Shefali Oza (born 24 September 1967) is a British TV personality and the main

weather presenter A weather presenter (also known as a weather girl, weatherman or weather broadcaster) is a person who presents the Weather forecasting, weather forecast daily on radio, television or internet news broadcasts. Using tools such as projected weathe ...

BBC Birmingham BBC Birmingham is one of the oldest regional arms of the BBC, located in Birmingham. It was the first region outside London to start broadcasting both the corporation's radio (in 1922) and television (in 1949) transmissions, the latter from t ...

's ''

Midlands Today ''BBC Midlands Today'' is the BBC's regional television news service for the West Midlands (region), West Midlands. It was launched in 1964 and is presented by Mary Rhodes, Nick Owen, Elizabeth Glinka, Rebecca Wood and Shefali Oza. Overview ...

'', the regional news programme broadcast in the

Midlands The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, but also carries out some news presentation work. She joined the programme in January 1993 as its first ever weather presenter.

Career

Oza is said to have been "discovered at an audition day" organised by members of 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 ...

's Multi-Cultural Programmes Unit, who were actually in search of new faces for ''Network East''. Oza was one of the first Asian faces to be frequently seen on television in the region. She joined ''

'' in 1993 as the programme's first weather presenter; since then, her role has included producing weather-related news and community features. One of her reports was as a result of becoming the first female civilian to spend a week on the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

submarine HMS ''Splendid''. She was awarded an Honorary Master's degree from University College Worcester in 2003, in recognition of her achievements in broadcasting. Along with weather reporting and news presenting, Oza has fronted regional contributions to the BBC's live national programming and campaigns, such as ''

Children in Need ''BBC Children in Need'' is the BBC's UK Charitable organization, charity dedicated to supporting disadvantaged children and young people across the country. Established in 1980, the organisation has raised over £1 billion by 2023 through its ...

''.

Personal life

Before beginning her media career, Oza trained as a

solicitor A solicitor is a lawyer who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and enabled to p ...

. During her time on ''Midlands Today'', Oza met her former husband Jamie Knights, who worked as her

cameraman A camera operator, or depending on the context cameraman or camerawoman, is a professional operator of a film camera or video camera as part of a film crew. The term "cameraman" does not necessarily imply that a male is performing the task. ...

. Their wedding ceremony was featured on the news programme. She has one son, born in 1986. The couple divorced two years later.

References

External links

Shefali Oza's ''Midlands Today'' profileShefali Oza's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oza, Shefali BBC people BBC weather forecasters English journalists Living people 1967 births English people of Indian descent Indian emigrants to England