Jeremy Paxman

Jeremy Paxman is a charismatic award-winning journalist, author and television presenter.

He began his career for the BBC covering the Northern Ireland conflict before reporting from around the world for eight years. In 1989 he became host of BBC Newsnight, a role which defined his career and made him a household name for 25 years. He has chaired University Challenge since 1994. In May 2015 and in June 2017 he anchored Channel 4’s election night coverage.

He is the author of numerous documentaries and documentary series – on the history of the British Empire, on the poet Wilfred Owen, on Victorian art, on Churchill’s funeral and on the effect of the First World War on Great Britain.

In March 2015, he interviewed David Cameron and Ed Miliband in the run-up to the General Election, which he anchored for Channel 4.

Recently he has presented current affairs documentaries for BBC1 Paxman on Brussels: Who Really Rules Us? also Paxman on Trump v Clinton: Divided America, and Trump’s First 100 Days as well as a four part series for Channel 4 about British rivers in 2016/17. Jeremy presented Have I Got News For You for the first time in April 2018.

His 2014 one-man show PAXO at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe was a critically acclaimed sell-out.

Jeremy was born in Yorkshire, educated at Malvern College in Worcestershire and received his degree in English from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. He is an honorary fellow there, and a Fellow by Special Election at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He holds honorary doctorates from Leeds, Bradford and the Open University.

He is the author of more than ten books, including The English – Portrait of a People; The Political Animal; On Royalty; The Victorians; Empire – What Ruling the World Did to the British. Great Britain’s Great War was published in October 2013.

He is a Financial Times contributing and charitable interests include homelessness, mental health, and education.

In his spare time, Jeremy goes fly-fishing and is editor of Fish, Fishing and the Meaning of Life. The book is actually about the first two topics. Jeremy has a dog called Derek from Battersea Dogs’ Home and he makes particularly good rhubarb jam but he has trouble getting it to set properly. Jeremy makes the jam, not the dog.

In May 2021 Jeremy Paxman revealed that has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. He intends to continue to broadcast.