Natasha Kaplinsky, who was born on 9 September 1972 in Brighton, is a famous English newsreader and television presenter. She is the daughter of Raph Kaplinsky, a South African economics professor and Catherine Kaplinsky née Charlewood, a psychotherapist. Natasha Kaplinsky spent her childhood in Kenya and it is here she learned to speak Swahili. She attended Ringmer Community College and completed her graduation in English from Hertford College, Oxford. Natasha Kaplinsky married Justin Bower, an investment banker from London at Babington House, Somerset, on 21 August 2005 and she gave birth to a baby boy on 25 September 2008.
Natasha Kaplinsky began her professional career in the press office of Labour leaders, Neil Kinnock and John Smith. She was a part of the BBC programme Who Do You Think You Are?, in which celebrities trace their family trees. In the programme, she traced her paternal line to Slonim, a city in Belarus, and her maternal line includes an apothecary to King George III. Natasha Kaplinsky made her entry into the television world as a presenter of F2F, a youth chat show, for London Weekend Television’s Talk TV and co-hosted the show with Sacha Baron Cohen. She presented Meridian’s morning news and co-presented evening news programme, Meridian Tonight. Natasha Kaplinsky also hosted ITV's London News Network programmes, London Today and London Tonight and Seven Days. In November 2000, Natasha Kaplinsky joined the Sky News and co-presented Live at Five with Jeremy Thompson, and she also hosted Sunrise, a breakfast news programme. She joined BBC in November 2002 and presented the news programme, Breakfast. Natasha Kaplinsky became a permanent presenter of BBC’s Six O'Clock News in March 2006. Later the same year, she presented BBC's Ten O'Clock News, which made her the third woman after Fiona Bruce and Sian Williams to present this news programme.
In 2007, Natasha Kaplinsky presented a special news update on BBC One in Birmingham on trial basis and the programme became a success across the UK. Natasha Kaplinsky hosted several programmes on BBC, including Children in Need charity telethon along with Fearne Cotton and Terry Wogan. On 5 October 2007, she left BBC and joined Five News as a presenter. Her salary at Five News was reported to be more than £300,000, which makes her one of the highly paid newsreaders in Britain.
Natasha Kaplinsky has co-hosted several dancing and singing competetion programmes, like Strictly African Dancing and Making Your Mind Up. Natasha Kaplinsky participated with Brendan Cole in Strictly Come Dancing, a celebrity ballroom dance competition programme. In the inaugural series of the 2004 season, she, along with her partner, won the competition, and later, she co-presented the second series of the competition with Bruce Forsyth. Natasha Kaplinsky appeared in several episodes of the sitcom My Hero. She has also appeared in Have I Got News For You, and BBC's television series, Torchwood.
In March 2005, Natasha Kaplinsky won the 'Newscaster of the Year Award' at the Tric Awards. In her free time, Natasha Kaplinsky enjoys spending time with her family and friends and loves to go on holidays. She also likes to take her dogs out for a walk and to spend the evening in front of the television.
