Hardeep Singh Kohli (born 21 January 1969)[1] is a British presenter, comedian, writer and director who has appeared on various radio and television programmes. Having moved to Scotland at a young age, he has had a long association with the arts in Scotland and is known more widely across the United Kingdom as a presenter on BBC television and radio, and on Channel 4. He was a finalist on Celebrity MasterChef in 2006 and a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother in 2018.
Kohli was arrested and charged in 2023 with non-recent sexual offences and is currently under trial in a Glasgow Court.[2]
Early life
Kohli was born in London and moved to Glasgow, Scotland, when he was four.[3] His Sikh parents came to Britainfrom India in the 1960s. The family's roots lie in the Punjab. His mother was a social worker, and his father a teacher who became a successful landlord in the Bishopbriggs suburb.[3] His younger brother is the actor and writer Sanjeev Kohli.[3][4]
His first school was Hillhead Primary School in the West End of Glasgow, after which he attended Meadowburn Primary in Bishopbriggs.[5] At age eight, he moved to John Ogilvie Hall, the primary school of St Aloysius' College, a private Roman Catholic school in central Glasgow.[6] Kohli studied Law at the University of Glasgow, graduating in 1990. While at university he worked in a vegetarian restaurant and as an usher at the Citizens Theatre.[7]
Career
Television
After graduating from university, Kohli joined the BBC Scotland graduate production trainee scheme.[8] He later worked in BBC Television Centre, London, directing children's TV, before moving to Youth and Entertainment Features in Manchester to become a series director on Janet Street-Porter's series Reportage. He was a director of It'll Never Work, which was the first children's TV show to win an award from the Royal Television Society and BAFTA in its first season.
Kohli left the corporation in 1996 to work independently.[9] He directed commercials and worked in TV development and broadcast occasionally on BBC Radio 5 Live.[citation needed]
He wrote, directed and starred in Channel 4's Meet the Magoons in 2004. The critical response was lukewarm and it failed to find an audience. The more positive reviewers listed here[10] include Nancy Banks-Smith who wrote it was "modern to the point of surreal"[11] with A. A. Gill put forward a hope that it might "evolve into something classic"[12] The show was entered for a Rose at the Montreux Comedy Festival but did not make the final list.[citation needed]
In September 2006, Kohli took part in the first series of BBC One's Celebrity MasterChef programme, reaching the final along with Roger Black and finishing second to the ultimate winner, Matt Dawson. In January 2007, he had a three-part series on Channel 4, £50 Says You'll Watch This. The series was the first documentary exploring all forms of gambling. The show included Kohli taking part in a celebrity card game and visiting casinos in Las Vegas. In October 2006, February 2007 and January 2009, he appeared on the BBC political panel programme Question Time, and was an occasional presenter on Newsnight Review, Saturday Live on BBC Radio 4 and Loose Ends.
In 2008, Kohli presented New British Kitchen, a cookery series for UKTV with John Torode. This was followed by Kohli's solo show "Chefs and the City" for the same channel. He also appeared on Gordon Ramsay: Cook Along Live and participated in a celebrity edition of The Apprentice to raise money for charity.[13]Sport Relief Does The Apprentice was part of the BBC's annual charity initiative Sport Relief and aired on 12 and 14 March 2008. He was the first Celebrity Apprentice to be "fired".
