Kirsten O'Brien
Born	February 23, 1972 (1972-02-23) (age 36) Middlesbrough
Occupation	Radio and TV Presenter

Kirsten O'Brien (born 23 February 1972) is a CBBC presenter, originally from Middlesbrough. is the 54th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 54th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Current CBBC Logo CBBC - short for Childrens BBC - is the brand-name for the BBCs childrens television programmes aimed at children aged between 6 and 12 years old. ... Middlesborough redirects here. ...

She presents SMart, and presented Smile and Totally Doctor Who alongside Barney Harwood. Look up smart in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Smile is a British Sunday morning programme thats aimed at children. ... Totally Doctor Who is a childrens television series produced by the BBC to accompany the science fiction series Doctor Who. ... Barney Harwood (born 7 November 1979 in Blackpool, England) is a British presenter well known for his work with the CBBC channel. ...

Early life

As a result of her father's work - he was a civil engineer - she spent her childhood moving from country-to-country, including spells in Algeria, Kuwait, Nigeria, Singapore and the UK (Middlesbrough). She is half-British, half-Norwegian.

Career

She got her first broadcast experience on the student radio station at Birmingham Polytechnic, which led to her first proper job at Tyne Tees Television, where in 1995 she made her presenting debut on a children's science programme. The University of Central England in Birmingham (also known as UCE Birmingham) is a University in the city of Birmingham, England. ... Tyne Tees Television is the ITV television contractor for North East England. ...

Her big break came in 1996 when she joined the team of presenters on the BBC's children's strand CBBC. She stayed there for three-and-a-half years, during which time she became best-known for her partnership with smart-talking puppet Otis the Aardvark. Both O'Brien and Otis also co-presented with other people (and sometimes solo), but they really shone as a double-act, so much so that the 1997 Saturday morning spin-off, Saturday Aardvark, was entirely built around them. Puppeteer Dave Chapman would often reduce O'Brien to helpless laughter with his ad-libs. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Dave Chapman (b. ...

O'Brien left the CBBC on air presentation team in 1999, but is still a regular on children's TV and radio. Her artistic skills have been put to good use as co-host of SMart and its spin-offs SMart On the Road and SMarteenies (for the pre-school CBeebies channel). On radio, she was one of the presenters of BBC 7's Little Toe Radio Show. tweeuies ... CBeebies is a British television channel produced by the BBC and aimed at children six years and under. ... BBC Radio 7 is a digital radio station broadcasting comedy, drama, and childrens programming 24 hours a day. ...

In 2004, she played Peter Pan in pantomime. The same year, O'Brien discovered a previously unsuspected talent when challenged to take part in a lumberjack competition for the BBC series Bring It On. She performed a stand up show during the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2006, entitled, Lesley's Lunch Hour - Not During Lunch, And Not Quite An Hour, meaning that she did not present Smile that month. Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright, J. M. Barrie (1860–1937), as well as the title of a stage play and novel based on the character. ... A street performer on the Royal Mile, with volunteer (2004). ...

Between 28 May and 15 June 2007, she co-presented Springwatch Trackers alongside Steve Backshall. Transmitted live on BBC Two from a farm in Devon and repeated later in the day on the CBBC Channel, teams of boys and girls were set a series of Tracker challenges. is the 148th day of the year (149th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 166th day of the year (167th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ... For the BBC radio station, see BBC Radio 2. ... For other uses, see Devon (disambiguation). ... The CBBC Channel is a British television service aimed at 6 to 13 year olds produced by the BBC. It complements the CBBC programming that continues to air on BBC One and BBC Two. ...

She has been a guest on Stephen Merchant's The Steve Show on BBC 6 Music, Through the Keyhole and has made numerous appearances on Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive. Stephen Merchant (born 24 November 1974 in Bristol) is an English Emmy, Golden Globe, British Comedy Award and BAFTA-award winning writer, director, and comedic actor. ... BBC 6 Music is one of the BBCs newest radio stations, launched on March 11, 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It is only available via digital media - DAB radio, the Internet and the various forms of digital television. ... Through the Keyhole is a light-hearted BBC (originally ITV) panel game, where panelists have to attempt to identify the celebrity who lives in a house, after they are given a video tour of it. ... Rob Brydons Annually Retentive is a BBC Three television show, which first aired in the UK in July 2006. ...

Personal life

O'Brien plays tennis, and has taken part in swimming, abseiling and netball events for charity. She also claims to hold the world record for wearing 42 socks on one foot and another record for tapping. ^[1]

References

1. ^ A quote from The Steve Show - BBC 6 Music, Sunday 22 July 2007

External links

• Kirsten O'Brien at the Internet Movie Database
• the-void.co.uk/comedy review of "Confessions of a Children's TV Presenter" at Edinburgh Fringe 2007