Ade Adepitan MBE

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.

Never one to hold back, Ade regularly goes under cover, investigating controversial and ground-breaking stories for Channel 4’s award winning documentary series Dispatches. Recent episodes have seen him confronting the UK’s benefit system’s personal disability allowances. He is also a regular reporter for foreign affairs series Unreported World. Throughout the series, Ade shines a light on shocking hidden truths, exploring the controversial gay scene in Jamaica and unveiling the illegal doping activity of Kenya’s Athletes- a story wildly covered by the press.

Other documentaries include Ade Adepitan: Journey of my Lifetime, where Ade returned to Nigeria, the place of his birth to explore the continuing Polio endemic. He is also a regular reporter for the BBC’s One Show. Ade has hosted countless sporting events including co-hosting the BAFTA award winning coverage of the 2012 Paralympics alongside Clare Balding, The 2014 Sochi Winter Games for Channel 4, The IPC Athletics, The Channel 4 Anniversary Games, The 2016 Invictus Games– created by Prince Harry and of course the 2016 Rio Paralympics. Coinciding with the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics, Ade co-hosted The Superhuman’s Show with Alex Brooker.

Ade’s personal sporting achievements include a Bronze in The Athens Paralympics, Silver in the European Championships and Gold in The World Championships. Ade received an MBE in 2005 and was awarded Honorary Doctorate from Loughborough University in 2006 and the University of East London in 2010.

He continues to support a plethora of charities including Amnesty International, Unicef and NSPCC including many other sporting organisations. In 2012 Ade opened the Ade Adepitan Short Break Centre – a community centre in Brent for young people with learning difficulties and physical disabilities. He’s also a Patron of Rotary International UK and Ireland. Ade often engages in high profile public speaking including the launch of the 2012 Olympic bid. He works extensively in the UK giving motivational speeches to schools, charities and businesses.

Continuing his passion for travel, Ade joined Anita Rani and Dan Snow for World’s Busiest City: New York – a 3 part series for BBC 2, providing an insight into the transport links, local delicacies and beautiful landscapes the Big Apple has to offer. The series was such a success, it returned in 2017 as World’s Busiest Cities. This time visiting 4 of the World’s Busiest Cities- Hong Kong, Delhi, Mexico and Moscow.

Ade is a well- respected co-host on Children in Need’s annual live appeal show, helping raise over £230 million for the charity since joining the presenting team in 2016.

Last year saw Ade front his very own 4-part BBC2 series, Africa with Ade Adepitan. The series documents Ade’s journey through the African continent. In the series he visits an array of contrasting countries within the continent to uncover how modern Africa is changing. Each visit providing unique and surprising experiences from the windswept beauty of Cape Verde to the streets of Mogadishu. All episodes are available to watch on BBC iPlayer now.

Ade is currently filming overseas for his next BBC2 series, due to air later this year. We can’t wait to see what he’s been up to!

Ade has more recently become known as a Children’s author, having released 2 Children’s books surrounding stories of his own childhood- growing up in East London in the 80s, coming from a minority background and living with a disability. Ade’s debut book Cyborg Cat and the Rise of the Parsons Road Gang was published in 2018 followed by second book in the series, Cyborg Cat and the Night Spider released in October 2019. The main message of the books being- ‘We can all be superheroes, no matter who we are or where we’re from.’ 100% of the proceeds from the second book will be donated to Children in Need. Ade’s hotly anticipated third book in the series will be released on 5^th March 2020.