Natasha Kaplinsky

A senior leader can build credibility over a decade and lose it in fifteen seconds at the front of a room. Audiences read composure and recovery in real time, and they decide what to believe accordingly. Internal candidates rarely carry that weight, and the obvious external choices often feel interchangeable.

Natasha Kaplinsky OBE is a British broadcaster and BBFC President who hosts major awards ceremonies and high-stakes corporate panels.

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Why organisations work with Natasha Kaplinsky

  • Twenty-plus years anchoring national news for the BBC, Sky, ITV and Channel 5 means a host who can absorb a script change five minutes before going live and still hold the room.
  • The 112 Holocaust testimony interviews she conducted pro bono for the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation are evidence of an interviewer who can hold material most professionals would not attempt; that capacity transfers directly into sensitive Q&As and reputational moments where missteps are expensive.
  • Concurrent senior governance roles at the British Board of Film Classification, the Royal Ballet School and Barnardo’s mean she meets executives as a peer. Stage conversations tend to land at a higher level as a result.
  • Recognisable to most British audiences from two decades of national bulletins, which makes her presence at the front of an event an immediate signal that the moment is serious.

Biography highlights

  • President of the British Board of Film Classification since October 2022; chairs the Board of Classification and the Advisory Council on Children’s Viewing
  • Chair of The Royal Ballet School since October 2024; President of Barnardo’s since 2019; Global Ambassador for Save the Children
  • Awarded an OBE in the 2017 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to Holocaust Commemoration, following 112 testimony interviews conducted pro bono for the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation
  • Lead news anchor across BBC News, Sky News, Channel 5 and ITV News, with credits including BBC Breakfast, the BBC Six O’Clock News and Five News with Natasha Kaplinsky
  • Author of Letters From Lockdown (Hachette, 2021); contributors include Paul McCartney, Bill Gates, Malala Yousafzai and Sir Mo Farah, with all publisher profits donated to Barnardo’s
  • Newscaster of the Year at the TRIC Awards (2004); inaugural winner of BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing (2004)

Biography

David Cameron’s Holocaust Commission was set up in 2014 to consider how Britain should mark the Holocaust for future generations. Its findings flagged that the testimonies of surviving British witnesses had not been recorded. Over the fifteen months that followed, Natasha Kaplinsky conducted 112 interviews on a pro bono basis. They covered camp survivors, children of the Kindertransport and the British soldiers who liberated Bergen Belsen; the OBE followed in 2017.

This capacity for handling difficult material now sits behind her senior roles across British public life. She is President of the British Board of Film Classification, chairing both the Board of Classification and the Advisory Council on Children’s Viewing. Since October 2024 she has been Chair of The Royal Ballet School; she has been President of Barnardo’s since 2019. Each of these institutions is in the middle of a significant generational transition, and each has put her at the head of its board.

Two decades of live national news anchoring sit behind these roles. She co-presented BBC Breakfast with Dermot Murnaghan, hosted the BBC Six O’Clock News and anchored Five News between 2008 and 2010. Her Channel 5 contract was reported to be the highest newsreader fee in UK television. Sky News won a BAFTA for Best News Channel during her tenure, and she was named TRIC Newscaster of the Year in 2004.

Awards ceremonies, conferences and high-stakes panels live or die on the host. The ability to absorb a last-minute script change or steer a difficult Q&A decides whether the moment is remembered. Audiences read two decades of national broadcasting on sight. Repeat clients including the Royal Society for Public Health and the Vodafone Foundation rebook for the same reason.

Key speaking topics

  • Awards Hosting and Event Compering
  • Conference Moderation and Panel Facilitation
  • Broadcast Communication and Live Storytelling
  • Holocaust Commemoration and Testimony
  • Leadership of Public and Cultural Institutions
  • Children’s Welfare and Online Safety

Ideal for

  • Major industry awards ceremonies and corporate gala dinners requiring a host with national profile and broadcast composure
  • Leadership summits and conference plenaries where the chair must hold a senior panel and steer Q&A in real time
  • Charity and cultural sector events where a recognisable senior public figure adds visible weight
  • Internal town halls, AGMs and investor days where reputational risk on the platform is high

Audience outcomes

  • What 112 Holocaust survivor interviews taught her about drawing testimony out of people nobody else could reach
  • Where children’s online safety regulation is heading, viewed from the BBFC
  • The working principles behind live national broadcasting, including the cases where silence does more work than the next question
  • The case for bearing witness, in journalism and in cultural institutions, made by someone who has spent two decades doing it

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