Ade Adepitan
Best known for:
Travel and sports presenter, Ade Adepitan MBE has succeeded as an international Paralympic wheelchair basketball player and has built up a wealth of broadcasting experience.
Summary:
Flashback to his early presenting days and some of you may remember Ade Adepitan from the CBBC series X-Change and the BBC ‘dancing wheelchairs’ idents. An instantly recognisable face, Ade has travelled the world for his work including the BBC’s internationally known Travel Show exploring the history and cultures behind the globe’s most enticing countries.
Biography:
After being struck with polio as a youngster, Ade Adepitan MBE went on to compete on an international level. Known as ‘The Michael Jordan of wheelchair basketball,’ he represented Great Britain at the European and World Championships and the Sydney Olympics, and won bronze in Athens.
Ade has since established a successful media career, presenting a range of sport, entertainment and factual programmes and ranging from children's television to travel shows to hard-hitting documentaries. One of his first TV projects saw him take part in the documentary series Beyond Boundaries, in which he trekked through rainforests, deserts, rivers and mountains in Nicaragua. In one episode he pulled himself to the summit of a 5000ft volcano - without his wheelchair. Ade has gone on to work as a presenter, reporter and film maker for the BBC and Channel 4, in particular their Unreported World series where he's investigated everything from the benefits system to doping in sport. In his BBC series Africa with Ade Adepitan he explored the changing nature of the continent and in Ade on the Frontline he met the people and places around the globe who have been directly affected by climate change. He's also been a key part of Channel 4's pioneering Paralympics coverage, a reporter on The One Show, and is a regular guest on shows from The Last Leg to QI to celebrity editions of Pointless and The Chase.
In presentations Ade describes how a couple of physiotherapists spotted him in a supermarket and asked if he’d like to go to the Junior Wheelchair Games. Ade was so inspired by the players he met that the wheelchair ceased to be an obstacle to sport and became an exciting new opportunity. He also talks about being motivated by his parents’ ambition in bringing him to England and opening up new possibilities. It's the foundation to his attitude that barriers are usually there to be taken down, a message he delivers with characteristic energy and positivity.
Ade made an early television appearance in the famous BBC One network idents featuring synchronised wheelchair users. He has also turned his talents to acting, and is the author of a series of children's books featuring Cyborg Cat.
In 2022 Ade embarked on a new journey with BBC One spending time in Kenya for the series Our Changing Planet learning about how the severe droughts may make the landscape uninhabitable to communities and wildlife.
Fee range:
5,000-10,000 GBP