Janet Ellis

Janet Ellis MBE is a writer, broadcaster and actor, and President of Humanists UK. Trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, she became a household name presenting Jigsaw and then Blue Peter (1983 to 1987), and has since worked widely across television, radio and theatre. She is the author of two novels, The Butcher's Hook (2016), selected for The Observer's New Faces of Fiction, and How It Was (2019), both published by Two Roads, and hosts the podcast Twice Upon A Time, talking to guests about the books that shaped their childhoods. A Humanists UK patron since 2014, she became the charity's President in January 2026. She was appointed MBE in 2016 for services to theatre and charity.