Nick Grimshaw: Ten Things About the new Radio 1 Breakfast Show host

Published Jul 11 2012, 11:52 BST  |  By Alex Fletcher

Nicholas Peter Grimshaw has been announced as the new host of Radio 1's Breakfast Show. You may know him better as Grimmy.

Grimmy will replace long-standing Breakfast Show host and Radio 1 bad boy Chris Moyles in September. The move will signal the 27-year-old presenter's first step into mainstream presenting after two years on Channel 4's teen magazine show T4 and various evening slots on Radio 1.

For anyone who thought, 'Nicholas Grimshaw, wasn't that a character from Great Expectations?' Digital Spy has 10 quickfire facts about the new fresh face of Radio 1 in the morning.



1. Grimmy was born in St Mary's Hospital, Manchester on August 14, 1984. He grew up in Oldham and attended Liverpool University, where he hosted his first radio show and left with a 1st Class Degree.

2. His TV and Radio career has included hosting T4, The Album Chart Show, Freshly Squeezed, Big Brother's Big Mouth, New Look Style The Nation, BBC's youth strand Switch, Radio 1's Weekend Breakfast and most recently Radio 1's 10pm-12am slot.

3. Grimmy was branded "BBC's It-boy" by The Observer back in 2008 because of his showbiz party lifestyle and close friendships with Kelly Osbourne, Jaime Winstone, Lily and Alfie Allen, the Geldof sisters, Mark Ronson, Agyness Deyn and Daisy Lowe. To namedrop only a few of his celeb pals.

4. The Oldham-native admitted to Digital Spy in 2009 that he does sometimes get flustered during A-list interviews. "I got starstruck recently when I had to interview Florence + the Machine. And this is so strange because Florence has been a friend of mine for a few years. But I heard her album, then I went to her gig and afterwards, I had to do this interview with her. She was like, 'Are you okay?' but I was really starstruck!"

Watch a clip of Grimmy behind the scenes on T4 below:



5. Nick claims that one day during his early struggles to get a break as a broadcaster, he woke up in a dodgy Camden flat to find a mouse fall out of his boxer shorts. Eww.

6. Grimmy was a cheeky kid at school and was even thrown out of his English GCSE class because when his teacher revealed that she was going to be on Stars in Their Eyes (in the audience), he joked: "Who as? Meat Loaf?"

7. If he wasn't a successful TV and radio presenter, Grimmy has claimed in the past that he wouldn't mind working as a butcher. "I used to really like playing with raw meat," he says.

Digital Spy music editor Robert Copsey and Sugarscape editor Kate Lucey react to the news:


8. Grimmy's guilty pleasure? TOWIE. Speaking to Digital Spy, he said: "I've become obsessed with Joey Essex. I'd never watched TOWIE before this year [2011] and over the last couple of months I have been hooked on it. I really want to be his best friend - or probably not. After a day I'd probably be like: 'I can't explain things to you anymore!'"

9. Nick Grimshaw's love life remains a bit of a mystery, but he had been linked by the tabloids to a long list of party girls. Both Peaches and Pixie Geldof, Sadie Frost and Agyness Deyn have all been the subject of romantic tittle-tattle alongside Grimmy.

10. Get ready to scream, One Direction fans. Grimmy is BFF with cheeky scamp Harry Styles, so expect to be hearing plenty from the boyband on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show in the future. Just don't remind Grimmy of the time he was mistaken for Harry's dad in Manchester. Ouch!

Nick Grimshaw talks about his bond with Harry Styles: