Table of Biography
Ore Oduba is a British Television and radio-television presenter. Ore Oduba is best known for winning the fourteenth series of BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2016. He also presents the BBC One game show Hardball.
Early Life and Childhood
Ore Oduba was born on 17 November 1985 in London to Nigerian parents. But there is information about his parents’ names. Likewise, he grew up in Dorset with his brother and two sisters. He is 38 years old.
Other than that, he holds British citizenship. Further, he has not mentioned his ethnic background.
Caption: Ore with his wife and baby Roman in the summer holiday. Source: Entertainment daily
Ore Oduba – Education
He attended Dumpton School, then Canford School in southwest England. He studied Sports and Social Science at Loughborough University and graduated in 2008.
Career and Professional Life
He was interested in building up his career in sports broadcasting, and Oduba joined The Network, an Edinburgh television festival scheme. Oduba enrolled in Newsround in August 2008, following the departure of Lizo Mzimba and Laura Jones. His first role in the program was as a reporter and breakfast bulletin presenter. He was quickly promoted to deputy presenter in 2009, filling in for the main presenter Sonali Shah in her absence.
In 2010, he joined Shah to begin presenting the main Newsround bulletin double-headed. This continued until Shah’s departure in November 2011. He was later joined by reporters Leah Gooding and Hayley Cutts. As part of his role, he also presented the spin-off show Sportsround. He became the foremost presenter in October 2008 when the show was relaunched. He presented until its cancellation in 2010.
The show was replaced by Match of the Day Kickabout which Oduba presents. Oduba left Newsround in 2013. Oduba formerly presented the sport for BBC Breakfast and BBC Radio 5 Live. He has also presented and reported on British Olympic Dreams along with former Newsround co-presenter Sonali Shah. Oduba started a debut presenting solo on the morning slot for the 2014 Commonwealth Games on BBC One and BBC Sport.
Career on CBBC
Oduba regularly performed on CBBC studio presentations following his Newsround shift. He was a guest on CBBC shows including Sam & Mark’s TMi Friday, Hacker Time, and All Over the Place. In the lead-up to the 2012 Summer Olympics Oduba presented a program called Ultimate Sports Day for CBBC. He also co-presents live cinema relays from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with former ballerina Darcey Bussell.
On 2 March 2013, Oduba and Sonali Shah performed on the BBC’s Let’s Dance for Comic Relief, dancing to Hey Ya! by Outkast. He played the role of Nathan in Hacker Time on CBBC. Since 2015, he has guest-presented numerous episodes of The One Show. From 2015–16, he was a presenter on The National Lottery Draws on Saturday evenings and he presented the 2015 New Year Live program on BBC One.
Caption: Ore Oduba, Louise Redknapp, and Danny Mac during the live final of the BBC1 show, Strictly Come Dancing. Source: Manchester Evening News
Career after 2015
From 7 March 2016, he took part in a challenge for Sport Relief, called “Hell on High Seas”, in which he sailed 1,000 miles from Belfast to London with five other celebrities including Alex Jones and Suzi Perry. In 2016, he presented Sport Relief: Clash of the Titans with Dan Walker. He offered coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics on BBC Four throughout August 2016.
Between October 2012 and May 2017, he presented the daytime BBC One insurance fraud documentary program Claimed and Shamed. In November 2016, Oduba guest presented an episode of This Morning with Holly Willoughby on ITV. He returned to present a second episode with Willoughby in March 2017 and a third with Davina McCall in February 2018.
In 2016, Oduba engaged in the fourteenth series of Strictly Come Dancing, where he was partnered with Joanne Clifton. The couple’s American Smooth to “Singin’ in the Rain” got praise from Patricia Ward, the widow of Gene Kelly. In the fourth week, the couple was awarded a score of 39 points out of 40 for their jive to “Runaway Baby” by Bruno Mars.
More…
Likewise, on 17 December, after the couple scored the maximum 40 points for both their show dance and their jive, they were announced as the winners. And in 2017 Oduba sat in for Claudia Winkleman and Steve Wright, on their respective BBC Radio 2 shows, on several occasions. Moreover, in 2018, Oduba was a presenter for the Saturday night game show And They’re Off! For Sport Relief on BBC One. Afterward, he co-hosted the main coverage of Sport Relief 2018 live on BBC One. Additionally that year he presented Britain’s Favourite Walks: Top 100 alongside Julia Bradbury for ITV. Oduba hosts the BBC One game show Hardball.
In 2020, he appeared as news anchor Akintola in the BBC One drama Noughts + Crosses, a television adaptation of the novels by author Malorie Blackman.
Awards and Achievements
In July 2017 he received an Honorary Doctorate from Loughborough University. In November 2017 he received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Bournemouth University.
Ore Oduba – Personal Life
Reflecting on Oduba’s relationship status, he is a married man. He married TV researcher Portia in November 2015 and in January 2018, Portia gave birth to a baby boy named Roman Oduba. The duo is very happy with each other and shares a good bond. He often keeps on posting pictures on his Instagram handles as well. Furthermore, there is no information regarding his past link-ups.
Caption: Ore Oduba and his wife Portia celebrating the “Strictly Dancing Star” anniversary. Source: Hello Magazine
Body Measurements
Ore Oduba stands at the height of 5 feet and 10 inches and weighs 78kg. He has black hair color.
Social Media
Ore Oduba is available on Instagram and Twitter. Ore Oduba has over 114K followers on Instagram and over 55.1K followers on Twitter.
Net Worth 2024
His net worth is around 200,000 USD. He is one of the most-paid British sports reporters.