BBC broadcast journalist and presenter (born 1990)
Ashley John-Baptiste (born 1990) is a BBC broadcast journalist and presenter.
Childhood and education.
Baptiste was born in 1990 in Southwark, South London. From the age of two until he was 18, he grew up in four foster families and spent two years in a residential care home.
After attending three different primary schools, his secondary education was at Bacon's College, a comprehensive school in Rotherhithe with a higher than average proportion of pupils from troubled backgrounds. He was suspended several times, and had already been issued a final warning when the opportunity arose to visit a summer school organised by the Sutton Trust at Cambridge University. This was when he realised that he would have to take responsibility for himself and that he had the potential to succeed.
With the encouragement of his then foster parents and his MP, in 2008 he won a place at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, to read history, graduating in 2011 with an upper second. During this time, he mentored other students from similar backgrounds to his own.
Career.
Baptiste was a member of the band The Risk. In 2011, he quit the finals of ITV's "X Factor" to pursue a career in the media, and soon after obtained a place on the BBC creative access scheme and began working as a broadcast journalist.
From 2015 to 2018 he presented documentaries for the Victoria Derbyshire programme about the care system, children with facial deformities, and the Grenfell Tower fire, and has also made original documentary films on interfaith foster care and bullying.
He is currently an RTS-nominated BBC broadcast journalist and Digital Senior Reporter for BBC News.
He is an ambassador for The Fostering Network, a fostering charity.
He is the founder of Be Inspired, an organisation working in collaboration with Southwark Council, and Care Leaver Covenant, which have the aim of connecting care-experienced young people with each other and help them achieve their aspirations.
Awards.
In 2018 Baptiste was shortlisted for the Royal Television Society's Young Talent Of The Year Award.
Personal life.
Baptiste met his birth mother, who was a care leaver herself, at the age of 10 for the first time since going into care. He has never met his birth father. In his mid-20s, in spite of having been told by social workers that he was an only child, he found out for the first time that he had four older half-brothers on his father's side, one of whom he has met.
At the age of 14, his St Lucian foster mother took him to a Salvation Army church where he became involved in the youth group. This led to a moment in his faith journey when he prayed, "If you are real, I want you to be my Father". He credits his mindset of having potential and his sense of self-worth to having grown up in an environment where faith was very important.
Baptiste sings and plays the piano. He considers that music-making has been crucial to his personal development and well-being.
He is married to Joanna John-Baptiste, a maths teacher. The couple have two daughters, born in 2020 and 2022.
References.
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