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Zoe Louise Ball (born 23 November 1970) is a British broadcaster and presenter. She was the first female host of the Radio 1 and Radio 2 breakfast shows for the BBC, and in 2024 was confirmed as the second-highest paid BBC presenter after Gary Lineker.
In 2018, Ball was announced as the new host of The Radio 2 Breakfast Show and took over from Chris Evans in January 2019, before stepping down from the programme in December 2024.
Ball presented the children's show Live & Kicking, alongside Jamie Theakston, from 1996 to 1999. In 2005, she was a contestant in the third series of Strictly Come Dancing. Following this, in 2011 she replaced Claudia Winkleman as host of the BBC Two spin-off show until her departure in 2021. Ball also hosted the Strictly Come Dancing Live Tour in 2011 and 2015.
Ball was educated at Heston Junior School in the district of Hounslow between 1975 and 1978. Her family then moved to Farnham Common in Buckinghamshire. She attended Farnham Common First School and Farnham Common Middle School, before moving to Holy Cross Convent School in Chalfont St Peter and Amersham College of Art and Technology for a "City & Guilds in radio and journalism".
Ball also attended the Young Theatre at Beaconsfield where she trained as an actress. Her first TV appearance was as a child in the studio audience of the Saturday morning children's show, Saturday Superstore, on which her father was appearing as a guest.
Ball became a runner at ITV Granada and researcher for Cool Cube (1990–1994), a children's Saturday afternoon magazine show, produced at Granada's studio in Manchester, by Clear Idea Television, and broadcast on the Sky UK channel Galaxy.
From 1994–1996, Ball presented SMart with Mark Speight and Jay Burridge. In 1995, Ball hosted Fully Booked for the first series. In 1997 and 1998, she was a regular presenter on Top of the Pops, usually alternating with fellow presenters and DJs Jayne Middlemiss and Jo Whiley.
In 1996, Ball was a co-host with Jamie Theakston in BBC One's Saturday morning children's program Live & Kicking. In 1998, television personality Chris Evans was a guest of the show, and later employed both Ball and Theakston to co-host the Channel 4 Wednesday night chat/music show The Priory, under Ginger Productions.
Ball’s presenting jobs have also included hosting The Big Breakfast on Channel 4,
Ball co-hosted the 2002 Brit Awards with Frank Skinner, In 2005, she co-hosted the BBC reality show Strictly Dance Fever. In 2006, Ball co-hosted the ITV programme Extinct, alongside Trevor McDonald.
In January 2007, Ball presented the second series of ITV's Soapstar Superstar, taking over from Fern Britton and Ben Shephard, who hosted the first series. In March 2007, she hosted the ITV talent search Grease Is the Word.
Alongside Jamie Theakston, Ball presented Channel 5's quiz series Britain's Best Brain in 2009. Ball has guest presented several episodes of The One Show as a stand-in for Alex Jones.
On 4 August 2013, as hostess of a special entitled , she revealed Peter Capaldi as the incoming Twelfth Doctor and hosted his first interview in that capacity.
In November 2013, Ball co-hosted the BBC One Children in Need telethon, alongside Sir Terry Wogan, Fearne Cotton, Nick Grimshaw and Tess Daly. In 2014, Ball presented a BBC Two spin-off from The Voice UK called . The show aired for one series of ten episodes.
In 2015, Ball hosted , a spin-off show during the EastEnders live week. She co-presented the BBC Young Dancer competition with Darcey Bussell on BBC Two.
Ball also narrated two ITV specials, The Nation's Favourite '70s Number One and The Nation's Favourite '80s Number One, as well as the BBC One series Don't Tell the Bride. In 2016, Ball co-presented Can't Touch This, a Saturday night game show for BBC One, alongside Ashley Banjo.
Ball narrated The Nation's Favourite Carpenters Song, and guest-presented an episode of Film 2016. In 2017, Ball co-presented The Big Family Cooking Showdown with Nadiya Hussain on BBC Two.
Since 2020, Ball has appeared alongside her son Woody Fred Cook on Celebrity Gogglebox.
