AJ: Accent & being black held me back
AJ ODUDU says it was “hard” for TV bosses to “get over” her being “black and northern” when she tried to break into the industry.
The Big Breakfast host – from Blackburn – worked as a TV runner early in her career and says she was made to feel “other” by small screen chiefs because of her skin colour and northern accent.
But AJ, 34, couldn’t understand why there was an issue with her accent when the likes of Nick Grimshaw and AnnieMac were presenting on BBC radio with similar twangs – then she realised it was because she was “Black, female and northern all at once”.
She said: “I did doubt myself because I was essentially being told to not be me.”