Herod is a name used of several kings belonging to the Herodian Dynasty of the Roman province of Judaea:

• Herod the Great (c. 74–4 BC), client king of Judaea who rebuilt the Second Temple (in Jerusalem) into Herod's Temple
• Herod Archelaus (23 BC–c. AD 18), ethnarch of Samaria, Judea, and Idumea
• Herod Antipas (20 BC–c. AD 40), tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea, who (called "Herod the Tetrarch" or "Herod" in the New Testament up to Acts 4:27) was described therein as ordering John the Baptist's death and as mocking Jesus
• Herod II (c. 27 BC - 33 AD), sometimes called Herod Philip I, father of Salome
• Philip the Tetrarch (4 BC–AD 34), sometimes called Herod Philip II, tetrarch of Ituraea and Trachonitis
• Herod Agrippa I (c. 10 BC–AD 44), client king of Judaea, called "King Herod" or "Herod" in Acts 12 of the New Testament
• Herod of Chalcis, also known as Herod III, king of Chalcis (AD 41–48)
• Herod Agrippa II (AD 27–100), tetrarch of Chalcis who was described in Acts of the Apostles as "King Agrippa" before whom Paul of Tarsus defended himself

• Herodes Atticus (AD 101-177), was an unrelated Greek aristocrat who served as a Roman Senator and proponent of Sophism

Other[link]

• Hérode et Mariamne, a tragedy, by Voltaire
• Herod (band), the name of a heavy metal band from the United States
• Herod (horse), a thoroughbred racehorse
• A herred is an administrative area in Denmark and Norway

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Herod (Hebrew: הוֹרְדוֹס‎, Hordos, Greek: Ἡρῴδης, Hērōdēs), also known as Herod the Great (born 73 or 74 BCE, died 4 BCE in Jericho^[1]), was a Roman client king of Judea.^[2][3][4] His epithet of "the Great" is widely disputed as he is described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis."^[5][6][7] He is also known for his colossal building projects in Jerusalem and elsewhere, including his expansion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem (sometimes referred to as Herod's Temple) and the construction of the port at Caesarea Maritima. Important details of his biography are gleaned from the works of the 1st century CE Roman-Jewish historian Josephus Flavius.

The Romans made Herod's son Herod Archelaus ethnarch of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea (biblical Edom) from 4 BCE to 6 CE, referred to as the tetrarchy of Judea. Archelaus was judged incompetent by the Roman emperor Augustus who then combined Samaria, Judea proper and Idumea into Iudaea province^[8] under rule of a prefect until 41. Herod's other son Herod Antipas was tetrarch of Galilee from 4 BCE – 39 CE.

Biography[link]

Copper coin of Herod, bearing the legend "ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΗΡΩΔΟΥ" ("Basileōs Hērōdou") on the obverse

Herod was born around 74 BCE in the south (Idumea was the most southern region).^[9][10] He was the second son of Antipater the Idumaean, a high-ranked official under Ethnarch Hyrcanus II, and Cypros, a Nabatean. Herod was a practicing Jew, as the Edomites and many Nabateans had been converted to Judaism by the Hasmoneans.^[11] A loyal supporter of Hyrcanus II, Antipater appointed Herod governor of Galilee at 25, and his elder brother, Phasael, governor of Jerusalem. He enjoyed the backing of Rome but his brutality was condemned by the Sanhedrin.^[12]

In 43 BCE, following the chaos caused by Antipater offering financial support to Caesar's murderers, Antipater was poisoned. Herod, backed by the Roman Army, executed his father's murderer. After the battle of Philippi towards the end of 42 BCE, he convinced Mark Antony and Octavian that his father had been forced to help Caesar's murderers. After Antony marched into Asia, Herod was named tetrarch of Galilee by the Romans.

Two years later Antigonus, Hyrcanus' nephew, took the throne from his uncle with the help of the Parthians. Herod fled to Rome to plead with the Romans to restore him to power. There he was elected "King of the Jews" by the Roman Senate.^[13] Josephus puts this in the year of the consulship of Calvinus and Pollio (40 BCE), but Appian places it in 39 BCE.^[10] Herod went back to Judea to win his kingdom from Antigonus and at the same time he married the teenage niece of Antigonus, Mariamne (known as Mariamne I), in an attempt to secure a claim to the throne and gain some Jewish favor. However, Herod already had a wife, Doris, and a three-year-old son, Antipater, and chose therefore to banish Doris and her child.

