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Benjamin Netanyahu was born in Tel Aviv in 1949, the year after the State of Israel was founded. One of three brothers, Netanyahu spent much of his early years in the United States pursuing his education. But following his older brother’s death, Netanyahu found himself drawn into a career in the public eye. Using his military experience to advise on security matters, in 1984 Netanyahu became Israe...

Former Labour leader, Ed Miliband, is now Secretary of State for Energy. A role more important than ever with surging energy costs due to the conflict in Iran. Born in 1969, Ed grew up in London’s Primrose Hill. His father, a Marxist academic, and his mother a human rights activist, Ed’s life was steeped in politics from the beginning. After attending a local state school in North London, he follo...

She’s already won a Bafta for her portrayal of a hoodoo healer in the Southern gothic, Sinners. But can British actress Wunmi Mosaku win an Oscar too? Mosaku says her role has helped her connect with her ancestry and find parts of herself she thought she had lost. Born in Nigeria in 1986, Wunmi moved to Manchester as a very young child, growing up in Hulme and Chorlton with her parents and two sis...

It’s been a busy first year for the US Defense Secretary. From signal chat controversies to Operation Epic Fury, Pete Hegseth has been making headlines. Born in Minneapolis in 1980, Hegseth had what could be described as an ‘All-American’ upbringing. A basketball player at school he continued playing during his University career at Princeton where he majored in Politics. He also enrolled in the RO...

‘Small Prophets’ has quietly taken the world by storm. A whimsy, magical and gentle show providing a tonic to modern life. Its creator, Mackenzie Crook, could arguably described in a similar way. Born in Sutton-on-hone a village near Dartford in 1971, his creative brilliance was evident to friends early on but instead of drama school he started work at Pizza Hut. Moving to London in his early twen...

California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has long clashed with US President Donald Trump - filing more than 50 lawsuits against the administration to date. Now, with a new memoir coming out, all signs seem to be pointing at Newsom himself running for the top job in 2028. Born in San Francisco in 1967, Newsom lived in two worlds - the first, among the wealth and glamour of his father’s friends, the bil...

It’s awards season - and one name that keeps cropping up is Teyana Taylor. She’s nominated for her first Oscar, for her role in One Battle After Another, and has already won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress and her latest album was just nominated for the Best R&B Grammy. For many, it would appear Taylor has burst on to the scene from nowhere - but for those who know her, these nomi...

As the 2026 Winter Olympics kick off in Italy, we look to the most powerful woman in sport - the International Olympics Committee President, Kirsty Coventry. The most decorated African Olympian of all time, the 42-year-old mother-of-two made history as both the first African and the first woman to hold the title when she was elected last year. Kirsty began swimming from an early age, in the family...

The fatal shooting of two Minnesota residents by federal agents has contributed to the fiercest public backlash yet against the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policy. The man widely seen as the driving force behind this controversial approach, is White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller. Born in 1985 and raised in liberal Santa Monica, California, Miller is the grandson of J...

The Secretary General of NATO has been dubbed the Trump whisperer after talks with Donald Trump at Davos appeared to help trigger a sudden U-turn on Greenland and threatened tariffs. Mark Rutte was born in The Hague in 1967, began his career in business at Unilever and entered politics in 2002 eventually becoming the Dutch prime minister where he steered the Netherlands through economic turmoil, d...

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that US President Donald Trump’s threat to take Greenland would spell the end of Nato, the trans-Atlantic defence alliance. So who is the woman standing toe to toe with Trump? A career politician in the truest sense, she was first elected as a member of the Danish Parliament in 2001, the day after her 24th birthday. After nearly two decades at the...

The newly-appointed British ambassador to the United States, Sir Christian Turner, is a career diplomat whose experience spans almost three decades. He was about to take up the role of the UK's ambassador at the UN but after Lord Mandelson was abruptly pulled from his ambassadorial role in the US late last year, Sir Keir Starmer diverted Turner to replace him. Born in Crawley in 1972, Turner atten...

