June Sarpong
Encyclopedia
June Sarpong MBE
(born 31 May 1977) is an English television presenter of Ghana
ian descent.
and Sir George Monoux College in Walthamstow
.
and later became an MTV
UK & Ireland presenter (MTV Dance Floor Chart). As one of the female faces of Channel 4
’s Sunday morning strand T4
for the last nine years, she interviewed Tony Blair
for a T4 special, When Tony Met June which aired in January 2005. She also runs her own production company, Lipgloss Productions. Projects in development include a sitcom and a programme on climate change.
In recent years, Sarpong has presented other series including Your Face Or Mine?, a game show co-hosted with Jimmy Carr
for E4; Dirty Laundry, an urban talk-show which was an original idea of Sarpong's; Playing It Straight, a dating game-show filmed in Mexico for Channel 4, and Sarpong has presented the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party and the Party In The Park. Sarpong is a regular at the MOBO
Awards and has presented them for three years in a row. She has also appeared on BBC Television
’s Question Time
, 8 out of 10 Cats
, and Have I Got News For You
. She also has appeared on the programme, Never Mind The Buzzcocks
and introduced reports on youth culture for This Week. In 2006 she hosted ITV2
's WAGs Boutique. Sarpong has also appeard on the third series of Bo Selecta.
Sarpong appeared in The Extra's Special Series Finale with Ricky Gervais (2007). On 22 October 2007 it was announced that she had quit her presenter role on T4
after nine years. Her last show was broadcast on 23 December 2007.
Sarpong made a guest appearance in Little Miss Jocelyn
series 2, episode 3. (2008) On 6 November 2009 she hosted the Sky 1 programme – Michael Jackson: The Search For...His Spirit in which she went around locations pertinent to his life looking for signs of his ghost. The programme was broadcast as part of a double bill, the second part comprising a live seance
conducted by Derek Acorah for which Sarpong again played host.
Sarpong currently works as an interviewer on Jesse Ventura
's Conspiracy Theory
show broadcast on TruTV.
, a non-profit organization which provides a daily meal to students of township
schools in Soweto
of South Africa
. She is also an ambassador for The Prince's Trust
, and campaigns for the Make Poverty History
movement. In April 2005 she visited Ghana
to make a film for Make Poverty History. She also hosted the major Make Poverty History event in London’s Trafalgar Square
in summer 2005 on behalf of Nelson Mandela
and Bob Geldof
.
On 7 July 2007 Sarpong presented at the UK leg
of Live Earth
at Wembley Stadium
, London.
In March 2011 Lipgloss Productions registered huffingtonpost.co.uk, sparking speculation that she will helm the UK arm of the popular website.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(born 31 May 1977) is an English television presenter of Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
ian descent.
Education
Sarpong was born in London to Ghanaian parents. She was educated at Connaught Girls School in LeytonstoneLeytonstone
Leytonstone is an area of east London and part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is a high density suburban area, located seven miles north east of Charing Cross in the ceremonial county of Greater London and the historic county of Essex...
and Sir George Monoux College in Walthamstow
Walthamstow
Walthamstow is a district of northeast London, England, located in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is situated north-east of Charing Cross...
.
Career
She began her media career with Kiss 100Kiss 100 London
Kiss is a UK radio station broadcasting on FM and Digital Radio, specialising in hip hop, R&B, urban and electronic dance music. It also broadcasts on DAB Digital Radio around the UK & nationally on Freeview, Sky and TalkTalk TV...
and later became an MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
UK & Ireland presenter (MTV Dance Floor Chart). As one of the female faces of Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
’s Sunday morning strand T4
T4 (Channel 4)
T4 is a scheduling slot on Channel 4 from about 09:00 until 14:00 on Saturdays and 17:00 on Sundays. It also airs on weekdays in the school holidays. The slot has a separate station identification on screen graphic from Channel 4 and E4. The logo of T4 is noticeably the top right segment of the...
for the last nine years, she interviewed Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
for a T4 special, When Tony Met June which aired in January 2005. She also runs her own production company, Lipgloss Productions. Projects in development include a sitcom and a programme on climate change.
In recent years, Sarpong has presented other series including Your Face Or Mine?, a game show co-hosted with Jimmy Carr
Jimmy Carr
James Anthony Patrick "Jimmy" Carr is an English-Irish comedian and humourist. He is known for his deadpan delivery and dark humour. He is also a writer, actor and presenter of radio and television....
for E4; Dirty Laundry, an urban talk-show which was an original idea of Sarpong's; Playing It Straight, a dating game-show filmed in Mexico for Channel 4, and Sarpong has presented the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party and the Party In The Park. Sarpong is a regular at the MOBO
Mobo
Mobo can refer to:*Shorthand for the motherboard in computers and other electronic equipment*Shorthand for a mobile [network] operator or MNO *Shorthand for a mobile bohemian, a person who embraces mobile technology...
Awards and has presented them for three years in a row. She has also appeared on BBC Television
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
’s Question Time
Question Time
Question time in a parliament occurs when members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers , which they are obliged to answer. It usually occurs daily while parliament is sitting, though it can be cancelled in exceptional circumstances...
, 8 out of 10 Cats
8 Out of 10 Cats
8 out of 10 Cats is a television comedy panel game made by Zeppotron for Channel 4. It was first broadcast on 3 June 2005. The show is based on statistics and opinion polls, and draws on polls produced by a variety of organizations and new polls commissioned for the programme, carried out by...
