Andi Oliver gets her very own cookery series on BBC Two, and it’s well deserved – the TV personality has been through more than most in her life.
The former singer first experienced fame four decades ago, when she was just 20. She then enjoyed a successful music career, before turning her hand to cookery, and presenting.
So how did she become famous, who is her famous daughter, and what has she said about her “hellish childhood”, and the tragic death of her brother?
Here’s everything you need to know about Andi Oliver, her partner, and her life behind the screen.
What is Andi Oliver famous for?
Andi Oliver – short for Andrea – is a British chef, broadcaster, actress and singer. She actually started her showbiz career in a band performing to live audiences.
The singer later moved into presenting, and often incorporated her love of cooking. She used to co-host the Channel 4 television show Baadasss TV alongside Ice-T.
Andi frequently appears on the BBC World Service and the BBC’s annual coverage of Glastonbury Festival. The TV personality, known for her flamboyant sense of style and love of fans, started presenting a six-part cookery show Neneh and Andi Dish it Up.
The BBC Two series began in April 2007, and saw Andi team up with her good friend, the ‘Buffalo Stance’ singer Neneh Cherry. Since then, Andi has hosted the Truth About Food, The Big Eat and BBC’s Christmas Kitchen with Matt Tebbutt, among many others.
Andi also acts, appearing in the 2009 drama No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, set in Botswana, and in Trakked, Take Me, and How to Build a Girl.
In 2017, she replaced Prue Leith as permanent judge on The Great British Menu with Matthew Fort and Oliver Peyton. She later replaced Susan Calman as presenter.
When she is not broadcasting, Andi co-runs Andi’s Restaurant in London with Kelly Miles. She also hosts a podcast with her daughter Miquita Oliver, called Stirring it up with Andi and Miquita Oliver.
She is also known to assist on Pointless alongside Alexander Armstrong, has appeared on Celebrity Googlebox with her daughter Miquita, and regular appears on Saturday Kitchen.
What band was she in?
Andi is a former member of the band Rip Rig + Panic. One of their notable TV appearances came when they performed in an episode of the cult comedy show The Young Ones, with Adrien Edmondson.
After 1983, Oliver became involved in Kalimba, an African inspired band. In 1990 she joined forces with her brother, forming the Mighty Hog.
How old is Andi Oliver? Where is she from?
Andi was born in London in 1964. At the time of writing, she is currently 60 years old.
Both Andi’s parents were born in Antigua – her dad joined the RAF and her mum was a primary school teacher. Andi travelled extensively in her youth, thanks to her dad’s career.
She was largely brought up in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, from the age of 10. Her dad was based at RAF Honington.
Who is the partner of Andi Oliver?
Andi Oliver met her long-term partner Garfield Hacknett over 20 years ago. They met when she worked at The Globe speakeasy in Shoreditch. He now works as a cultural facilitator and manages the band The Feds.
The pair admit they bonded over their mutual hatred of camping! We hear you!
They now live in Clapton together, and love hanging out in Millfields Park with a music system and good food.
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Does Andi Oliver have children?
Andi Oliver has one daughter, Miquita Oliver, with her one-time partner, a Scottish art history teacher. Miquita is the television presenter, who found fame on Popworld and T4 with Simon Amstell when she was just 16. In fact, the two friends survived the tsunami while on holiday together in Thailand in 2004.
Andi was a single mum to Miquita, now 39, and times were sometimes very hard. She has said: “It has always been up and down and that seems normal to me. Sometimes we have money and sometimes we don’t.
“Everyone thinks because they see you on telly you must be rich, but I’ve never been driven by money.”
The mother and daughter duo took part in the TV series Eight Go Rallying: The Road to Saigon in 2018. With a group of celebs, they competed in a 2,500 miles rally around South East Asia. They have also participated on Celebrity Googlebox, and the BBC documentary The Caribbean with Andi and Miquita.
Miquita’s godmother is Casualty actress Amanda Mealing, another good friend of Andi’s.
What dress size is Andi Oliver?
Andi Oliver isn’t one to shy away from discussions about her fuller figure.
In the 2007 documentary The Truth About Food, the BBC used the knowledge gained whilst making the show to help Andi Oliver lose weight.
Andi admitted she had a “love/hate relationship with food” and had “tried every diet on the market”. However, after losing her father to heart disease, she decided to “take a long hard look at her life”.
