Producer · Actor

1968-06-05 · United Kingdom · Female

66 series in the catalog

Melanie Clare Sophie Giedroyc ( GHED-roytch, Polish pronunciation: [ˈɡʲɛdrɔjt͡ɕ]; born 5 June 1968) is an English comedian, television presenter and actress.

With Sue Perkins, she has co-hosted series including Light Lunch for Channel 4, The Great British Bake Off for the BBC, and chat show Mel and Sue for ITV. Since 2015, she has held a number of commentating roles for the Eurovision Song Contest. In early 2017, Giedroyc co-presented the BBC show Let It Shine.

Education and early life

Giedroyc was born on 5 June 1968 in Epsom, Surrey, and grew up in Leatherhead. Her father, Michal, an aircraft designer, civil engineer and family historian, of Polish–Lithuanian descent from the aristocratic Giedroyć family, had moved to Britain in 1947; he died in December 2017.

Her English mother, Rosemary "Rosy" Cumpston (1937–2024), trained as a nurse from age 17, and was a heavy smoker until she suffered a stroke in later life and was confined to a Nursing home, where she died. Mel's older sister is film and television director Coky Giedroyc. After moving to Oxford as a teenager, Giedroyc was privately educated at Oxford High School, England and later the University of Cambridge as a student of Trinity College, Cambridge, where she graduated with a lower second class degree in French and Italian, she has subsequently expressed regret at not working harder and attending more of her lectures.

Television

Giedroyc met Sue Perkins while they were students at the University of Cambridge and members of the Footlights comedy club. Mel and Sue were short-listed for the Daily Express Best Newcomers Award at the Edinburgh Festival in 1993. Their first presenting roles saw them host a lunchtime show on Channel 4 called Light Lunch (and the early evening version, Late Lunch). In 1996, she appeared with Perkins in four episodes of the BBC One sketch comedy series French and Saunders.

In 1999, Giedroyc appeared with Perkins in one episode of Gimme Gimme Gimme, playing a receptionist at a hotel. She was also a presenter on Channel 4's RI:SE. She narrated Celebrity Driving School in 2003. Some other ventures include being a contestant on the 2005 series of The Games, co-starring in the 2005 BBC One sitcom Blessed and co-presenting Richard Hammond's 5 O'Clock Show on ITV. Giedroyc was in one episode of The Vicar of Dibley.

Giedroyc was the sixth student to be voted out of Comic Relief Does Fame Academy and was a celebrity judge on the 2007 edition of Making Your Mind Up along with John Barrowman. She starred as one of the presenters in the show Eurobeat: Almost Eurovision! at the Edinburgh Fringe and subsequently in the West End at the Novello Theatre. Giedroyc played the Fairy Liquid in a production of Jack and the Beanstalk at London's Barbican theatre in December 2007. She appeared in a children's sketch show for the BBC Sorry, I've Got No Head. In 2010, Giedroyc was a celebrity guest team captain on What Do Kids Know? with Rufus Hound, Joe Swash and Sara Cox on Watch and also appeared in the first episode of series two of Miranda Hart's self-titled sitcom Miranda as a life coach.

Giedroyc was a panellist on the Channel 5 programme The Wright Stuff in 2007, 2008 and in February 2010. She plays Mrs V, the owner of the Y café, in CBBC programme Sadie J and is also the voice of Mist in Mist: Sheepdog Tales, shown on Channel 5's morning show Milkshake!.

Giedroyc was reunited with Sue Perkins in 2010 to host the cookery competition The Great British Bake Off, on BBC Two from 16 August 2010. Later, in an apparently syndicated newspaper interview, Giedroyc admitted that she did the show just for the money, informing readers that she had nearly gone bankrupt. The show moved to BBC One for its fifth series and has won numerous awards.

