1. Nihal Arthanayake was born on 1 June 1971 and is a British radio and TV presenter.
23 Facts About Nihal Arthanayake
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Nihal Arthanayake was born on 1 June 1971, to Theravada Buddhist Sri Lankan parents.
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Nihal Arthanayake began a career as a rap recording artist performing as 'MC Krayzee A'.
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Nihal Arthanayake has worked as a freelance music journalist, writing for Asiana, Eastern Eye, The Face, Mixmag, Hip Hop Connection, Attitude, Bear magazine, Cage And Aviary Birds and The Observer.
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Nihal Arthanayake joined BBC Radio 1 in 2002, to become co-host of a night time Asian Beats show with DJ Bobby Friction coming under the specialist DJ category.
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In October 2007 Nihal Arthanayake became the presenter of the Weekend Breakfast Show on Radio 1; he was one of only two DJs to present both a mainstream and a specialist show on the channel, the other being Annie Mac.
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On 21 September 2009, Arthanayake was moved from weekends to a brand-new review programme, named BBC Radio 1's Review With Nihal.
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Nihal Arthanayake became the sole presenter of the specialist Radio 1 Asian Beats show after Bobby Friction left.
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In June 2014, it was announced that in September 2014, Nihal Arthanayake would leave BBC Radio 1.
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Until September 2016 Arthanayake had his own discussion programme concerned with societal and political topics at BBC Radio A Channel: Nihal.
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In September 2016 Nihal Arthanayake joined BBC Radio 5 Live co-hosting the "Afternoon Edition" show with Sarah Brett.
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Nihal Arthanayake left the weekday afternoon show in June 2024, and now hosts two interviews on Sunday evenings in a slot called Headliners with Nihal Arthanayake, which is available as a podcast.
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Nihal Arthanayake hosted his own rap show The Drop on MTV Base, and three hours of live TV every Saturday for digital television channel CBBC entitled The Saturday Show: Extra.
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In 2010, Nihal Arthanayake appeared on BBC2's Celebrity Masterchef, but did not get past the first round, after cooking a Thai chicken curry on rosti for the Invention Test.
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In March 2021, Nihal Arthanayake appeared on Richard Osman's House of Games on the BBC.
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Nihal Arthanayake is the voiceover for the Slumdog Millionaire album.
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Nihal Arthanayake appeared on the BBC Radio 5 Live show Fighting Talk on 1 May 2010 alongside Tom Watt, John Rawling and Kevin Bridges.
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Additionally, Nihal Arthanayake was responsible for the music accompanying the London New Year's Eve fireworks display for 2011 and 2012.
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In November 2023, while speaking at a journalism diversity conference in UK, Nihal Arthanayake stated that working within an "overwhelmingly white" environment at the BBC depressed him and affected his mental health due to the lack of diversity.
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Nihal Arthanayake went on to say "It's really affecting me that I walk in and all I see is white people".
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Nihal Arthanayake used to live in the Dollis Hill area of London.
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Nihal Arthanayake moved to Stockport, Greater Manchester in 2016 when he joined BBC Five Live.
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Nihal Arthanayake has a BA from St Mary's University, Twickenham in History and English Literature and in 2023 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Communications.