The new Mayor of New York and at just 34, the youngest since 1892, is sworn in. He is the first Muslim and Indian American to lead the nation's largest city. Zohran Mamdani was born in Uganda, Africa, to parents of Indian descent and it was a childhood filled with bird song and nature. He was seven years old when his family moved to New York, to Manhattan's Upper West Side and that's where Mamdani...

Karl Bushby, the British man walking around the world, is almost home. The former paratrooper set off from Chile in 1998. He walked through the Americas, crossed the frozen ocean from Alaska to Russia, and last year became the first person to swim the Caspian Sea between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. These are all huge achievements in their own right but for Bushby they were just sections he had to c...

Dame Mary Berry has been teaching Brits to cook for more than half a century. Aged 90, she remains a staple on our screens at Christmas. Born in Bath in 1935, Berry was the middle child of two brothers. She struggled in school and studied Home Economics class instead of Maths. Berry left school with no qualifications but continued to pursue her love of cooking, training at the famous Le Cordon Ble...

David Harewood, who turned sixty this week, returns as Othello for the third time on stage. It’s a role he first took on in 1997, becoming the first black actor to play the part at London’s National Theatre. Growing up in multicultural Birmingham in the sixties and seventies, he was born to immigrants from Barbados. Described as gregarious by his teachers at school, Harewood showed an interest in...

Stephen Smith profiles the former racing driver and marketing guru who's turned around McLaren's fortunes and led them to Formula 1 glory. Born in California in 1971, friends and colleagues paint a picture of a fiercely competitive man with ‘noble intentions’. After dropping out of high school Zak Brown’s life changed after meeting former F1 world champion Mario Andretti when he was 15. He traded...

The Coventry MP who left the Labour party and joined Jeremy Corbyn's new left-wing ‘Your Party'. Zarah Sultana's husband and friends tell us how her upbringing shaped her politics and reveal her questionable taste in music. 'I think she would describe her taste as no taste', claims her husband Craig Lloyd. She was born in Birmingham to political parents who were both members of the Labour party. H...

Marjorie Taylor Greene is a darling of MAGA. But this week a disagreement with Trump over the Epstein files has seen him brand her as a traitor. Born in 1974 in the suburbs of Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene had a conventional upbringing. She graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in Business Administration, and later owned her family’s construction business and a stake in a CrossF...

David Hockney has died aged 88. This programme was broadcast in 2025. David Hockney is arguably Britain’s most loved living artist. He's known as a colourful character, not only because of his vibrant, colour rich paintings of Californian landscapes, glittering blue pools, and thick Yorkshire woodlands, but also his own carefully curated image from the 1960s- bright blond hair and oversized thick...

Afua Kyei, Chief Financial Officer at the Bank of England, has been named Britain's most influential black person. She grew up in South London, reading copious numbers of Enid Blyton books and listening to Boyzone, got 6 A levels and went to university a year early. She studied chemistry at Oxford and Princeton, but then had a change of heart . She became a chartered accountant and - in 2019 at th...

As Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership of the Labour party comes under increasing pressure and criticism, we profile a man who may well be waiting in the wings. Andy Burnham, a Labour stalwart who started his political career in the Blair and Brown era, seems determined to have his say in the party’s future too. Last month, he caused a political storm when he was widely interpreted as openly challenging...

Sanae Takaichi is the first female prime minister of Japan. Once the drummer in a heavy metal band, she is now a staunch conservative, tough on immigration and against same sex marriage. More Iron Lady than Iron Maiden, the 64-year-old models her strong leadership style on Margaret Thatcher. She entered politics in 1993, the same year as future prime minister Shinzo Abe. A loyal ally, she quickly...

Luke Littler, the 18-year-old darts star, is already one of the most famous people in British sport. This week he won yet another title, the World Grand Prix. Born in Warrington, he started throwing arrows while he was still wearing nappies. By the time he was 10, Littler was competing in under-21 competitions and would win his first senior title at 14. He shot to national fame in early 2024 when...

Marina Abramović is the self proclaimed ‘grandmother of performance art’. Her latest work, a reimagining of Slavic fertility rites, opened in Manchester earlier this week. Notorious for committing extreme acts to her body, the Serbian first achieved fame with her “Rhythm 0” performance, where she stood still in a room and invited guests to do anything they liked to her. They removed her clothes, c...