Alex Beresford
Inclusion conversations inside large organisations have hit a wall. Senior leaders need someone who can hold the room on race, representation and difficult questions without turning the session into political theatre. The credibility comes from the person, not the slide deck.
Alex Beresford is an ITV broadcaster who hosts, moderates and speaks for organisations on inclusion, mental health and the realities behind inner-city youth violence.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Alex Beresford
- A live broadcaster used to high-stakes interviews and unscripted moments, including the March 2021 Good Morning Britain exchange with Piers Morgan that drew over 41,000 Ofcom complaints and ended in Morgan’s resignation.
- Direct lived experience of race in British media, used to open inclusion conversations that internal facilitators cannot host with the same credibility.
- A working journalist’s grasp of climate, extreme weather and current affairs, having reported in the field for ITV and produced Channel 4 documentaries on tornadoes and British weather extremes.
- Substantive ties to youth and social mobility through his role as ambassador for Empire Fighting Chance and his long-running schools and prisons tour on knife crime and media careers.
- A trusted morning television face who can chair a panel, moderate a town hall or anchor a conference day with the rhythm and composure of live broadcast.
Biography highlights
- Lead weather presenter, ITV Evening News, and regular presenter on Good Morning Britain.
- Host of Channel 4’s The World’s Weirdest Weather and Britain’s Most Extreme Weather.
- Ambassador, Empire Fighting Chance, Bristol-based youth violence prevention charity.
- Selected for the UK government’s Reach Role Model Programme, 2008.
- Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy, University of Gloucestershire.
- Debut book Things We Should Talk About acquired by Sphere, Little, Brown.
Biography
The 9 March 2021 episode of Good Morning Britain ended with Piers Morgan walking off set. The presenter who pushed the conversation about Meghan Markle, race and what counts as fair comment was Alex Beresford, then ITV’s lead weatherman. Morgan resigned the same day. Ofcom logged over 41,000 complaints. The clip is still cited as a turning point in how British morning television talks about race.
Beresford has been on ITV since 2004, first as a teleprompter operator at ITV West in Bristol, then as a regional weather presenter, then on the national network. He has fronted Channel 4 documentary series on extreme weather, flown into Oklahoma after the 2013 EF5 tornado for the film Super Tornado, and in March 2022 became the live weather presenter on the extended ITV Evening News.
The work outside the studio is what carries weight with corporate audiences. He is an ambassador for Empire Fighting Chance, the Bristol charity that uses non-contact boxing to keep young people away from violence, and he has spent years touring schools, colleges and prisons talking about media careers and knife crime. The UK government named him a National Black Role Model in 2008. He holds an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Gloucestershire.
His debut book, Things We Should Talk About, has been acquired by Sphere. For a corporate audience that wants an inclusion conversation hosted with broadcast composure rather than activist register, the offer is unusually concrete: a working journalist with lived experience, a track record of holding difficult ground on live television, and credibility with the youth communities the conversation usually leaves out.
Key speaking topics
- Race and representation in British media
- Inclusion and difficult conversations at work
- Mental health and personal resilience
- Youth violence, knife crime and social mobility
- Climate, extreme weather and broadcasting
- Conference hosting and panel moderation
Ideal for
- CHROs and inclusion leads commissioning sessions on race that need credibility outside the HR voice
- Conference organisers booking a host or moderator for a multi-stage event day
- ESG, sustainability and corporate affairs teams running internal events on climate and extreme weather
- Foundations, social mobility programmes and youth-facing organisations engaging schools and community partners
Audience outcomes
- A franker conversation about race and representation than internal facilitators usually produce
- A working broadcaster’s view of how climate stories land with mainstream audiences
- A clearer picture of the real lives behind inner-city youth violence statistics
- A panel or town hall held together with the pacing and composure of live television