Sarah Beeny

Sarah Lucinda Beeny (born 9 January 1972) is an English property developer and television presenter, best known for presenting the Channel 4 property shows Property Ladder, Streets Ahead and Britain’s Best Homes.

Sarah Beeny was born in Reading, Berkshire, and has one brother. The daughter of an architect for Bovis Homes her mother loved the self-sustained outdoor life. The family lived in two converted brick cottages in a nine acre plot on the edge of the Duke of Wellington's estate Stratfield Saye, in a style that Beeny describes as "a bit like The Good Life."The family kept goats, chickens and ducks, while her father made Dolls House furniture to raise extra cash: "They were crafty-entrepreneurial but more craft than entrepreneurial."

After her mother Annie died when Sarah was aged 10, she was educated as a weekly border at the all-girls Luckley-Oakfield School in Wokingham. Although her friends were off to university, Beeny was not academic and was encouraged to study drama by her English teacher, resultantly taking a leading role in Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle.Pursuing the idea of becoming a professional actress, she studied drama at Queen Mary's College, Basingstoke, but failed to get into a drama school.

Advised by her father and stepmother to get out and see the world, Beeny travelled around the world solo at the age of 17 and felt "lonely and homesick" most of the way round. She returned to the UK to take a series of jobs, including: working for Save the Children; window cleaning; door-to-door vacuum cleaner selling; and running her own sandwich making business. Assuming she would be self-employed for the rest of her life, at weekends she would study the property market, which gave her a good grounding in the market. Having saved up a deposit, without any formal training Beeny began her own property developing business with her brother and her husband at the age of 24. Beeny is also the co-founder of the popular UK dating website Mysinglefriend, with childhood friend Amanda Christie.

Sarah Beeny met her husband and business partner, artist Graham Swift, when she was 18 - her brother is married to Swift's sister. Beeny and Swift have four children, and have homes in Balham, London and Yorkshire. She has recently given birth to their fourth child. Sarah is supporting Breakthrough Breast Cancer's Crocus Walk campaign in 2009.

After meeting the sister-in-law of a researcher at Talkback Thames at a hen party, she was asked to undertake a screen test to front a new programme series about property development, which was to be fronted by a property expert. Taking the advice of her step mother and never turning down an opportunity the successful format Property Ladder has lead to various spin-off series, including Streets Ahead and Britain’s Best Homes. In 2006 Sarah Beeny presented another Channel 4 programme One Year to Pay Off Your Mortgage. She has written a number of books to accompany the series, and a weekly column for the Mail on Sunday.

In other media appearances, in August 2007 Sarah starred in a promotional trailer for Channel 4 which was made in the form of a parody of a Kung Fu movie. The classic line "You dare to challenge the might of the Beeny", was said by Sarah to the evil nemesis. Later that year, she also appeared on the Five motoring show, Fifth Gear, where she raced Jason Plato in an articulated lorry around a course. Beeny has also appeared on Gordon Ramsay's The F-Word, as she offered up her garden for Gordon's sheep to feed on.

She regularly appears on the Virgin Radio Breakfast show and is a friend of DJ Christian O' Connell. She has also appeared on Big Brother's Little Brother alongside Dermot O'Leary, on which she estimated the value of the Big Brother 8 house to be "Two Bob".

In an interview with the Daily Mirror newspaper, Beeny gave another explanation for her position as a sex symbol: "Men are attracted to me because I'm bossy and opinionated... Men like that, it's the dominatrix thing. They'd be disappointed if they met me though, I'm not like that in real life. When I get a really nice letter I show my husband and he'll say: 'Oh, but they don't know you, do they?'

Books

Property Ladder: How to Make Pounds from Property - Property Ladder: Profit from Property - 2003 Property Ladder: The Developer's Bible - 2004 Property Ladder: Hints and Tips - 2006 Sarah Beeny's Price the Job - 2006 A Date with Sarah Beeny: Mysinglefriend.com's Guide to Dating and Dumping, Flirting and Flings - 2007

www.sarahbeeny.com