AJ Odudu’s head isn’t in the clouds

Get a sneak peek of our cover story with AJ Odudu. The presenter may be the face of ITV’s Big Brother revival, but she'll always remember her roots.

Art + CultureCover starsFeaturesIssue 32

November 5, 2024

As soon as AJ Odudu joins our Zoom call — from the back of a cab, fresh-faced thanks to a facial — it’s clear why she was chosen to front a show as iconic as Big Brother. “You look fab,” the British- Nigerian presenter tells me with a beaming smile. You get the sense that when the 36-year-old talks about the contestants on the reality TV show (“You’ve got to put your arm around them and commend them for even going in”), it’s not just a presenter doing presenter-isms but Odudu’s inherent vivaciousness shining through. That her family have always prophesied this is what she would end up doing hardly comes as a surprise: “Anytime I get nervous, my mum says, ‘Come on AJ, this is what you were born to do. You’ve been presenting in the living room since you were six years old.’”

When we chat, Big Brother’s 21st series — and Odudu’s second stint presenting the show — is mere weeks away. The Blackburn-born presenter is palpably excited about it, pivoting our conversation to the ITV2 revival of the show before I even have the chance. “It’s the perfect thing to do ahead of Big Brother,” she tells me of the health retreat she’s due to go on in a couple of days. “I’m gonna be energised and ready to go.” It should be said, however, that Odudu is not just known for Big Brother, which she helms alongside Will Best. One quick glance at her CV will tell you that this is a woman who has been working away relentlessly over the past ten years. “I’ve got this working-class mentality. That grit and determination,” she says.

AJ wears jumper and shorts by JOHN RICHMOND and Kensington Cuff boots by KURT GEIGER.

AJ wears dress by GIUSEPPE DI MORABITO, Micro Chelsea Hobo bag and Regent court shoes by KURT GEIGER.

From 2015 to 2019, Odudu hosted the music programme Trending Live! with Jimmy Hill and Vick Hope. In 2021, it was Married at First Sight UK’s aftershow. In 2022, she popped up on the BBC’s coverage of the Platinum Jubilee Pageant and Eurovision. Even when Odudu isn’t holding the mic, she’s a familiar face on everything from Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK to Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins. Odudu also pegs her desire to stay booked and busy to the nature of the work itself: “[The industry] has made me feel like you’ve got to make hay whilst the sun shines. You just never know when it’ll end.”

Odudu is probably a little sensitive about the idea of her career coming to a halt because of what happened back in November 2013 — it was then that her stint co-presenting Big Brother’s Bit on the Side came to a sudden end. “I know how dark the couple of years after that were, and I know how deeply traumatic that whole experience was,” she tells me. Around this time, the presenter ended up sleeping on her dad’s sofa and working at a call centre. “You know, having finally made it to your dream job, you don’t think you’re going to have to scale back like that […] It’s a real knock to the ego.” Though Odudu does a good job at framing this career low point as “one that’s made [her] even more determined”, you can tell that the Odudu of 2013 would be hard to match up with the person on my computer screen now, who oozes positivity. Would that be accurate, though? When I probe how it is that she came to be such an optimistic soul, she admits that she has “not always wanted to get back on the horse” — “I’ve been like, I quit, I give up.”

This excerpt was taken from HUNGER Issue 32: Family Affair. Stay tuned for the full story.