Childhood & Early Life
Gaby Roslin was born on July 12, 1964, in London, England, into the Zimbabwe-origin Jewish family of Clive Roslin, a BBC Radio 4 newsreader, and his wife Jackie. Her father, a friend of television presenter Valerie Singleton, often took her to television centre to watch the broadcast of 'Blue Peter', which inspired her to be on television when she was only three.
She attended the local state school Robinsfield Infants in St John's Wood, north London, before going to King Alfred's School, a London Independent co-ed, progressive school in Hampstead. A very shy girl, she began acting to overcome her shyness and played a polar bear in 'The Snow Queen' and a mock turtle in 'Alice in Wonderland' in school.
Her class was one of the first to do drama at O-levels, following which she took history and sociology for A-levels as two advanced level subjects were required for drama school. She had auditioned for Bristol Old Vic, but was offered a place the next year, which prompted her to audition for Guildford School of Acting, from where she completed her studies three years later.
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Career
Gaby Roslin, who wanted to be a children's TV presenter and actress, sent out her CV to theatres following graduation, and requested her father's friend Martin Everard, who had started Sky's Superchannel, for audition. As instructed, she filmed a video playing games with children from her old school King Alfred's and bagged her own children's series 'Hippo' in 1986.
She next presented 'Motormouth' on ITV from 1989 until 1992 before Planet 24 offered her to be the co-presenter on the new early-morning program 'The Big Breakfast' alongside Chris Evans on Channel 4. The show, which started without scripts and minimal direction, became very popular thanks to her ever-happy attitude and the chemistry between the presenters, and remains one of her best career experiences.
She continued to co-present the show for four years – eventually with Mark Little after Evans left in 1994 – and headed the National Egg Awareness Campaign before leaving the show in 1996. She briefly hosted 'The Gaby Roslin Show' for Channel 4 in 1996 before moving to BBC to present 'Whatever You Want', becoming the first female television presenter to host her own Saturday night entertainment show.
One of the most recognizable faces on television, she co-presented BBC's '2000 Today' with Michael Parkinson, Michael Buerk and Jamie Theakston, and was the only presenter to remain on air the entire 28 hours. Starting in 1995, she presented BBC's UK charity for disadvantaged children and youth, 'Children in Need', alongside Sue Cook and Terry Wogan, and continued to host it until 2004.
She also presented BBC shows like 'The Real Holiday Show', 'Watchdog Healthcheck', and 'A Question of TV', and in 2002, returned to breakfast television to present 'Wimbledon Tennis Preview' for BBC's 'Breakfast'. In June 2003, she joined Five to co-host 'The Terry and Gaby Show' with Terry Wogan, in which they interviewed some of the biggest celebrities from the entertainment industry.
In February 2004, she and Terry Wogan co-hosted 'Eurovision: Making Your Mind Up', the revamped version of 'A Song for Europe' which selected the song to send to the 'Eurovision Song Contest 2004'. Unfortunately, their magazine format daytime show on Five was cancelled in March that year after 200 episodes due to steep competition from ITV's long-established 'This Morning'.
She made her West End acting debut playing Mama Morton in the London stage version of 'Chicago' in 2002 and starred in National Theatre's touring production of 'Dinner' in June-July 2004. In 2005, she appeared in a national tour of the stage version of 'When Harry Met Sally...'.
In 2005, she co-presented ITV's daytime program 'Solution Street' with Ben Shephard and the following year, partnered with ABC front-man Martin Fry as participants on BBC's celebrity duet show 'Just the Two of Us'. Two years later, she presented 30 episodes of the documentary series 'Life Begins Again' and appeared in the mini-series 'Britain Sings Christmas'.
In January 2010, she teamed up with her former 'Big Breakfast' colleague Paul Ross on BBC Radio London 94.9 breakfast show, replacing Joanne Good. In January 2013, she got her own weekly Saturday show at noon, which was extended till afternoon one year later.
She has often appeared as a newspaper reviewer on ITV's 'This Morning' in 1996-2012 and has been a guest on the daytime TV show 'Loose Women' several times between 2005 and 2016. In 2015-16, she was the co-presenter of Channel 5's 'The Saturday Show', first with Matt Barbet and then with Matt Allwright, and was the sole presenter of ITV's 'Lorraine'.
She has been a panelist on shows like 'The Apprentice: You're Fired!' and 'The Wright Stuff', and participated as a contestant on 'Richard Osman's House of Games' in 2018. Since June 2018, she has been presenting 'Gaby's Talking Pictures', a panel show for BBC Radio 4.
Family & Personal Life
Both of Gaby Roslin's parents were diagnosed with cancer about the same time during the 1990s, and she was 33 years old when her mother succumbed to lung cancer in 1997. Her father eventually won his battle with bowel cancer and now campaigns with her to raise awareness about the deadly disease.
She supports cancer fundraising efforts by Marie Curie Cancer Care, where her parents were admitted, and also participates in Breakthrough Breast Cancer's £1,000 challenge. She is an ambassador for the children's charity WellChild and supports other cancer-related charities like CLIC Sargent and HAWC (Help Adolescents With Cancer).
After a couple years of dating, she got married to musician Colin Peel on May 15, 1995, but the marriage ended in divorce nine years later in 2004. They have a daughter named Libbi-Jack who was born in July 2001.
About a year after her divorce, she began dating publisher David Osman, with whom she welcomed her second daughter Amelie, a surprise child in her early forties, in December 2006. She revealed her engagement to her boyfriend of six-and-a-half years live on the ITV show 'Loose Women' in March 2012, and they got married on June 22, 2013.