In 2012 and 2013, Giedroyc hosted two special charity series for Sport Relief and Comic Relief featuring celebrities who took part for charity. In 2014, she guest hosted an episode of The Great Sport Relief Bake Off and in 2015, one episode of The Great Comic Relief Bake Off.

In March 2014, Giedroyc presented Collectaholics, a factual mini-series for BBC Two.

From May 2014, Giedroyc presented one series of the Channel 4 programme Draw It!, based upon and developed by the makers of the mobile app Draw Something.

In May 2014, Giedroyc and clinical psychologist Dr Jennifer Wild presented a one-off show for BBC One called Vertigo Road Trip about people who have a fear of heights. Reviewing the programme, in The Psychologist, Petrina Cox described it as "an engaging and valuable education for the general public about the nature of anxiety disorders such as specific phobias. It is sure to reduce stigma, inspire hope and encourage people to seek evidence-based treatments... "

On 12 November 2014, Giedroyc guest hosted an episode of The One Show with Alex Jones.

In 2015, Giedroyc narrated eight-part BBC One series Now You See It. A second series aired in 2016.

In January 2015, Giedroyc and Perkins were given their own daytime chat show on ITV. The show, called Mel and Sue aired for 30 episodes, every weekday at 4pm. In August 2015, it was announced that Mel and Sue had not been re-commissioned.

Giedroyc and Matt Baker began co-hosting four-part BBC One series The Gift in February 2015. The Gift returned for a second series in 2017.

Giedroyc hosted the Sky1 primetime game show Relatively Clever, which began on 3 April 2015.

In May 2015, Giedroyc joined Scott Mills in commentating the semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 for the United Kingdom. It was broadcast on BBC Three.

In December 2015, Giedroyc performed as Frau Schmidt in The Sound of Music Live (2015) which was broadcast on ITV.

In 2016, she presented the first episode of The Great Sport Relief Bake Off.

Since 2016, Giedroyc has presented the Eurovision You Decide programme.

In September 2016, Love Productions announced that a three-year deal had been agreed to broadcast The Great British Bake Off on Channel 4, instead of the BBC, from 2017. Giedroyc and Perkins announced that they would not be continuing with the show on its new network. Mary Berry later announced she was also leaving Bake Off on the same day that fellow judge Paul Hollywood separately announced he would be staying with the show.

In 2017, Giedroyc co-presented the Saturday night BBC show Let It Shine – including three live shows – alongside Graham Norton. The judges were Gary Barlow, Martin Kemp and Dannii Minogue.

She narrated The Secret Chef for ITV and co-presented Let's Sing and Dance for Comic Relief alongside Sue Perkins on BBC One.

Also in 2017, Giedroyc competed in the fourth series of Taskmaster against Lolly Adefope, Hugh Dennis, Noel Fielding and Joe Lycett. Since June 2017, Giedroyc has presented Saturday night entertainment series Pitch Battle for BBC One. She also presents the daily BBC Two game show Letterbox, having hosted 45 episodes (15 for series one, 30 for series two) since 2017. On 23 July 2017, it was confirmed that Giedroyc and Perkins would host a new version of The Generation Game for BBC One.

In November 2017, she co-presented Children in Need for the first time. In December 2017, she hosted an episode of Have I Got News for You and was host again in 2022 and 2024.

In May 2018, Giedroyc was the spokesperson for the United Kingdom as part of the Eurovision Song Contest 2018.

Mel Giedroyc: Unforgivable began airing on Dave in February 2021. It invites three celebrity guests along to Mel's confessional each week to find out who's committed sins that are so bad that they should be declared 'unforgivable'.

On 13 May 2023, Giedroyc was UK co-commentator at the Eurovision Song Contest final, alongside Graham Norton. In a reference to the 2014 Polish Eurovision entry "My Słowianie" and to Giedroyc's own Polish heritage, she appeared as a Polish milkmaid, suggestively churning butter behind host Hannah Waddingham, as Waddingham introduced Armenia's performance after the…