Harry Potter and ...

. He has periodically done work with

and guest presented ''

The One Show ''The One Show'' is a British television magazine and chat show programme. Broadcast live on BBC One weekdays at 7:00 pm, it features topical stories and studio guests. It is currently co-hosted by Alex Jones, Roman Kemp, Ronan Keating ...

''. Khalaf won the 15th series of

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

's ''

Celebrity MasterChef ''MasterChef'' is a British competitive cooking reality show produced by Endemol Shine UK and Banijay and broadcast in 60 countries around the world. The show initially ran from 1990 to 2001 and was revived in 2005 as ''MasterChef Goes Large' ...

'' in 2020. He dedicated his semi-final dishes to his father.

Personal life

Khalaf moved to London in 2016. He has two cats named Claire and Luca, and a duck named Spike, whom he rescued.

Bibliography

Filmography

Audio

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Khalaf, Riyadh Living people 1991 births 21st-century Irish male writers 21st-century Irish non-fiction writers Irish expatriates in England Irish people of Iraqi descent Irish podcasters Irish radio presenters Irish television personalities Irish YouTubers Irish LGBTQ broadcasters Irish LGBTQ entertainers LGBTQ YouTubers People from Bray, County Wicklow Reality cooking competition winners 21st-century Irish LGBTQ people Broadcasters from County Wicklow Writers from County Wicklow People educated at Newpark Comprehensive School