Donal MacIntyre's Biography

Donal MacIntyre was born in Dublin in 1966.

Donal MacIntyre started off his journalism career working on the Sunday Tribune from 1989 until 1991, and he followed up with work on other newspapers but a later interview with the BBC showed his preference for the TV medium:

"I think print can be very reactive. It just means getting on the end of a phone and getting a quote. For TV it doesn't happen unless it's filmed and that means you have to be there. Our particular brand is called Show Me television - we don't tell you, we show you. So we don't tell you what it's like to be mugged - we go out and get mugged and show you what it's like to be mugged. These emotions can resonate much better than an ordinary newspaper report."

Reflecting this attitude, Donal MacIntyre worked for ITV's flagship current affairs series World In Action in the mid-1990s.

In the late 1990s Donal MacIntyre had his huge breakthrough. Although 'MacIntyre Undercover' was transmitted on the BBC in November 1999, it had already been in production for two years.

In it, MacIntyre was an undercover reporter, whose investigations, sometimes put him into dangerous situations.

The upshot of one of the MacIntyre Undercover programmes would lead years later to Donal MacIntyre winning a libel action against Kent Police. It was the first time the police had been successfully sued for defamation.

Donal MacIntyre followed up in a similar vein with MacIntyre Investigates.

In January 2003, it was announced that Donal MacIntyre had signed a deal with Five to become their face of current affairs.

MacIntyre's first project for Five was a programme on credit card fraud as part of the MacIntyre UK Undercover series.

Later on he fronted other investigative shows such as MacIntyre's Millions and MacIntyre's Underworld.

In amongst the current affairs programmes, MacIntyre also presented other series for Five. For example, in 2007, he fronted a three-part documentary series, Return of the Tribe, in which Donal MacIntyre guided six members of a Papua New Guinean tribe around Britain.

As well as his TV work, Donal MacIntyre made a feature film, A Very British Gangster, about Dominic Noonan.

In 2008 Donal MacIntyre hosted a series of investigative programmes on Radio Five Live.

In October 2008, Donal MacIntyre began presenting the Channel Five series CCTV Cities.

In 2009, Donal MacIntyre partnered Florentine Houdiniere in Dancing on Ice.

After a rocky start, Donal and Florentine improved enormously and came second in Dancing on Ice.

In August 2009, Donal McIntyre's wife Ameera, who was battling a brain tumour, wrote in The Mail:

"Just recently Donal was attacked by thugs in a wine bar in Surrey. I was with him, having earlier in the day undergone another brain scan. I was punched and kicked during the attack and actually ended up with more bruises than my husband. But we're used to living with this kind of threat and now we are learning to cope with a different kind of danger.

On 25 August 2010, Media Guardian reported that Donal MacIntyre was leaving his presenting role on ITV1's London Tonight after less than six months.

In 2014, he came runner-up on Channel 4's The Jump.

McIntyre is often on the panel of The Wright Stuff on Channel Five.