Lauren Layfield is a versatile and natural presenter, with a wealth of experience across live TV and radio.
Lauren had a great start to 2023 by joining the BBC Eurovision presenting line-up for their highly-anticipated show here in the UK.
She was chosen to be the host of the BBC Official Eurovision Pre-Party LIVE as well as guesting on various other Eurovision programming including The Weakest Link: A Eurovision Special. It follows the success of Junior Eurovision 2022 where she stepped into Graham Norton’s iconic shoes to become the commentator for the youth competition, bringing her quick wit to all of the action from Armenia, broadcasting live on BBC One.
Lauren – who is British Guyanese – has been a regular reporter for The One Show since 2021, covering a range of topical stories such as NHS pressures and the cost of living crisis, but also becoming the go-to-girl for more female-centric issues including spiking, backstreet Botox and cyberflashing. She’s also made health-related films for BBC Morning Live, most recently opening up about her own experiences of OCD.
In the world of radio, she been waking up the nation’s early risers Monday to Friday on Capital’s Early Breakfast Show since 2019 and whilst covering The Capital Breakfast Show with Roman Kemp, she’s interviewed the biggest names in pop and beyond, from Ed Sheeran to Steve Carell to Cardi B.
It was whilst she was working behind-the-scenes in television in 2014 that CBBC bosses snapped Lauren up to appear on-air and from that moment on, she’s never left our screens. She spent eight years at the helm of some of the biggest entertainment shows on the channel, fronting four series of the BAFTA-winning makeover format The Dengineers, hosting weekly music show The Playlist and becoming the solo host of comedy panel show The Dog Ate My Homework – a role previously held by comedian Iain Stirling. All of this was alongside going live on weekday afternoons from the CBBC HQ studio (previously known as ‘the broom cupboard’), making her one of the channel’s most recognisable faces.
On 2021’s International Women’s Day, Lauren fronted her first documentary for the flagship brand BBC Newsround. The ground-breaking Let’s Talk About Periods was aimed at dispelling the stigma around menstruation and was nominated for a Royal Television Society Award and a prestigious International Emmy. Following its huge success, Lauren returned in 2022 with its follow-up, Let’s Talk About Sexism.
Her success in the documentary space comes from her previous career as a BJTC-qualified journalist, which saw Lauren wearing stab vests on drugs raids and reporting on the lives of sex workers. This experience, combined with her natural warmth, made her the perfect host for Channel 4’s Hollyoaks podcast, which explored a variety of social action issues raised in the soap, ranging from drag culture to relationships to far-right extremism.
In sport, you may have seen Lauren presenting for BBC One’s Match of the Day and its youth-orientation spin-off MOTDx on BBC Two. She’s also hosted for the Premier League, joined forces with the England Lionesses and fronts online content for her own club, Manchester City.
Lauren has been booked as a guest on a range of shows including Celebrity Mastermind, Sky Atlantic’s The House of the Dragon Finale Special, Celebrity Bridge of Lies, ITV2’s How We Move as well as BBC Radio 2, Woman’s Hour, BBC 5Live and podcasts like Love Island: The Morning After and Russell Kane’s Man Baggage. She’s also worked alongside Children in Need and hosted events for BAFTA. Global’s commercial division also work closely with Lauren and she has collaborated with brands such as Coca Cola, SkyQ, Candycrush and Barclaycard’s Jingle Bell Ball.
Elsewhere Lauren is a DJ, playing for brands such as Superdry, Tinder x Love Island, ASICS and Vaseline as well as festivals like All Points East and British Summer Time and sporting events such as the ICC Cricket World Cup and the Women’s Six Nations.
She is an ambassador for mental health charity Young Minds and period poverty organisation Bloody Good Period.
Her debut teen novel ‘Indi Raye is Totally Faking It’ will be published in August 2023 by Hachette UK.