Three years later, Herod and the Romans finally captured Jerusalem and executed Antigonus. Herod took the role as sole ruler of Judea and the title of basileus (Gr. Βασιλευς, king) for himself, ushering in the Herodian Dynasty and ending the Hasmonean Dynasty. Josephus reports this as being in the year of the consulship of Agrippa and Gallus (37 BCE), but also says that it was exactly 27 years after Jerusalem fell to Pompey, which would indicate 36 BCE. (Cassius Dio also reports that in 37 "the Romans accomplished nothing worthy of note" in the area.^[14]) According to Josephus, he ruled for 37 years, 34 years of them after capturing Jerusalem.

Model of Herod's Temple

As Herod's family had converted to Judaism, his religious commitment had come into question by some elements of Jewish society.^[15] When John Hyrcanus conquered the region of Idumaea (the Edom of the Hebrew Bible) in 140–130 BCE, he required all Idumaeans to obey Jewish law or to leave; most Idumaeans thus converted to Judaism, which meant that they had to be circumcised.^[16] While King Herod publicly identified himself as a Jew and was considered as such by some,^[17] this religious identification was undermined by the decadent lifestyle of the Herodians, which would have earned them the antipathy of observant Jews.^[18]

Herod later executed several members of his own family, including his wife Mariamne.^{[citation needed]}

Architectural achievements[link]

Herod's most famous and ambitious project was the expansion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

In the eighteenth year of his reign (20–19 BCE), Herod rebuilt the Temple on "a more magnificent scale".^[19] Although work on out-buildings and courts continued another eighty years,^[19] the new Temple was finished in a year and a half. To comply with religious law, Herod employed 1,000 priests as masons and carpenters in the rebuilding.^[19] The finished temple, which was destroyed in 70 CE, is sometimes referred to as Herod's Temple. Today, only the four retaining walls remain standing, including the Wailing Wall or Western Wall. These walls created a flat platform (the Temple Mount) upon which the Temple was then constructed.

Some of Herod's other achievements include the development of water supplies for Jerusalem, building fortresses such as Masada and Herodium, and founding new cities such as Caesarea Maritima and the enclosures of Cave of the Patriarchs and Mamre in Hebron. He and Cleopatra owned a monopoly over the extraction of asphalt from the Dead Sea, which was used in ship building. He leased copper mines on Cyprus from the Roman emperor.

Discovery of quarry[link]

On September 25, 2007, Yuval Baruch, archaeologist with the Israeli Antiquities Authority announced his discovery of a quarry compound which provided King Herod with the stones to renovate the Second Temple. Coins, pottery and iron stakes found proved the date of the quarrying to be about 19 BCE. Archaeologist Ehud Netzer confirmed that the large outlines of the stone cuts is evidence that it was a massive public project worked on by hundreds of slaves.^[20]

New Testament references[link]

Herod the Great appears in the Gospel according to Matthew (Ch. 2), which describes an event known as the Massacre of the Innocents. According to this account, after the birth of Jesus, Magi from the East visited Herod to inquire the whereabouts of "the one having been born king of the Jews", because they had seen his star in the east and therefore wanted to pay him homage. Herod, as King of the Jews, was alarmed at the prospect of a usurper. Herod assembled the chief priests and scribes of the people and asked them where the "Anointed One" (the Messiah, Greek: Ο Χριστός (ho christos)) was to be born. They answered, in Bethlehem, citing Micah 5:2. Herod therefore sent the Magi to Bethlehem, instructing them to search for the child and, after they had found him, to "report to me, so that I too may go and worship him". However, after they had found Jesus, the Magi were warned in a dream not to report back to Herod. Similarly, Joseph was warned in a dream that Herod intended to kill Jesus, so he and his family fled to Egypt. When Herod realized he had been outwitted by the Magi, he gave orders to kill all boys of the age of two and under in Bethlehem and its vicinity. Joseph and his family stayed in Egypt until Herod's death, then moved to Nazareth in Galilee in order to avoid living under Herod's son Archelaus.

