Claudia Winkleman

Claudia Anne Irena Winkleman (born 15 January 1972) is an English broadcaster and writer. She is best known for co-presenting the BBC One dance competition Strictly Come Dancing (2004–present) from 2010 to 2025 and presenting BBC One reality series The Traitors (2022–present), for which she won a BAFTA award in 2023. Winkleman also hosted her Saturday mid-morning show on BBC Radio 2 from 2020 to 2024.

Claudia Anne Irena Winkleman was born into a Jewish family in the Westminster district of London on 15 January 1972, the daughter of author and journalist Eve Pollard and her husband Barry Winkleman. She grew up in the Hampstead area of London.

Her parents divorced when she was three. Her father's marriage to children's author Cindy Black produced a half-sister, actress Sophie Winkleman, who later married Lord Frederick Windsor. Her mother's marriage to Nicholas Lloyd gave her a half-brother, Oliver.

Winkleman was educated at the City of London School for Girls before attending New Hall, Cambridge, where she graduated in art history.

In 1992, Winkleman began appearing frequently in the long-running BBC series Holiday, and this continued throughout the mid-1990s. This culminated in a special documentary in which she travelled around the world for 34 days, reporting from Japan, India, Costa Rica and Dubai. Throughout this period, she appeared as a reporter on other shows, particularly This Morning, interviewing various celebrities. During the late 1990s, Winkleman presented a number of programmes on smaller digital channels. She had a stint on the cable channel L!VE TV, but soon left to pursue other projects. In 1996, Winkleman hosted Granada programmes God's Gift (taking over from Davina McCall) and Pyjama Party (co-hosted with Katie Puckrik and Michelle Kelly).

Winkleman also presented a number of gameshows, including the dating show Three's a Crowd, LWT show Talking Telephone Numbers, the second series of Granada TV show God's Gift, and Fanorama. In 1997 she was the co-host of children's Saturday morning TV show Tricky. She was also an occasional team captain on a gameshow called HeadJam, hosted by Vernon Kay.

Winkleman's first major television job was in 2001, on the regional discussion programme Central Weekend. Between 2002 and 2004, Winkleman began her first daily television role when she hosted the BBC Three Entertainment update show Liquid News, taking over from Christopher Price on the now defunct BBC Choice. She shared the presenting duties with Colin Paterson, and later Paddy O'Connell. The show featured celebrity interviews.

In 2003, Fame Academy appointed Winkleman to present a daily update show on BBC Three, in conjunction with its second series. She repeated the show in 2005 for the much shorter celebrity version Comic Relief Does Fame Academy. Also in 2005, Winkleman co-hosted The House of Tiny Tearaways, a BBC Three reality TV show. She also began hosting Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two, a supplementary programme to Strictly Come Dancing.