Gillian Porter

Gillian Porter (born 13 April 1965^[1] in Coleraine^[2]) is a Northern Irish television presenter. She is best known for her work at UTV, where she was a long-serving continuity announcer and newsreader for 27 years.^[1]

Broadcasting career

Before joining UTV, Porter briefly worked as a continuity announcer and playout director at BBC Northern Ireland.^[3] In 1998, she presented the first series of UTV Life (originally broadcast weekly on Sundays before becoming a weeknight show).^[4]

In later years, Porter was one of two out-of-vision announcers at UTV, alongside Julian Simmons, voicing pre-recorded links.

In April 2020, local continuity was abandoned, initially as a temporary measure, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on staff at the Belfast studios. In November 2020, Porter announced she had left UTV, following a decision to switch permanently to ITV network presentation.^[5]

Porter voiced the final local UTV continuity link, broadcast at 5:59am on Thursday 2 April 2020.

She is now a freelance broadcaster and voiceover artist.

Personal life

Porter is married to Dee Corbett and has two children.^[2]