Regarding the Massacre of the Innocents, although Herod was certainly guilty of many brutal acts, including the killing of his wife and two of his sons, no other known source from the period makes any reference to such a massacre.^[21] Since Bethlehem was a small village, the number of male children under the age of two might not exceed 20. This may be the reason for the lack of other sources for this history,^[22] although Herod's order in Matthew 2:16 includes those children in Bethlehem's vicinity making the massacre larger numerically and geographically. Modern biographers of Herod tend to doubt the event took place.^[23]

Death[link]

Coin of Herod the Great

Since the work of Emil Schürer in 1896^[24] most scholars have agreed that Herod died at the end of March or early April in 4 BCE. ^[25] However, Schürer's consensus has not gone unchallenged in the 20th century, with several scholars endorsing 1 BCE as the year of Herod's death.^[26][27]

Evidence for the 4 BCE date is provided by the fact that Herod's sons, between whom his kingdom was divided, dated their rule from 4 BCE,^[28] and Archilaus apparently also exercised royal authority during Herod's lifetime.^[29] Josephus states that Philip the Tetrarch's death took place after a 37-year reign, in the 20th year of Tiberius (34 CE).^[30]

Josephus tells us that Herod died after a lunar eclipse.^[31] He gives an account of events between this eclipse and his death, and between his death and Passover. A partial eclipse^[32] took place on March 13, 4 BCE^[33], about 29 days before Passover, and this eclipse is usually taken to be the one referred to by Josephus.^[34] There were however three other, total, eclipses around this time, and there are proponents of both 5 BCE^[35]– with two total eclipses,^[36][37] and 1 BCE.^[10]

Bronze coin of Herod the Great, minted at Samaria.

Josephus wrote that Herod's final illness – sometimes named as "Herod's Evil"^[38] – was excruciating.^[39] From Josephus' descriptions, some medical experts propose that Herod had chronic kidney disease complicated by Fournier's gangrene.^[40] Modern scholars agree he suffered throughout his lifetime from depression and paranoia.^[41] More recently, others report that the visible worms and putrefaction described in his final days are likely to have been scabies; the disease might have accounted for both his death and psychiatric symptoms.^[42] Similar symptoms attended the death of his grandson Agrippa I in CE 44.

Josephus also stated that Herod was so concerned that no one would mourn his death, that he commanded a large group of distinguished men to come to Jericho, and he gave order that they should be killed at the time of his death so that the displays of grief that he craved would take place ^[43]. Fortunately for them, Herod's son Archilaus and sister Salome did not carry out this wish ^[44].

After Herod's death, his kingdom was divided among three of his sons by Augustus. Augustus "appointed Archilaus, not indeed to be the king of the whole country, but ethnarch or one half of that which had been subject to Herod, and promised to give him the royal dignity hereafter, if he governed his part virtuously. But as for the other half, he divided it into two parts, and gave it to two other of Herod's sons, to Philip and to Herod Antipas, that Herod Antipas who disputed with Archilaus for the whole kingdom. Now, to him it was that Perea and Galilee paid their tribute, which amounted annually to two hundred talents, while Batanea with Trachonitis, as well as Auranitis, with a certain part of what was called House of Lenodorus, paid the tribute of one hundred talents to Philip; but Idumea, and Judea, and the country of Samaria, paid tribute to Archilaus, but had now a fourth part of that tribute taken off by the order of Caesar, who decreed them that mitigation, because they did not join in this revolt with the rest of the multitude."^[45] Archilaus became ethnarch of the tetrarchy of Judea, Herod Antipas became tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea, and Philip became tetrarch of territories east of the Jordan.

