Matt Baker's Biography

Matt Baker was born on 23 December 1977 in County Durham and grew up on his family's sheep farm.

As a boy, he was a British Gymnastics champion.

He attended Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh from 1997 to 1999, but left before gaining his degree because he was offered the opportunity to present Blue Peter.

Matt Baker stayed at Blue Peter until 2006, presenting more than 700 programmes.

Whilst on the children's show he broke the world record for the highest altitude-towed hang gliding launch; and in 2003 and 2004 he won Baftas for being the best children's presenter.

Since Blue Peter, Matt Baker has amassed numerous presenting and reporting credits including Countryfile, City Hospital, Animal Rescue Squad, One Man And His Dog, and Secret Britain.

Matt Baker also became one of the regular presenters of Radio 4's Open Country.

In 2010 Matt Baker became one of the celebrities on Strictly Come Dancing. He was paired with Aliona Vilani.

Matt and Aliona ended up runners-up on Strictly Come Dancing.

On 25 January 2011, the BBC announced that Matt Baker was to be the new host of The One Show, replacing Jason Manford.

Matt Baker was scheduled to start as host of The One Show on 14 February 2011.

In July 2017, the BBC revealed that Matt Baker earned over £450,000 from licence fee revenue in their financial year 2016/7.

In December 2019, Matt Baker revealed that he was going to stand down from hosting The One Show in Spring 2020, after 9 years on the programme.