Dev (DJ)


Devin Joseph Jordan "Dev" Griffin is a British radio presenter, DJ and actor, who is most commonly known for presenting the weekend afternoon show on BBC Radio 1.

Early life

Griffin was born on 23 December 1984 in Hackney, London, United Kingdom, to an Irish mother and a Jamaican father. He and his twin sister are the youngest of four siblings. He was educated at The Ravenscroft School and attended the after-school drama club at the Anna Scher Theatre School, where he met friend and future co-host Reggie Yates.

Career

Early career

Dev began his radio career in 2000 aged 16 on pirate station Freek FM, specializing in garage and jungle. Here he was known as DJ Devstar and presented with Yates. In 2002, whilst studying for his A Levels at The Ravenscroft School, Griffin landed a job co-presenting the children's interactive TV show Smile alongside Yates, Fearne Cotton and Nev the Bear. Six months into filming, he was approached by BBC Radio 1Xtra to present a Saturday afternoon show with Yates. In 2003, Dev left Smile to concentrate on his radio career.

Acting

In 2006, Dev created and starred in children's sitcom The Crust. He has starred as himself in , as a result of campaigning at length on air to get himself a role in a B movie.

DJ

Dev was a member of the Rebellious music collective and played in venues at Ayia Napa and Faliraki. He warmed up for Kanye West at the Hammersmith Apollo and Jurassic 5 at the London Astoria. He also played at the Radio 1 Teen Awards.

Radio

Dev joined BBC Radio 1Xtra at the launch in August 2002, where he and Yates presented The Lowdown with Reg and Dev on Saturday afternoons. In August 2004, the show moved to Saturday mornings, with Dev additionally doing the show by himself on Sunday mornings. Yates left 1Xtra in December 2004, leaving Dev to present both Saturday and Sunday morning shows by himself. Following further schedule changes in September 2005, Dev moved to Saturday afternoons where he stayed until 2007, when he became presenter of the weekday early morning show.
In July 2009 hemoved to BBC Radio 1 to take on the weekend breakfast show. In September 2009 he moved from the weekend slot to replace Greg James as host of the weekday early breakfast show, between 4am and 6:30am. In March 2014 he left the weekday slot and returned to the weekend breakfast show, taking over from Gemma Cairney. He has regularly presented The Radio 1 Breakfast Show, the Scott Mills show and the Greg James show when they are away.

Television

Dev reached the final of the 2017 series of Celebrity Masterchef, alongside Ulrika Jonsson and eventual winner, Angellica Bell.
Dev participated in the 17th series of Strictly Come Dancing, partnered with professional dancer Dianne Buswell. They became the third Strictly couple to leave the show after losing a dance-off to Emma Weymouth and Aljaž Skorjanec. In April 2019 Dev took part on a Celebirty special of.

Radio presenting

Early Breakfast

"First Text of the Day" continued on the Weekend Breakfast Show until late 2016, and new features were introduced:
8The Playlist