Karim Zeroual

Why organisations work with Karim Zeroual

• He has presented live on national television since 2014, which is the closest professional analogue to running a thousand-seat awards night without an autocue safety net.
• A Strictly Come Dancing final puts a performer in front of eleven million viewers under live conditions. That is a different category of composure to most stage hosts on the circuit.
• His CBBC and BBC Bitesize background gives him a precise instinct for keeping mixed audiences with the room, which translates directly to long conference agendas and multi-generational employee events.
• He moves between scripted broadcast, live theatre at the London Palladium, and improvised studio formats. Few hosts operate credibly in all three.
• For brands targeting younger employees, families or community audiences, he carries recognition that a generic corporate MC does not.

Biography highlights

• Children’s BBC presenter since 2014, with on-screen credits including BBC Bitesize, Young Dancer, Wimbledon Live and Blue Peter.
• Runner-up, Strictly Come Dancing series 17 (2019), partnered with Amy Dowden; scored the series’ first perfect 40 in Week 11.
• Co-presenter of CBBC’s A Week to Beat the World, a factual travel format filmed across Guatemala, Brazil and Japan.
• Acting credits across The Sparticle Mystery (three series), EastEnders and Da Vinci’s Demons.
• West End and London Palladium stage credits including The Lion King, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Here Come The Boys.
• Trained at Sylvia Young Theatre School and the Urdang Academy.

Biography

A live event is a logistics document until someone walks on stage and turns it into a room. That is the job. Awards nights, internal conferences and brand activations rely on a host who can hold attention without flattening the agenda underneath it.

Karim Zeroual has done that work in the most demanding live environment in British television. As a Children’s BBC presenter since 2014, he has fronted BBC Bitesize, Young Dancer, Wimbledon Live and Blue Peter, formats that punish any host who cannot keep pace with a live cue and a moving audience at the same time.

The Strictly Come Dancing final in 2019 added a different test. Partnered with Amy Dowden, he reached the runner-up position in front of an audience of millions and scored the series’ first perfect forty for a Week 11 Jive. The discipline that produced that result, weeks of repetition under public scrutiny, is the same discipline that lets a host carry an unscripted stage moment without losing the brief.

Stage credits at the London Palladium and across the West End in The Lion King, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Here Come The Boys round out a profile built on live performance rather than recorded craft. For organisations who need a host who can warm a room of two thousand, interview a CEO without flattering them, and shape an awards running order so it actually lands, that combination is what is being booked.

Key speaking topics

• Live event hosting and awards night MC work
• Panel moderation and on-stage interviews
• Conference and town hall hosting
• Brand activation hosting and presenter-led live content
• Youth engagement and family audience communication
• On-camera presenting craft

Ideal for

• Internal communications and HR leads booking annual awards nights, recognition events or town halls
• Brand and marketing teams running consumer-facing activations or family audience events
• Conference organisers who need a moderator credible across panels, fireside chats and stage interviews
• Charity and youth-sector organisations where audience trust with younger demographics matters

Audience outcomes

• A live event run by a host who keeps the agenda intact while the room stays warm
• Panels and interviews that move beyond polite Q and A into useful exchanges
• Awards moments that feel earned for recipients, not stage-managed
• A consistent on-stage presence across multiple sessions of a long-form agenda