Dominic Byrne
Dominic Anthony Byrne (born 10 November 1972) is a newsreader and presenter. He currently works on the Chris Moyles Breakfast show on Radio X, having previously worked as the newsreader for Capital London on the Capital FM Breakfast Show. Prior to this he worked with the BBC from 1997 to 2012, most notably as part of the on-air team on The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1 from 2004 to 2012, working as the newsreader and contributing to the show's zoo format. He also worked as a newsreader elsewhere on Radio 1, and presented on the BBC News Channel. He also runs his own voice training business called Open Mouth Productions. He returned to the new format of The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X in 2015, reading the news. During 2014 Byrne presented a number of shows on BBC Radio Kent covering other presenters, including Breakfast and Mid-Morning.
Dominic Byrne | |
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Dominic Byrne outside BBC Radio 1, September 2010 | |
Born | Dominic Anthony Byrne 10 November 1972 |
Children | Finton James Byrne Xanthe Rose Byrne Tilda Ruby Star Byrne |
Career | |
Show | The Chris Moyles Show |
Station(s) | Radio X |
Time slot | 6.30 am – 10 am |
Style | Newscaster |
Country | United Kingdom |
Biography
Born in Norwich, Norfolk,[1] Byrne attended St Ivo School before attending Bournemouth University. Byrne's career began at Kiss 102 in Manchester, reading the breakfast show news. After moving to London he freelanced at Independent Radio News and Virgin Radio.
BBC
He joined BBC Radio 1 in 1997, and became part of the team in the zoo format Chris Moyles Show. As well as reading news, Byrne interviewed many celebrities for the breakfast show including Tom Cruise, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Alan Sugar, David Schwimmer, Uma Thurman, Goldie Lookin' Chain, Reese Witherspoon, William Shatner, Al Gore, Richard E. Grant, Daniel Craig, Bruce Willis, Bono, Adam Clayton, Daniel Radcliffe, Robert Downey Jr., Jennifer Aniston, Jedward, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jennifer Lopez, Elton John and Cameron Diaz. He also contributed to multiple features, and parody songs, some of which featured on The Parody Album released by Chris Moyles.
Elsewhere for the BBC he worked as a newsreader for Jo Whiley's later Fearne Cotton's mid-morning weekday show on Radio 1. From 2007 he presented the Newsbeat's Oddbox video clip show on BBC News. This was a four-minute video which looked at the week's strangest news, presented by Dominic Byrne (and Natalie Jamieson when he was away). It was available to watch at BBC Online, on the BBC Red Button and on the BBC News channel. It was announced on 6 September 2012 episode that the broadcast on the following week would be the final ever Odd Box.[2] On 14 September 2012, The Oddbox's final episode was shown on BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat Website. In addition, Byrne presented Dragon's Den Online, the online spin-off from the Dragons' Den TV programme.[3] In 2014, he was one of three hosts on Factomania.
Radio X
On 21 September 2015, Byrne moved from Capital FM to Global's sister station Radio X, to join BBC Radio 1 friend and colleague Chris Moyles as well as former Radio 1 producer Pippa Taylor to start a brand new radio breakfast show, The Chris Moyles Show. On Radio X, Dom plays a bigger part in the show than previous, as well as being a newsreader, Dom became a regular contributor and is Chris Moyles right hand man on Radio X, appearing in videos with Chris, interacting more in links and playing along with features that the team may perform.
Other projects
In December 2011 Dominic Byrne championed the song Dominick the Donkey by Italian American singer Lou Monte on The Chris Moyles Show, helping it achieve a peak chart position of number 3 on the UK Top 40 during Christmas 2011.
Byrne has worked on various voice-over projects. He provided the voice of an alien called Zorst in the CBeebies show Space Pirates,[4] and as Captain Emergency on Peppa Pig. He does voice-overs for the entertainment channel Watch. In 2010, Byrne also narrated children's storybooks for mobile phone applications under the iStorytime brand – the titles which Byrne narrated include Invisible Alligators (written and illustrated by Hayes Roberts), Inca Dink, the Great Houndini (written, illustrated and also narrated by M. Nicole van Dam), and Olivia the Octopus (written and illustrated by Damien Clenet).[5]
On 8 March 2013, it was announced that Byrne has joined Capital FM London, to read the news on their flagship breakfast show.[6]
On 1 November 2014, Byrne accidentally announced on Twitter that he was looking for a full-time radio role.
On 21 April 2015, Byrne announced on his Twitter account that he would begin reading Drivetime news bulletins on LBC radio.
On 7 September 2015, Byrne announced on his Twitter account that he would be joining Chris Moyles on the new rebranded XFM, Radio X on 21 September.
Bands
Dominic Byrne was part of an award-winning comedy folk band Folk Face with Comedy Dave also from The Chris Moyles Show. Dominic Byrne famously played lead guitar with The Stereophonics alongside Chris Moyles on the drums[7]. Both have vowed to play alongside every band, ever, but that actually means U2 in Dominic’s mind. In 2018, Dominic formed a group with Toby Tarrant called $inna-G££.
Personal life
Byrne married his former wife Nicola in March 2001 and they had three children, Finton James Byrne (born July 2003), Xanthe Rose Byrne (born November 2005) and Tilda Ruby Star Byrne (born May 2009). The couple separated in 2015 and Nicola later died from lung cancer in April 2018 aged 43.[8] Byrne lives in Hertfordshire with his partner Lucy and children. He owns a company called Open Mouth Productions, through which he provides vocal training for both corporate and private individuals.[9]
References
- "Reporter Profiles: Dominic Byrne", BBC. Retrieved 5 December 2010
- "Odd Box 06 September 2012"
- Bearne, Suzanne (2009) "BBC launches online version of 'Dragons' Den'", New Media Age, 18 March 2009
- "Interview: Dominic Byrne Archived 22 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine", BBC. Retrieved 5 December 2010
- various references to these books exist on the web, including the iStorytime eReader website itself at http://www.istorytime.com/ and various eReader book reviews which delineate the narration credits such as "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 31 August 2012.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- http://radiotoday.co.uk/2013/03/dominic-byrne-to-join-capital-fm-london/
- https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1IbNHXqdCUo