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Emma Boughton
Emma Boughton was born in November 1972 in the British town of Birmingham. Some of her earliest memories were of listening to Radio 1's Top 40, so she has always had a special relationship with the world of broadcasting.
She didn't have to wait long for her first foray into the business. When she was seven, she appeared on-air in a children's series on BBC Radio Oxford.
Years later, Emma attended the University of Exeter in southwest England. It had been a long time since she had worked behind a microphone, but she didn't let that get in her way. She signed up for student radio, which occupied her when she wasn't skiing competitively.
Before long, Emma found herself working for Radio Caroline at Bristol Docks. Never one to stay idle, Emma then took a job with "the world's biggest selling rock magazine," Kerrang. It was the perfect opportunity for her to entertain connections with people in the music industry. She didn't have to wait long for job offers to come pouring in.
Emma next found herself working for record labels such as Grapevine, Island and Creation. Interestingly, it was while working for Creation Records that she started to be known as Emma B. It wasn't because she wanted to be cool or make a statement of some kind. The fact was that there were two ladies named Emma in the office, and she couldn't stand being confused with someone else!
Radio remained Emma's first love, and she couldn't imagine herself deprived of the medium. She wanted to get back in the game, so in 1998 she sent a demo tape to Mark Goodier at BBC Radio 1.
He coached her and in April of that year, she was officially hired. At first, she presented the early Saturday Morning Show, but soon she moved up to the Saturday lunchtime slot, which she co-hosted with Sara Cox.
Being the new girl on the block, Emma also acted as a substitute for popular DJs Steve Lamacq, Chris Moyles and Mark and Lard. Her superiors quickly discovered that she was as comfortable on daytime radio as she was hosting music shows in the evening.
Having paid her dues, Emma began moving up in the radio world. In April 2000, she joined Dr. Mark Hamilton on the evening program Sunday Surgery. This phone-in show deals with social issues and health problems, so Emma frequently found herself giving advice to callers. In addition to this 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday slot, she also began spearheading various social action campaigns.
Her popularity on the radio paid off with some gigs on television. Emma has narrated or been interviewed for documentaries like The Hit Factory: The Pete Waterman Story, I Love 1980's and Club Reps: The Workers.
Obviously very knowledgeable when it comes to music, Emma has hosted and been part of shows such as
Top of the Pops, HYPE, Channel 4's Do Not Sleep, and The Base on ITV. She also has been a music reporter on the TV tabloid GMTV since 2002.
Emma has also been seen on the daytime talk show Richard and Judy, the celebrity cooking show Hell's Kitchen and the reality show Big Brother's Little Brother.
Currently, Emma shares her life with a cocker spaniel named Stanley and a Radio 1 producer named Damian Wilson. They live in a luxurious home in the London suburb of Hampstead.
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