, and Have I Got News For You
Have I Got News for You
Have I Got News for You is a British television panel show produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. It is based loosely on the BBC Radio 4 show The News Quiz, and has been broadcast since 1990, currently the BBC's longest-ever running television panel show...
. She also has appeared on the programme, Never Mind The Buzzcocks
Never Mind the Buzzcocks
Never Mind the Buzzcocks is a comedy panel game television show with a pop music theme, currently without a permanent presenter. It stars Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding as team captains. The show is produced by Talkback Thames for the BBC, and is usually aired on BBC Two...
and introduced reports on youth culture for This Week. In 2006 she hosted ITV2
ITV2
ITV2 is a 24 hour, free-to-air entertainment television channel in the United Kingdom owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998, and is available on digital television via satellite, cable, IPTV and terrestrial platforms. The channel has the...
's WAGs Boutique. Sarpong has also appeard on the third series of Bo Selecta.
Sarpong appeared in The Extra's Special Series Finale with Ricky Gervais (2007). On 22 October 2007 it was announced that she had quit her presenter role on T4
T4 (Channel 4)
T4 is a scheduling slot on Channel 4 from about 09:00 until 14:00 on Saturdays and 17:00 on Sundays. It also airs on weekdays in the school holidays. The slot has a separate station identification on screen graphic from Channel 4 and E4. The logo of T4 is noticeably the top right segment of the...
after nine years. Her last show was broadcast on 23 December 2007.
Sarpong made a guest appearance in Little Miss Jocelyn
Little Miss Jocelyn
Little Miss Jocelyn is a British TV sketch comedy written by and starring Jocelyn Jee Esien. The show is made up of studio sketches and hidden camera footage in which unsuspecting members of the public become part of a sketch.-History:...
series 2, episode 3. (2008) On 6 November 2009 she hosted the Sky 1 programme – Michael Jackson: The Search For...His Spirit in which she went around locations pertinent to his life looking for signs of his ghost. The programme was broadcast as part of a double bill, the second part comprising a live seance
Séance
A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word "séance" comes from the French word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma"...
conducted by Derek Acorah for which Sarpong again played host.
Sarpong currently works as an interviewer on Jesse Ventura
Jesse Ventura
James George Janos , better known as Jesse Ventura, is an American politician, the 38th Governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003, Navy UDT veteran, former SEAL reservist, actor, and former radio and television talk show host...
's Conspiracy Theory
Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura
Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura is an American television series hosted by Jesse Ventura and broadcast on truTV . It premiered on December 2, 2009, and is produced by A. Smith & Co. Productions. A second season premiered on October 15, 2010...
show broadcast on TruTV.
Charity work
Sarpong serves as a director on the board of The Lunchbox FundThe Lunchbox Fund
The Lunchbox Fund, founded in 2005, is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing a daily meal for extremely poor and at-risk students in South African town ship high schools. The daily meal boosts the children’s nutrition and ability to learn...
, a non-profit organization which provides a daily meal to students of township
Township
The word township is used to refer to different kinds of settlements in different countries. Township is generally associated with an urban area. However there are many exceptions to this rule. In Australia, the United States, and Canada, they may be settlements too small to be considered urban...
schools in Soweto
Soweto
Soweto is a lower-class-populated urban area of the city of Johannesburg in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for South Western Townships...
of South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. She is also an ambassador for The Prince's Trust
The Prince's Trust
The Prince's Trust is a charity in the United Kingdom founded in 1976 by Charles, Prince of Wales to help young people. They run a range of training programmes, provide mentoring support and offer financial grants to build the confidence and motivation of disadvantaged young people...
, and campaigns for the Make Poverty History
Make Poverty History
Make Poverty History is the name of a campaign that exists in a number of countries, including Australia, Canada, Denmark , Finland, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Romania, the United Arab Emirates, Great Britain and Ireland...
movement. In April 2005 she visited Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
to make a film for Make Poverty History. She also hosted the major Make Poverty History event in London’s Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of...
in summer 2005 on behalf of Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
and Bob Geldof
Bob Geldof
Robert Frederick Zenon "Bob" Geldof, KBE is an Irish singer, songwriter, author, occasional actor and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats in the late 1970s and early 1980s alongside the punk rock movement. The band had hits with his...
.
On 7 July 2007 Sarpong presented at the UK leg
Live Earth concert, London
The Live Earth concert in the United Kingdom was held at Wembley Stadium, London, England on 7 July 2007.-Running order:In order of appearance :...
of Live Earth
Live Earth
-Background:Founded by Emmy-winning producer Kevin Wall, in partnership with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Live Earth was built upon the belief that entertainment has the power to transcend social and cultural barriers to move the world community to action...
at Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium
The original Wembley Stadium, officially known as the Empire Stadium, was a football stadium in Wembley, a suburb of north-west London, standing on the site now occupied by the new Wembley Stadium that opened in 2007...
, London.
Honours
At the age of twenty nine and after six years as a broadcaster, she was awarded an MBE in the 2007 New Year Honours List for "services to broadcasting and charity".Online work
On 8 July 2008, Sarpong launched a new venture called Politics & The City, an attempt to bring politics and news to a new market. The site received a great deal of media coverage and some criticism.In March 2011 Lipgloss Productions registered huffingtonpost.co.uk, sparking speculation that she will helm the UK arm of the popular website.