Matt Baker

Matthew James Baker (born 23 December 1977) is a British television presenter. He co-presented the children's television show Blue Peter from 1999 until 2006, BBC One's Countryfile since 2009 and The One Show from 2011 to 2020, with Alex Jones. Early life Baker was born on 23 December 1977 at Easington in County Durham where his father ran a newsagent's shop, and his parents had a smallholding in the village. He has one sister and two half-sisters. Matt attended Easington Village School, then, when he was aged 10, his parents bought a farm west of Durham, which they moved into and renovated. From the age of 5 Baker was a keen dancer and began competing as a gymnast whilst at school. He continued his education at Belmont Comprehensive School in Durham and was a budding gymnast, but was forced to give up after being diagnosed with anaemia aged 14. He took A-levels in Drama, Biology and Sports Science at Durham Sixth Form Centre. Baker moved to Edinburgh to undertake training as an actor at Queen Margaret University’s School of Drama. In the late 1990s, as a drama student at Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh, Baker worked as an entertainer, and with a 1970s comedy disco-dancing revival show called "Disco Inferno", which toured the north of England.