Also in 2008, Kohli filmed a documentary about Scientology, mainly the so-called Free Zone, titled The Beginner's Guide to L. Ron Hubbard. He presented a documentary, In Search of the Tartan Turban, which explored cultural identity as a Briton and a Scot belonging to an ethnic minority. The show won a Schools BAFTA. Channel 4 commissioning[clarification needed] a five part series called "Hardeep Does..." that covered topical issues, including sex, religion and pets.[14]
Kohli was the presenter of the second series of CBBC game show Get 100. In June 2009, he was one of five volunteers who took part in a BBC series of three programmes Famous, Rich and Homeless about living penniless on the streets of London.[15]
Kohli was a reporter for The One Show, but was suspended in 2009 for six months amidst informal allegations of "inappropriate behaviour" towards a researcher.[17][18][19]
On 16 August 2018, Kohli entered the British television show, Celebrity Big Brother as a celebrity housemate. He was nominated four times for eviction while in the Big Brother house, before he was finally eliminated on 7 September 2018, becoming the fifth housemate to be evicted.[citation needed]
Radio
Kohli wrote and presented BBC Radio 4's "Hippy Trail". The Telegraph's Gillian Reynolds felt "he patently had no real interest in the European and American hippies who trekked overland to India in the 1960s. At times, he seemed positively contemptuous, as if he were wondering why he was bothering".[20] He also presented BBC Radio 4 commissions, "Where Scotland Meets England" and "Where England Meets Wales".[citation needed]
In 2010, Radio 2 broadcast "Great British Faith", a city based series looking at the spiritual life and history of six British cities. This was described as "terrific" by Kohli's friend Elisabeth Mahoney in The Guardian who wrote that she was "impressed by the depth and scope of their portraits. Kohli brought to the programmes a real sense of the spiritual textures of these urban landscapes."[21]
Under producer Adam Fowler, he presented a BBC Radio 4 documentary 'The Loneliness of the Goalkeeper' which won a prize in Illinois in 2010 as Third Coast Directors' Choice Award for Ladbroke Productions.[22]
In 2011, Kohli presented a series about words and language, "15 by 15", which took a Silver at the New York Radio Festival.[23]
In 2012, Kohli recorded his first series of Hardeep’s Sunday Lunch, a programme that explored people's lives while Kohli cooked lunch. The sixth series was broadcast in the autumn of 2017 and early 2018.
In August 2013, Kohli presented his third edition of The Food Programme on Radio 4, "Ode to a Bacon Roll", about his fondness for bacon.
Journalism
From 2007 to 2009, Kohli wrote Hardeep is your Love, a column for Scotland on Sunday.[24] He was twice put forward but was unplaced as Columnist of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.
From mid-2014 until the end of 2015, Kohli was the food writer at the Daily Record and wrote a short column for the Sunday Herald.
Comedy
Hardeep Singh Kohli performing at Isle of Arts 2012, in Ventnor, Isle of Wight.
At the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2009, Kohli performed his debut one-man show, The Nearly Naked Chef, billed as 'the first live curry cooking comedy show ever'.[25]
In 2013, he did a short run of new material which became "Hardeep is Your Love" in 2014. The following year his show was titled "Bigmouth Strikes Again". In 2016, his love of music was the inspiration for "Mixtape: My Life Through Music". "The show needed more joke content, structure and general fleshing out to be complete. Perhaps if he could get through more than just three songs, that might help," said BroadwayBaby.[26]
Kohli wrote a book about food and travel in India, Indian Takeaway (2008), described by The Guardian as 'likeable but clumsy'.[30] Also in 2008, Kohli was a judge for the Man Booker Prize.[17]
Kohli was married to his wife, Sharmilia from 1990 until their separation in 2007, followed by a divorce two years later. He is the father of two children, a son and a daughter.[34]
In 2008, Kohli's rental properties in Glasgow were condemned by officials as "grubby and dirty" and substandard and he was warned about his conduct as a landlord.[36]
Driving without a licence
On 25 March 2019, Kohli appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court, where he admitted to driving without a licence on West Nile Street in Glasgow on 10 April 2018. Kohli's driving licence had been revoked in October 2017. The court heard Kohli had experienced tingling in his foot and went to the doctor to find out what was wrong. The doctor then wrote to the DVLA about his problem which meant his licence was cancelled. Kohli's defence lawyer Garvey McCardle said: "He was worried about his foot and he was experiencing pins and needles and he contacted his doctor. She was zealous in her approach and she told the DVLA that it led to numbness, he didn’t know she wrote to them".[37] He was convicted and fined £180.[38]
Sexual misconduct
In 2009, Kohli was suspended from The One Show due to informal allegations of "inappropriate behaviour" towards a researcher.[17][18]
In 2020, Kohli was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women, including some in the comedy industry. Lulu Popplewell alleged that his offer of help with her career at a show was accompanied by an invitation to spend the night in his bed and has accused Kohli of attempting to abuse his power.[39][40] In response, Kohli said: "It is now clear to me that my actions and words made women feel intimidated, undermined and undervalued. For this, I apologise unreservedly and can only hope to live a life of greater understanding."[41][42][43]
On 9 August 2023, Hardeep was arrested and charged in connection with alleged[2] "non-recent" sexual offences.[44][45] The 54-year-old is due to appear in court at a later date.[44] His arrest followed an investigation conducted by The Times in 2020, in which several people had 'raised concerns about him'.[46]
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