Tomb discovery[link]

Aerial photo of Herodium from the southwest

The location of Herod's tomb is documented by Josephus, who writes, "And the body was carried two hundred furlongs, to Herodium, where he had given order to be buried."^[46] Josephus provides more clues about Herod's tomb which he calls Herod's monuments:

So they threw down all the hedges and walls which the inhabitants had made about their gardens and groves of trees, and cut down all the fruit trees that lay between them and the wall of the city, and filled up all the hollow places and the chasms, and demolished the rocky precipices with iron instruments; and thereby made all the place level from Scopus to Herod's monuments, which adjoined to the pool called the Serpent's Pool.^[47]

Professor Ehud Netzer, an archaeologist from Hebrew University, read the writings of Josephus and focused his search on the vicinity of the pool and its surroundings at the Winter Palace of Herod in the Judean desert. An article of the New York Times states,

Lower Herodium consists of the remains of a large palace, a race track, service quarters, and a monumental building whose function is still a mystery. Perhaps, says Ehud Netzer, who excavated the site, it is Herod's mausoleum. Next to it is a pool, almost twice as large as modern Olympic-size pools.^[48]

It took 35 years for Netzer to identify the exact location, but on May 7, 2007, an Israeli team of archaeologists of the Hebrew University led by Netzer, announced they had discovered the tomb.^{[49][50][51][52]} The site is located at the exact location given by Flavius Josephus, atop of tunnels and water pools, at a flattened desert site, halfway up the hill to Herodium, 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) south of Jerusalem.^[53] The tomb contained a broken sarcophagus but no remains of a body.

The Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Gush Etzion Regional Council intend to recreate the tomb out of a light plastic material.^[54]

Chronology[link]

30s BCE[link]

• 39–37 BCE– War against Antigonus. After the conquest of Jerusalem and victory over Antigonus, Mark Antony executes Antigonus.
• 36 BCE– Herod makes his 17-year-old brother-in-law, Aristobulus III, high priest, fearing that the Jews would appoint Aristobulus III "King of the Jews" in his place.
• 35 BCE– Aristobulus III is drowned at a party, on Herod's orders.
• 32 BCE– The war against Nabatea begins, with victory one year later.
• 31 BCE– Israel suffers a devastating earthquake. Octavian defeats Mark Antony, so Herod switches allegiance to Octavian, later known as Augustus.
• 30 BCE– Herod is shown great favor by Octavian, who at Rhodes confirms him as King of Judea.

20s BCE[link]

• 29 BCE– Josephus writes that Herod had great passion and also great jealousy concerning his wife, Mariamne I. She learns of Herod's plans to murder her, and stops sleeping with him. Herod puts her on trial on a charge of adultery. His sister, Salome I, was chief witness against her. Mariamne I's mother Alexandra made an appearance and incriminated her own daughter. Historians say her mother was next on Herod's list to be executed and did this only to save her own life. Mariamne was executed, and Alexandra declared herself Queen, stating that Herod was mentally unfit to serve. Josephus wrote that this was Alexandra's strategic mistake; Herod executed her without trial.
• 28 BCE– Herod executed his brother-in-law Kostobar^[55] (husband of Salome, father to Berenice) for conspiracy. Large festival in Jerusalem, as Herod had built a theatre and an amphitheatre.
• 27 BCE– An assassination attempt on Herod was foiled. To honor Augustus, Herod rebuilt Samaria and renamed it Sebaste.
• 25 BCE– Herod imported grain from Egypt and started an aid programme to combat the widespread hunger and disease that followed a massive drought. He also waives a third of the taxes.
• 23 BCE– Herod built a palace in Jerusalem and the fortress Herodion (Herodium) in Judea. He married his third wife, Mariamne II, the daughter of the priest Simon Boethus; immediately Herodes deprived Jesus the son of Phabet, of the high priesthood, and conferred that dignity on Simon.^[56]
• 22 BCE– Herod began construction on Caesarea Maritima and its harbour. The Roman emperor Augustus grants him the regions Trachonitis, Batanaea and Auranitis to the northeast.
• Circa 20 BCE– Expansion started on the Temple Mount; Herod completely rebuilt the Second Temple of Jerusalem (see Herod's Temple).

10s BCE[link]

• Circa 18 BCE– Herod travelled for the second time to Rome.
• 14 BCE– Herod supported the Jews in Anatolia and Cyrene. Owing to the prosperity in Judaea he waived a quarter of the taxes.
• 13 BCE– Herod made his first-born son Antipater (his son by Doris) first heir in his will.
• 12 BCE– Herod suspected both his sons (from his marriage to Mariamne I) Alexander and Aristobulus of threatening his life. He took them to Aquileia to be tried. Augustus reconciled the three. Herod supported the financially strapped Olympic Games and ensured their future. Herod amended his will so that Alexander and Aristobulus rose in the royal succession, but Antipater would be higher in the succession.
• Circa 10 BCE– The newly expanded temple in Jerusalem was inaugurated. War against the Nabateans began.

