Sidney Sloane (born Gary Gibson; 7 June 1967) is a British actor and television presenter. Born to

Afro-Caribbean Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the ...

parents, he grew up in the

Wandsworth Wandsworth Town () is a district of south London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Toponymy Wandsworth takes its name ...

and Wimbledon borders of

South London South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the boroughs, in whole or in part, of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Richmond, Southwark, ...

. He attended Southmead Primary School and John R.C. Secondary School. He took the stage name Sidney Sloane when he changed career from Stockbroking to study acting in 1997 at the

Academy of Creative Training The Academy of Creative Training is an independent drama school in Brighton, East Sussex, England. ACT has two sites: one in Kemptown, Brighton and one in Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton a ...

in Brighton. A successful audition landed him a main role in the Belgrade Theatre Company's production of

The Twits ''The Twits'' is a humorous children's book written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. It was written in 1979, and first published by Jonathan Cape in 1980. The story features The Twits (Mr. and Mrs. Twit), a spiteful, idle unkem ...

which took on a No.1 theatre tour of the United Kingdom. After an invitation to meet with some BBC executives and a screen test for the possible role as a presenter, a formal job offer was made. Sloane helped launch

CBeebies CBeebies is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 years and under. Its sister channel CBBC is aimed at older chil ...

the British children's television in 2002. He was the channel's second longest serving and the only remaining original presenter when he left the presentation team on 12 April 2013. Sloane worked as a radio presenter on

BBC Southern Counties Radio BBC Southern Counties Radio was a BBC Local Radio service for the English counties of Surrey and Sussex. The station also covered a large part of north-east Hampshire. It was the first BBC local radio station to introduce an all-speech form ...

as well as acting in radio dramas and taking voiceover assignments. On 14 November 2012, Sloane appeared in a new televised production entitled ''Let's Play'', which aired on

. The series inspires pre schoolers to discover the world through creative role play and dressing up. ''

Let's Play A Let's Play (LP) is a video (or screenshots accompanied by text) documenting the playthrough of a video game, often including commentary and/or a camera view of the gamer's face. A Let's Play differs from a video game walkthrough or strateg ...

'' is co presented by Rebecca Keatley. Sloane toured with his own live production, ''Sid's Show'', which was performed in venues across the United Kingdom until June 2013. In Christmas 2012, Sloane appeared in pantomime as 'Jack' at the

Ashcroft Theatre The Ashcroft Theatre is a theatre located within the Fairfield Halls, Croydon, South London. The theatre was named after Croydon-born Dame Peggy Ashcroft and is a proscenium theatre with a stepped auditorium. The mural on its fire curtain is by t ...

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extens ...

for Evolution Productions. He also appeared in the edition for Christmas of television quiz show, '' Celebrity Mastermind''. Sloane left his presentation role on

on 12 April 2013, but continues to have a presence on the channel as he has one of the main roles in ''Let's Play'', which continues to be shown. Sloane played Dandini in ''Cinderella'' at the Hawth Theatre in

Crawley Crawley () is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 106,597 at the time of th ...

at Christmas 2013, alongside

Stephen Mulhern Stephen Daniel Mulhern is an English television presenter, magician, and comedian. He began his television career on CITV, presenting the children's shows '' Finger Tips'' (2001–2004) and '' Tricky TV'' (2005–2010). Mulhern has presented var ...

, with Ian Smith and Michael J. Batchelor as the ugly sisters.

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* — 1967 births Living people 20th-century English male actors 21st-century English male actors Black British television personalities English male television actors English male voice actors English people of Jamaican descent English television presenters Male actors from London People from Wandsworth {{UK-tv-actor-1960s-stub