Liz Bonnin

Bonnin was born in Paris to a Trinidadian mother, of Indian and Portuguese descent, and a French-Martiniquan father, who was a dentist.[3][5] Her family moved to Ireland when she was nine years old.[2][3]

Bonnin has a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from Trinity College, Dublin,[2][6] She also holds a master's degree in wild animal biology and conservation from the Zoological Society of London and the Royal Veterinary College (2008), for which she tracked tigers in Nepal.[7][8] She continues to work on big cat conservation programmes at the Zoological Society.

Bonnin began her career singing backing vocals with The Pale before joining an Irish girl pop group named Chill, who signed to Polydor but broke up before recording.[9][10] The band had performed on Dustin the Turkey's third album Faith of Our Feathers, duetting on "We Are Family".[11] She was offered a job hosting the IRMA Awards which led to presenting roles on RTÉ Television in Ireland, on The Den, Telly Bingo, Millennium Eve: Celebrate 2000 and for two years, Off the Rails with Fiona McShane.[2] At the time she was in a relationship with the publisher John Ryan.[12][13] In 2002, she moved to London to present on a number of TV channels.[14]

In 2002, she became one of the presenters of the Channel 4 morning show RI:SE, specialising in reporting on entertainment-related stories.[15] In the same year she became a regular presenter on Top of the Pops in the UK.[16]

In 2004, Bonnin was locked in a giant kennel along with MPs Paul Burstow, Evan Harris and Ivan Henderson and actress Liza Goddard, BBC Newsround presenter Lizzie Greenwood and DJ Becky Jago in a stunt to launch the annual RSPCA Week to raise awareness and funds.[17]

Since 2005, Bonnin has been involved in science broadcasting. She presented the show Gadgets, Gadgets, Gadgets in 2005[18] and co-presented the BBC science series Bang Goes the Theory on BBC One from 2009 until 2014.[19] In 2008, Bonnin presented a documentary series Science Friction on RTÉ One which looked at taboos in discussions of scientific topics (such as paedophilia and nuclear power) in Ireland.[2][20] She also contributed to BBC Two's series on the work of the London Natural History Museum, Museum of Life.[21]

In October 2010, she joined the cast of Autumnwatch and in January 2011, she presented segments of BBC Two's Stargazing Live from various areas of Hawaii including atop Mauna Kea.[22] In May 2011, she co-presented BBC One's Egypt's Lost Cities.[23]

Bonnin grew up with her older sister Benni, while she said that "I was extremely close to my granny, who passed away in 2003." She has moved back to London.

Bonnin is a role model for EDF Energy's Pretty Curious programme, which is aimed at encouraging teenage girls to study science-based subjects at school.[24] She has said in a 2016 interview, "FHM offered me a spread but I said no."[1]

On January 5 2021, Bonnin announced that her mother Bonnie Murray had died over the Christmas 2020 period after contracting Covid-19.[25][26]

Television

• Official website
• Liz Bonnin at IMDb