At that time, Andi’s body was made up of 45% fat. Shocked into action, Andi changed her ways, and a follow-up fat scan showed she had improved her health.
At the end of the three months Andi had gone from a size 22 to a size 16 and lost 7kgs. It is unknown what dress size she is now.
Why does Andi Oliver always have a fan?
Fans of Andi will know that she is rarely seen without a hand-held fan – usually beautifully flamboyant, and complementary to her outfit. In fact, Andi owns dozens of fans.
She has previously admitted that she carries a fan to help her deal with hot flushes. She told The Express: “It’s a menopause thing!”
Well, if you’re going to suffer, do it in style, girl!
Has Andi Oliver got a restaurant?
Andi Oliver was famous for running her acclaimed restaurant-turned-culture hub, Wadadli Kitchen.
It was home to Caribbean family flavours, shared through love, stories and experiences; a place where food meets culture.
It is now permanently closed.
How is Andi Oliver related to Neneh Cherry?
Andi Oliver and famous singer Neneh Cherry aren’t actually related, but some might say they are like sisters. They first met in 1981, when Andi was 17 and Neneh as 16. Neneh was in Rip, Rig and Panic with Andi’s brother Sean.
Talking to The Independent in 1998, Neneh described their meeting as “love at first sight”. The pair bonded immediately, cooked together, made clothes, and work out dance moves together.
Neneh describes how the best friends would “drop everything for each other” and “speak to each other about twice a day on the phone”. The pair went on the road together in Rip, Rig and Panic, with Andi describing it as “like some huge weird romance”.
Four decades later, the pair are still the best of friends, and sometimes work together. They had their own TV cookery show in 2007 called Neneh and Andi Dish it Up.
What did Andi’s brother die of?
Tragically, Andi’s brother Sean died in 1990 of sickle cell anaemia, aged just 27.
He was the bass player in Rip, Rig + Panic, and wrote Wishing Well for Terence Trent D’Arby.
The host of Great British Menu Andi subsequently struggled with her brother’s death, and developed an eating disorder that left her in a “scary place”.
Andi Oliver on compulsive eating
The on-screen chef was left “dangerously ill” and unable to prevent herself from eating. Diagnosed with a compulsive eating disorder, she eventually entered residential care for three months when she was 30.
Talking about how she dealt with her brother’s death, Andi told Saga Magazine: “I was dangerously ill, sitting in the dark, crying, wanting to die, not being able to stop myself eating. I was in a scary place for some time.
“So much shame goes hand-in-hand with an eating disorder, with addiction of any kind. It’s very lonely because you don’t know how to talk to anybody. I didn’t know I had an eating disorder, I just thought I was disgusting.”
Andi on her ‘hellish’ childhood
The popular TV presenter has previously discussed her “hellish” childhood growing up in the Suffolk market town of Bury St Edmunds. Andi was the only black girl in her school.
She said: “It was pretty hellish, but the Seventies were a long time ago. I believe the horror taught me empathy. I learned to not be a bully or a bigot; I step in today when I see someone vulnerable because no one stepped in for me back then.”
At the time, she kept her distress from her parents. They were coping with her brother’s illness. She has also admitted that her late father was “a terrible dad”. He divorced Andi’s mum when she was 15. Her mother Maria, now 86, lives with Andi Oliver and her partner Garfield.
Does Andi Oliver shave her hair?
Andi does shave her hair to achieve that striking look. However, she did recently reveal she was thinking of growing her hair again so she can have traditional Caribbean canerows.
She said: “I love having a bald head, but also sometimes it gets a bit boring – you look in the mirror and think: ‘Hmm. This. Again.'” Frankly, we think Andi could pull off any style, and could never be described as boring!
Andi Oliver’s Fabulous Feasts
The chef and Great British Menu host gets her very own BBC Two cookery show. In the eight-parter, she helps to create remarkable feasts that unite communities.
Andi takes her passion for food the length and breadth of Britain by helping to organise feasts to unite communities and say a big thank you to deserving people or organisations.
She starts out in Cornwall, where local chef Ben Quinn is throwing a feast to thank NHS staff at the Royal Cornwall Hospital. Andi plans for 80 people on one long table on a beach. She devises a unique menu that tells the story of modern and traditional Cornwall, using local produce.
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Andi Oliver’s Fabulous Feasts starts on Wednesday, March 27, 2024 at 8pm on BBC Two.
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