In 2021, Ball appeared on The Masked Dancer, masked as Llama. She was the sixth celebrity to be unmasked.
In 2023, Ball appeared as herself in Episode 1 of the BBC One comedy Queen of Oz. Ball is seen and heard on her radio programme questioning the outrageous antics of spoiled spare to the British crown, Princess Georgiana, played by Catherine Tate.
In 2024, Ball appeared as a panellist on the "New Year's Treat" episode of Taskmaster for that year.
In 2011, Ball took over from Claudia Winkleman as the host of Strictly Come Dancings sister show , airing every weeknight on BBC Two; in 2014, whilst Winkleman was on leave after her daughter suffered serious burn injuries, Ball co-hosted the main show. On 17 May 2021, Ball announced she was leaving her role as presenter after 10 years.
Ball left BBC Radio 1 in March 2000. Her final show was on 10 March 2000; she was succeeded by Sara Cox.
Ball returned to radio in mid-2002 when she joined London radio station Xfm, where she presented the weekday drivetime show until December 2003. In January 2004, she took over a Friday evening music show for the station. She also stood in for Ricky Gervais while he filmed the second series of The Office. She left Xfm at the end of 2004.
In September 2007, she returned to BBC Radio and co-hosted a show with Sara Cox, celebrating 40 years of BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2.
From 2006, she provided relief presenting duties for BBC Radio 2, fronted specialist documentaries, sat in for Dermot O'Leary for three weeks in February 2006, and co-presented (with Danny Baker) the hastily conceived replacement for Jonathan Ross' Saturday morning show, in the wake of Ross's suspension due to Sachsgate in 2008.
In 2009, Ball became the usual relief presenter for Ken Bruce's weekday mid-morning show on BBC Radio 2. She also began hosting the Saturday breakfast show from 6 am to 8 am on the network from 6 June 2009 as part of a shake-up of weekend programming at Radio 2. Ball left Radio 2 for a while as her last show was broadcast on Saturday 28 January 2012. Her replacement in that slot was Anneka Rice.
Ball covered The Radio 2 Breakfast Show for Chris Evans on several occasions.
From 4 March 2017 to 22 December 2018, Ball returned to Radio 2 on permanent basis where she presented the Saturday afternoon slot on BBC Radio 2 between 3 pm and 6 pm, taking over from Dermot O'Leary.
On 3 October 2018, she was announced by Chris Evans as the new host of The Radio 2 Breakfast Show, which began on 14 January 2019. Rylan Clark replaced Ball in the Saturday mid-afternoon slot.
In August 2024, the BBC confirmed Ball was the second-highest paid BBC presenter after Gary Lineker, with a salary of £950,000, having exceeded that figure for the previous three years. BBC reveals highest-paid stars: Gary Lineker, Zoe Ball and Greg James among broadcaster's top earners Sky News, 11 July 2023. Retrieved 20 January 2025 BBC pay 2023-2024: The full list of star salaries BBC News, 23 July 2024. Retrieved 20 January 2025
On 23 September 2024, Ball announced she was returning to Radio 2, six weeks after announcing a break from the show. On 19 November she announced on the show that she would stop being the presenter of The Breakfast Show from 20 December, but would remain working for the station.
On 3 May 2025, Ball's new Saturday show replaced Pick of the Pops, which had held the 1 pm to 3 pm slot for 16 years; Pick of the Pops moved to Sundays from 5 pm to 7pm.
Between 2017 and 2023, Ball was in a relationship with fashion model and carpenter Michael Reed.
