Biography:
I originally come from a small town called Swindon, which if you haven’t heard of then you’re very fortunate! Before the housing development Swindon was formerly called Swine-down, as it was home to mostly pig farmers and their pigs. If I didn’t fear Swindon vigilantes coming after me I’d go as far to say that it hasn’t really moved on much!
I won’t bore you with the banal details of my childhood, but I will confess to losing myself in fiction and dreaming of another life, another world.
As a young adult, I attended college in Swindon and devoted much of my early life to reading or losing myself in my other passion – writing.
And write I did, fiction, poems, articles….letter after lettter to media companies seeking experience and offering my services. This was at first not met with great enthusiasm and for a while I decided to change tack and went to work in Cyprus as a holiday rep.
Now most people will tell you that being a holiday rep is all about encouraging your guests to get ridiculously drunk and make prats of themselves on the local booze cruise, getting horrible drunk, and waking up on a bus to Coral Bay. Well of course much of this is true, but what they don’t tell you is that you will be on call 24/7 hosting welcomes, guiding excursions, organising paperwork and dealing with complaints! Whilst I thoroughly enjoyed my year as a rep – it certainly made me realise that I didn’t want to spend the rest of my career as a civil servant!
Upon my return to the UK I applied to various universities, once more intent on a media career. I had always had a passion for radio and with this in mind I signed up to Southampton Institute who had their very own student station, “Sin FM”. I received a BA (hons) in Media Writing but the highlights for me without a doubt were the extracurricular activities I devoted my time to. (No – not that kind!) I became heavily involved with the student station, cross-promoting it with “Debauchery”, a club night I worked for – and presenting playlist shows, as well as my own alternative dance show on Friday nights. I also managed to get some work experience at various radio stations such as BRMB and seemed to always be involved in one project or another – which is the way I like it!
I later ran my own dance night and even spent a short stint in Ibiza, first selling club tickets on the strip and later promoting for the fabulous “Charleys Angels” who played weekly at Summon.
Leaving university was a bit of an anticlimax. Bizarrely I ended up working in Legoland for several weeks, dishing up spuds in a little cafe shaped like a fortress. It did feel quite like a prison from the inside and this fuelled me into pestering absolutely every media company I, my friends or Google could think of!
I secured a work experience placement as Slough FM, which kind of killed my aspirations to be a radio presenter. I realised that unless you are a well known presenter for a more independent station there is little to no creative input!
I’d always had various companies in mind that I’d love to work for but my ultimate job – in my mind then – would be to work at the BBC.
And then it happened. Perhaps it was my amazing talent and witty repertoire, or maybe the recruitment panel thought that giving me a job would mean that they would no longer have to pore over endless applications and letters from myself!
So I dished up my last jacket spud and legoman meal, flung down my pinny and said ‘bye bye loonyland – hello BBC’ in the best regional accent I could muster.
I had made it – an impoverished graduate in my first media career and on 12k per year. Break out the champagne.
Of course I mock now but was thoroughly delighted at the time! I was working at a Broadcast Media Co-ordinator – which is actually a bit of a swanky name for a data entry assistant and PA! It was all going swimmingly, I attended various training days, signed up for a broadcast law course and even spent work experience on Radio 1 and CBBC but then our department shut down. Not one to be put off I through myself back into the job hunt and whilst success was not immediate, I did manage to completely redecorate my bedroom walls with my rejection letters.
When my contract came to an end I was signed up to the in-house temping panel, which is a bit like a secret society! I found out about it through word of mouth and half the staff don’t even seem to realise it existed!
They gave me various PA/Team assistant roles and I found myself working in IT, Radio Drama and Theatre to name a few!
Unfortunately the assignments were pretty short term and I found myself living back with my parents temporarily in Swindon – looking for a more regular job!
Around this time I had helped a friend out at a model agency and they advised me to get a professional portfolio shot. So without too much thought I did so and posted it on various forums..and started to get loads of e-mails from photographers!
I did various portfolio shoots as well as helping out friends, and shooting for charities. I discovered that I loved modelling, dressing up and performing for the camera and started to shoot for my own website. www.KazB.co.uk
And then from out of the blue the BBC called. They had a job for me based in London starting asap – I was over the moon!
Then a couple of months into the role we were informed the department was closing down. I was beginning to think I was jinxed! Without going into great detail I started to feel disillusioned. With the need to channel my energy into something I decided to focus on my website once more and writing. I became more entrenched in the modelling scene and got to know many of the photographers and models.
Then as fate would have it, a friend invited me to a party called the BGAFD party. This is where I met my good late friend Joe A and apparently had a fruity liason with Ms Rampton in the ladies room!
I had decided by now that my job really wasn’t for me and had toyed more and more with the idea of modelling, acting and presenting. With the encouragement and advice of my good friend Joe I took the plunge and took on some tv work at a couple of tv stations…then the modelling offers really started to flood in! That was October 2006 and I entered the industry as a coy young thing. And now here I am 5 years later, a lot naughtier, a lot more deviant but still the same Kaz, loving every minute and welcoming new challenges.
