Andrea Benfield is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

, currently working with ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

.

Benfield is engaged to Wales rugby player Lee Byrne

Lee Byrne

Lee Martin Byrne is a Welsh international rugby union rugby player, who plays for ASM Clermont Auvergne in the Top 14 and Heineken Cup...

.

Early life

Born in Guildford

Guildford

Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...

, Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

, Benfield graduated from Southampton University with a degree in English literature

English literature

English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....

, before gaining a postgraduate diploma in journalism at Highbury College, Portsmouth

Highbury College

Highbury College is a general further education college in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. It provides vocational and academic education and training, from first-step courses to university level foundation degrees, specialised services for business and education in the community. The College is a...

. Latterly, she has gained a political diploma through the Open University

Open University

The Open University is a distance learning and research university founded by Royal Charter in the United Kingdom...

.

Journalism career

Benfield started her journalism and media career as a local radio reporter for Guildford based County Sound Radio. She then joined local television station MyTV Portsmouth as a reporter, but when the station was forced to lay off staff she was promoted to news editor at the station. When Portsmouth TV ceased broadcasting she moved to Oxford's local TV station, Six TV

Six TV

Six TV was the sixth free to air terrestrial television channel in the UK, broadcast in Oxford, Southampton, Reading and Portsmouth. It operated under a set of Restricted Service Licences and broadcast on UHF channel 47 in Oxford and UHF channel 29 in Southampton...

 before joining ITV Thames Valley as a reporter. It was while here that she produced a series of special reports on the Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

, reporting on pilots and their training at RAF Odiham

RAF Odiham

RAF Odiham is a Royal Air Force station situated a little to the south of the historic small village of Odiham in Hampshire, England. It is the home of the Royal Air Force's heavy lift helicopter, the Chinook HC2, HC2A and HC3...

 before they were posted to Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

, which was also shown nationally on ITV2

ITV2

ITV2 is a 24 hour, free-to-air entertainment television channel in the United Kingdom owned by ITV Digital Channels Ltd, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998, and is available on digital television via satellite, cable, IPTV and terrestrial platforms. The channel has the...

 and placed runner up in the regional Royal Television Society

Royal Television Society

The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...

 awards.

Following the departure of Lucy Owen

Lucy Owen

Lucy Owen is a Welsh television news reader.-Early life:Owen attended Howell's School in Llandaff, Cardiff, and graduated from the Royal Holloway, University of London in English.-Career:...

 to BBC Wales

BBC Wales

BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation for Wales. Based at Broadcasting House in the Llandaff area of Cardiff, it directly employs over 1200 people, and produces a broad range of television, radio and online services in both the Welsh and English languages.Outside...

' evening news programme Wales Today in November 2007, Benfield applied for the resulting vacancy on Wales Tonight

Wales Tonight

Wales Tonight is a national television news and current affairs programme, also including local sports news and local features of interest, produced by ITV Wales at its studios in the western outskirts of Cardiff....

. On 17 December, it was announced that she had beaten 80 other applicants to the post, and undertook her first show opposite Jonathan Hill on 14 January 2008. Prior to her debut, Benfield moved from Surrey to Cardiff Bay

Cardiff Bay

Cardiff Bay is the area created by the Cardiff Barrage in South Cardiff, the capital of Wales. The regeneration of Cardiff Bay is now widely regarded as one of the most successful regeneration projects in the United Kingdom. The Bay is supplied by two rivers to form a freshwater lake round the...

.

Since joining ITV Wales, Benfield has since presented a number of various regional non-news programmes for the station, including the arts and entertainment series The Wales Show, documentary series Tidal Wales, ITV Wales weekly political programme Sharp End and coverage of the Royal Welsh Show and the National Eisteddfod.

Since June 2010, in addition to her commitments with ITV Wales, Andrea can be seen as a presenter the weekend ITV News produced by ITN. In August 2010, she had a week long stint as a guest news presenter, on GMTV

GMTV

GMTV was the national Channel 3 breakfast television contractor, broadcasting in the United Kingdom from 1 January 1993 to 3 September 2010. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of ITV plc. in November 2009. Shortly after, ITV plc announced the programme would end...

, and on its replacement programme, Daybreak

Daybreak (ITV)

Daybreak is the weekday breakfast television programme on the British commercial ITV network that broadcasts on weekday mornings from 06:00 to 08:30 and is currently presented by Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley from Monday to Thursday with Dan Lobb and Kate Garraway on Fridays...

during the Christmas period. Since February 2011 she is a relief presenter of the ITV News at 1:30 and ITV News at 6:30, in August 2011 she presented the ITV News at Ten produced by ITN.

External links

• Behind the Scenes at ITV Wales with Andrea Benfield