In March 2018, Ball took part in the 'Hardest Ride Home' challenge in which she cycled from Blackpool to Brighton to raise money for Sport Relief and mental health awareness. She set off on 5 March for five days. Highlights of the challenge were broadcast in a one-off documentary, airing on 21 March 2018 on BBC One. She raised £1,198,012.
| + !Year !Title !Role !Slot !Station !Notes | |||||
| 1997–1998 | Radio 1 Breakfast | Co-presenter with Kevin Greening | 6:30–9:00 weekdays | BBC Radio 1 | |
| 1998–2000 | Radio 1 Breakfast | Presenter | 6:00-9:00 weekdays | ||
| 2002–2003 | Weekday Drivetime | Presenter | 16:00–19:00 weekdays | Xfm | |
| 2004 | Friday evenings | Presenter | 19:00–21:00 Fridays | ||
| 2007 | Zoe Ball & Sara Cox | Co-presenter with Sara Cox | 13:00–16:00 Sunday (one-off) | BBC Radio 1 | Special 1-episode show |
| 2008 | Danny Baker & Zoe Ball | 10:00–13:00 Saturday | BBC Radio 2 | 4 episodes | |
| 2009–2012 | Saturday weekend breakfast | Presenter | 6:00–8:00 Saturdays | ||
| 2017–2018 | Saturday mid-afternoons | 15:00–18:00 Saturdays | |||
| 2019–2024 | The Radio 2 Breakfast Show | 6:30–9:30 weekdays | |||
| 2025–present | Saturday lunchtimes | 13:00–15:00 Saturdays |
| 1994–1996 | SMart | Co-presenter | |
| 1995 | Fully Booked | presenter | |
| 1996 | The Big Breakfast | Co-presenter | |
| 1996–1998 | Top of the Pops | Co-presenter | |
| 1996–1999 | Live & Kicking | Co-presenter | |
| 1999–2001 | The Priory | Co-presenter | With Jamie Theakston |
| 2002 | Brit Awards | Co-presenter | With Frank Skinner |
| 2005 | Strictly Dance Fever | Co-presenter | |
| Strictly Come Dancing | Contestant | Series 3 | |
| 2006 | Extinct | Co-presenter | 1 series; with Trevor McDonald |
| 2007 | Soapstar Superstar | Presenter | 1 series |
| Grease Is the Word | Presenter | 1 series | |
| 2009 | Britain's Best Brain | Co-presenter | 1 series; with Jamie Theakston |
| 2011–2020 | Presenter | 10 series, final 2 co-presented by Rylan Clark | |
| 2012–2013, 2016–2017 | The One Show | Guest presenter | 6 episodes |
| 2013 | Presenter | One-off episode | |
| Children in Need | Co-presenter | ||
| The Nation's Favourite Elvis Song | Narrator | One-off episode | |
| 2014 | Presenter | 1 series | |
| Strictly Come Dancing | Stand-in presenter | 6 episodes | |
| 2015 | Presenter | One-off episode | |
| The Nation's Favourite '70s Number One | Narrator | One-off episode | |
| BBC Young Dancer | Co-presenter | Grand final; with Darcey Bussell and Clemency Burton-Hill | |
| Hacker's Birthday Bash: 30 Years of Children's BBC | Herself | One-off episode | |
| Don't Tell the Bride | Narrator | 1 series | |
| The Nation's Favourite '80s Number One | Narrator | One-off episode | |
| 2016 | Can't Touch This | Co-presenter | 1 series; with Ashley Banjo |
| The Nation's Favourite Carpenters Song | Narrator | One-off episode | |
| Film 2016 | Guest presenter | 1 episode | |
| 2017 | Saturday Mash-Up! | Guest | 1 episode |
| The Big Family Cooking Showdown | Co-presenter | 1 series; with Nadiya Hussain | |
| 2018 | Sport Relief | One-off | |
| Zoe Ball on...Saturday/Sunday | Presenter | 1 series + Christmas specials | |
| 2020 | The Big Night In | Co-presenter | |
| 2020–present | Gogglebox | Herself | 5 series; with son Woody Fred Cook |
| 2021 | The Masked Dancer | Contestant | Llama, revealed in Episode 5 |
| The Wheel | Participant | Christmas special | |
| 2023 | Queen of Oz | Herself | 1 episode (Ep 1) |
| Mamma Mia! I Have a Dream | Presenter | Talent show | |
| 2025 | VE Day 80: A Celebration to Remember | Presenter | Concert |
| TBA | Just One Thing | Co-presenter | With Clive Myrie and Roman Kemp |
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