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With two decades of presenting experience, Richard Orford has a natural talent for getting the best out of people.
An extraordinarily versatile TV performer with credits ranging from serious news broadcasts to irreverent light entertainment, perhaps Richard's main forte is his comedic persona and ability to convey subjects in a fun, populist and light-hearted manner that viewers automatically warm to and engage with.
A natural funnyman, he skirts just the right line of cheeky yet non-offensive humour coupled with an underlying gravitas and leading host authority.
His live TV experience now stands amongst the largest in the world- having chalked up an incredible onscreen time of 1,800 hours of live TV performing alone. Over Christmas 2011 he completed 20 hours of live TV entertainment over just 4 nights. With this much high-pressure performing under his belt, Richard is quite obviously never fazed by any format.
For 20 years he's worked non-stop in a fickle and ever-changing industry, a testament to his qualities and ability to rise above the latest fads and solidly keep performing and working.
Sports commentaries, comedy sketch show acting, chairing debate shows, narrating documentaries, hosting gunge-tank gameshows for kids- you name it, he's done it.
His major credits include 'Find A Fortune' (ITV1), 'This Morning' (ITV1), 'The Live Six Show' (Sky One) and 'Holiday on a Shoestring' (BBC1), 'The Disney Club' (ITV1) but he's perhaps best known for his 3 years on Channel 4's ground-breaking and award-winning 'The Big Breakfast'.
He hosts his own gameshows 'Defectors' and 'Quizzical' (currently showing on Challenge) and has filmed all over the world.
His background as a qualified journalist and voracious appetite from a young age for reading and writing has become apparent in his presenting work. He writes all his own output and he's currently writing a novel and co-writing a sitcom.
He also has numerous directing/producer credits to his name and is widely acknowledged as a true team player, a safe pair of hands who gets the job done with no fuss whatsoever.
Richard has therefore been a natural choice for corporate work- having worked for major clients like The Royal Bank of Scotland and McDonalds- and has hosted live events such as the world's first ever cricket Twenty20 game and England's entire one-day international cricket series the year they famously won the Ashes for the first time in 18 years.
His voice has been recently utilised as a commentator on Sky Sports and on the iconic 'Late Night Poker' (Channel 4) and has proved perfect for adverts and primetime documentaries. For seven years he was the writer and announcer of Living TV.
His first love is presenting though and for the past 5 years Richard has been the lead presenter on television's state-of-the-art interactive channel, Sky Poker, the only channel in the world where the viewers effectively dictate the content.
Utilised by Sky to present their flagship broadcasts such as Primo, The High Roller and The UK Cash Game Richard has been able to develop his humorous and interactive banter with the audience ensuring the experience is personable and enjoyable for every viewer, whilst honing his skills as a performer.
Outside of presenting Richard is an undergraduate in history, and has a keen interest in philosophy, self-improvement, personal development and fitness. He is a huge movie aficionado and an accomplished poker player. He lives in London with his partner and has 3 young children.
