Matthew Wright

Alexander Matthew Wright (born 8 July 1965) is an English television presenter and former tabloid journalist.

He worked as a journalist for The Sun and was a showbusiness gossip columnist for The Daily Mirror before launching a television career.

Wright started his career at the age of 14, appearing in the Children's Film Foundation production Big Wheels And Sailor (1979).

He was educated at the voluntary-aided Roman Catholic boys' school, The John Fisher School in Purley, Croydon, Surrey and was in the same class as the artist and sculptor Diarmuid Bryon O'Connor and DJ Gilles Peterson.

When joining the school, he began as a grammar entrant, having passed the 11-plus, but the school only remained (officially) as a grammar school for one more year, so he saw the gradual transformation into a comprehensive school.

He also attended Croydon Youth Theatre.

Following school, Wright attended the University of Exeter, graduating in English and Drama.

Wright started at the Surrey Mail group of newspapers in Godalming as a junior journalist under the tutorledge of editor Peter Tribe.

Wright became a showbusiness correspondent with The Sun and later wrote a column for the Daily Mirror in the 1990s, with future 3AM girl Polly Graham as his assistant.

In 1998, Wright and the Daily Mirror were successfully sued for libel for £20,000 by actor David Soul, after Wright referred to the play The Dead Monkey in a review as being "without doubt the worst West End show I have ever seen", despite not having seen it.

Wright also made several other false claims about the play in his article.

Soul stated that Wright was "using the play as an excuse to attack me personally".

During his time at the Daily Mirror, Wright covered numerous celebrity stories, including the wedding of Phil Collins and Orianne Cevey in 1999, which he claimed was the longest wedding he had ever been to.

He hosted the Channel 5 topical debate show The Wright Stuff from 2000 to 2018.

Wright occasionally appears on This Morning discussing current affairs.

Wright left the Daily Mirror in 2000 to pursue a television career and launch the website mykindaplace.com.

He was chosen to front Channel 5's daily topical discussion series The Wright Stuff, which started broadcasting in September 2000.

Wright originally co-presented the series with panellists James O'Brien and Kate Silverton.

After a couple of years, O'Brien and Silverton were replaced by a new panel every week and the series began attracting celebrities to guest on the panel every day.

In 2002, Wright was a contributor to Phil Collins: A Life Less Ordinary, a BBC television documentary which profiled Collins's career, which was subsequently released commercially.

In 2002, Wright named John Leslie live on air as the television presenter being linked to the alleged rape of Ulrika Jonsson.

Wright subsequently said he could not remember saying Leslie's name during the show.

In a Sky 1 show, John Leslie: My Year of Hell, Wright offered John Leslie an apology.

Leslie confirmed he would not Sue Wright, saying: "I think he just made a really big mistake and unfortunately I was the one paying the price."

In 2007, Wright was announced as the lead presenter on BBC One's Inside Out programme in the London area.

In October 2011, Wright asked male viewers of The Wright Stuff if they would have sex with Amanda Knox, who had just been acquitted of the murder of Meredith Kercher.

Wright introduced a debate on Knox's future with an on-screen caption headed "Foxy Knoxy: Would Ya?"

and told viewers: "She's entirely innocent. She's also undeniably fit and loves wild sex. Or did. So if you were a guy who'd met her in a bar and she invited you back to hers, would you go?"

Wright apologised for the segment the following day, stating: "While I'm not going to apologise for discussing Amanda Knox's future after all the terrible things the media has said about her these past four years, I do want to say sorry for the way I framed the debate. The on-screen title was wrong, no doubt about it."

In December 2011, during a discussion on his show of the murder of Scottish teenager Liam Aitchison, Wright said in a mock Scottish accent "There's been another murder!", a reference to the television series Taggart.

This led to more than 2,000 viewer complaints and an investigation by regulator Ofcom.

This edition of The Wright Stuff resulted in more complaints being made to Ofcom than any other programme in 2011.

Wright personally wrote to Aitchison's family by way of apology.

In September 2011, Wright joined the Daily Star Sunday as a columnist, but was dropped by the newspaper in March 2012.

In November 2013, Wright appeared in the 13th series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!.

During this time on the series, The Wright Stuff was guest-presented by Richard Madeley for almost a month.

He left the programme in 2017 and was replaced by Sean Fletcher.

Wright announced on 1 May 2018 that he was to leave The Wright Stuff after 18 years.

Wright's last show was broadcast on 14 June 2018, and various guest presenters took turns at presenting throughout the forthcoming summer.

The show has continued with Jeremy Vine hosting Jeremy Vine.