First decade BCE[link]

Tomb of Herod the Great

• 9 BCE–Caesarea Maritima was inaugurated. Owing to the course of the war against the Nabateans, Herod fell into disgrace with Augustus. Herod again suspected Alexander of plotting to kill him.
• 8 BCE– Herod accused his sons by Mariamne I of high treason. Herod reconciled with Augustus, who also gave him the permission to proceed legally against his sons.
• 7 BCE– The court hearing took place in Berytos (Beirut) before a Roman court. Mariamne I's sons were found guilty and executed. The succession changed so that Antipater was the exclusive successor to the throne. In second place the succession incorporated (Herod) Philip, his son by Mariamne II.
• 6 BCE– Herod proceeded against the Pharisees.
• 5 BCE– Antipater was brought before the court charged with the intended murder of Herod. Herod, by now seriously ill, named his son (Herod) Antipas (from his fourth marriage with Malthace) as his successor.
• 4 BCE– Young disciples smashed the golden eagle over the main entrance of the Temple of Jerusalem after the Pharisee teachers claimed it was an idolatrous Roman symbol. Herod arrested them, brought them to court, and sentenced them. Augustus approved the death penalty for Antipater. Herod then executed his son, and again changed his will: Archelaus (from the marriage with Malthace) would rule as ethnarch over the tetrachy of Judea, while Antipas (by Malthace) and Philip (from the fifth marriage with Cleopatra of Jerusalem) would rule as tetrarchs over Galilee and Peraea (Transjordan), also over Gaulanitis (Golan), Trachonitis (Hebrew: Argob), Batanaea (now Ard-el-Bathanyeh) and Panias. Salome I was also given a small toparchy in the Gaza region. As Augustus did not confirm his will, no one received the title of King; however, the three sons were granted rule of the stated territories.

Marriages and children[link]

It is very probable that Herod had more children, especially with the last wives, and also that he had more daughters, as female births at that time were often not recorded.^[57]

Family trees[link]

Marriages and descendants[link]

Herod the Great + Doris
                |
            Antipater II
             d. 4 BCE?

Herod the Great + Mariamne I, d. 29 BCE?, dt. of Alexandros.
                |
       —————————————————————————————————————————————
      |          |          |                       |
 Aristobulus   Alexander   Salampsio + Phasael II     Cypros
  d. 7 BCE?     d. 7 BCE?                |             m. Antipater(2)
 m. Berenice                       Cypros
      |
     ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
    |                |              |                |               |
Mariamne III      Herod V      Herodias     Herod Agrippa    Aristobulus V
m. her uncle   King of Chalcis      +         King of Judea              |
   Archelaus ?              m. 1. Herod II Boethus Herod Agrippa II
                                her uncle
                                2. Herod Antipas
                                her uncle

Herod the Great + Mariamne II, dt. of Simon the High-Priest.
                |
           Herod II
           Boethus

Herod the Great + Malthace (a Samaritan)
                |
    ————————————————————————————————————————————————
   |                                   |            |
 Herod Antipas                     Archelaus    Olympias
   b. 20 BCE?
   + Phasaelis,
   dt. of Aretas IV, king of Arabia
 "divorced" to marry:
   + Herodias,
   dt. of Aristobulus (son of Herod the Great)

Herod the Great + Cleopatra of Jerusalem
                |
       Philip the Tetrarch
             d. 34 CE

Notes.

