Kirsten O'Brien

Kirsten O'Brien
Born	Kirsten Sarah O'Brien February 23, 1972 (1972-02-23) (age 37) Nunthorpe, Yorkshire, England
Nationality	British
Other names	Kirsten Lindsey O'Brien
Ethnicity	Irish Britons Norwegian Britons
Occupation	Presenter
Employer	BBC
Home town	Middlesbrough
Known for	presenting SMart
Religious beliefs	Christianity

Kirsten O'Brien (born 23 February 1972 in Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough) is an English television presenter and stand-up comic.

She presents SMart, and presented Smile and Totally Doctor Who alongside Barney Harwood on CBBC.

Early life

As a result of her father's work as a civil engineer she spent her childhood moving from country to country, including spells in Algeria, Kuwait, Nigeria, Singapore and England. Her Norwegian mother Karen died of cancer aged 52 in Redcar and Cleveland^[1] just before O'Brien was confirmed a part in SMart, 1999. O'Brien has a younger brother, Tim.

Career

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O'Brien studied media and communications at the University of Central England in Birmingham, graduating in 1993.^[2] She got her first broadcast experience on the university's student radio station, which led to her first proper job at Tyne Tees Television, where in 1995 she made her presenting debut on a children's science programme.

Her big break came in 1996 when she joined the team of presenters on the BBC's children's strand CBBC. She stayed there for three-and-a-half years, during which time she became best-known for her partnership with arrogant puppet Otis the Aardvark. Both O'Brien and Otis also co-presented with other people (and often solo), but they really shone as a double-act, so much so that the 1997 Saturday morning spin-off, Saturday Aardvark, was entirely built around them. Puppeteer Dave Chapman would often reduce O'Brien to tears of helpless rage with his ad-libs.

O'Brien left the CBBC on air presentation team in 1999, but is still a regular on children's TV and radio. Her artistic skills have been put to good use as co-host of SMart and its spin-offs SMart On the Road and SMarteenies (for the pre-school CBeebies channel). On radio, she was one of the presenters of BBC 7's Little Toe Radio Show.

In 2004, she played Peter Pan in pantomime. The same year, O'Brien discovered a previously unsuspected talent for chopping down trees when challenged to take part in a lumberjack competition for the BBC series Bring It On. She performed a stand up show during the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2006, entitled, Lesley's Lunch Hour - Not During Lunch, And Not Quite An Hour, meaning that she did not present Smile that month.

Between 28 May and 15 June 2007, she co-presented Springwatch Trackers alongside Steve Backshall. Transmitted live on BBC Two from a farm in Devon and repeated later in the day on the CBBC Channel, teams of boys and girls were set a series of Tracker challenges.

She has been a guest on Stephen Merchant's The Steve Show on BBC 6 Music, Through the Keyhole and has made numerous appearances on Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive.

She co-presented two children's art shows with the late Mark Speight, SMart (CBBC) and SMarteenies (CBeebies).

O'Brien filmed a documentary for BBC3 that aired on 28 April 2009, "Kirsten's Topless Ambition", in which she faced a "huge decision" - whether to do what many other female presenters had done before her and take her clothes off for a lads' mag to try to clinch bigger, better presenting jobs and a more adult audience.^[3] Ultimately, she only received one offer so opted against doing this and instead decided to perform more stand up comedy. She also stated on the show that she was ready to leave SMart since Speight's death and felt it was not right to stay. Kirsten then stayed with CBBC to take over as host of game show Gimme a Break.

Personal life

O'Brien plays tennis, and has taken part in swimming, abseiling and netball events for charity. She is a keen Middlesbrough Football Club fan; she has been involved in charity work with the club, including the Premier League's Creating Chances program.^[4] She has asthma.^[5]

References

1. ^ Deaths England and Wales 1984-2006
2. ^ http://www.bcu.ac.uk/mediacourses/alumni/i-q
3. ^ BBC3's Kirsten's Topless Ambition
4. ^ http://www.premierleague.com/page/CommunityNews/0,,12306~1321106,00.html
5. ^ Mail Online — Triggered by grief, the asthma attack that nearly killed me

External links

• Kirsten O'Brien Official Website
• Kirsten O'Brien at the Internet Movie Database
• the-void.co.uk/comedy review of "Confessions of a Children's TV Presenter" at Edinburgh Fringe 2007