• Herod's Family Tree^[58]
• Antipater(2) was the son of Joseph and Salome
• Dates with ? need verifying against modern findings

Ancestors[link]

Antipater the Idumaean + Cypros, Princess from Petra, Jordan in Nabatea.
                       |
    —————————————————————————————————————————————
   |              |            |        |        |
Phasael    Herod the Great  Joseph  Pheroras  Salome I
          (74-4 BCE)

Alexandros + Alexandra
           |
      ———————————————————————————————————
     |                                   |
Aristobulus III            Mariamne, dt.
(d. 35 BCE)                              m. Herod the Great
(last Hasmonean scion;
appointed high priest; drowned)

See also[link]

• Cultural depictions of Herod the Great
• Herod's Palace

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Brandon, S.G.F. (1962). "Herod the Great: Judaea’s Most Able but Most Hated King". History Today 12: 234–242. 
• Grant, Michael (1971). Herod the Great. New York: American Heritage Press. ISBN 0-07-024073-6. 
• Günther, Linda-Marie (hg.). Herodes und Jerusalem (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2009).
• Guenther, Linda-Marie (hg.), Herodes und Rom (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2007).
• Jacobson, David M. and Nikos Kokkinos (еds), Herod and Augustus: Papers held at the IJS Conference, 21st-23rd June 2005 (Leiden, Brill, 2009) (IJS Studies in Judaica, 6).
• Kokkinos, Nikos, The Herodian Dynasty: Origins, Role in Society and Eclipse (Sheffield, Sheffield Academic, 1998).
• Marshak, Adam Kolman (2006). "The Dated Coins of Herod the Great: Towards a New Chronology". Journal for the Study of Judaism 37 (2): 212–240. 
• Netzer, Ehud, The Architecture of Herod, the Great Builder (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006).
• Perowne, Stewart (1956). The Life and Times of Herod the Great. New York: Abingdon Press. 
• Richardson, P., Herod the King of the Jews and Friend of the Romans (Edinburgh, 1999).
• Roller, Duane W. (1998). The Building Program of Herod the Great. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-91935-8. 
• Sandmel, Samuel (1967). Herod: Profile of a Tyrant. Philadelphia: Lippincott. 
• Witztum, Eliezer, King Herod: A Persecuted Persecutor. A Case Study in Psychohistory and Psychobiography (Berlin and New York, Walter de Gruyter, 2006).
• Zeitlin, Solomon (1963). "Herod: A Malevolent Maniac". Jewish Quarterly Review 54: 1–27. 
• Zeitlin, Solomon (1962-1978). The Rise and Fall of the Judean State. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society. 

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (December 2009)

• Resources > Second Temple and Talmudic Era > Herod and the Herodian Dynasty The Jewish History Resource Center - Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Halachic Status of Herod
• Family trees
• Encyclopedia.com
• Outline of Great Books Volume I - King Herod: extracts from the works of Josephus
• Timeline 49 to 1 BCE
• Herod surnamed the Great in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Herod
• King Herod the Great
• Jewish Encyclopedia: Herod I

Tomb

• Tomb Found
• Herod's Tomb -images
• King Herod's Tomb Found Biblical Archaeology Review

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Tagged since April 2009. It may be written from a fan's point of view, rather than a neutral point of view. Tagged since July 2011. Its neutrality is disputed. Tagged since July 2011.

Andrew Patrick O'Keefe (born 1 October 1971) is an Australian entertainer, best known for being the host of the hit game-show Deal or No Deal. He is also the co-host of Weekend Sunrise alongside Samantha Armytage.

He formerly worked as an intellectual property lawyer with Australian law firm Allens Arthur Robinson, and for a short time with the Public Interest Advocacy Centre in Sydney. He is the son of former Supreme Court of New South Wales judge Barry O'Keefe, nephew of the late Australian rock and roll musician Johnny O'Keefe and brother of University of Cambridge international lawyer Roger O'Keefe.

Television career[link]

O'Keefe first started his television career in 2003, starring in Channel Seven's AFI-nominated sketch show Big Bite (the same show on which Summer Heights High's Chris Lilley got his TV break). Late the same year he began hosting Deal or no Deal, the first version of the show outside its home country The Netherlands. It has been on screen continuously since 2003, has run to over 1,500 episodes to December 2010, and has since been produced in over 75 countries around the world.

In 2004, O'Keefe co-hosted the historic tri-network tsunami appeal Reach Out with fellow presenters Eddie McGuire and Rove McManus, which raised over $20 million for tsunami relief efforts around Asia. The event was such a success that the three teamed up the following year to host, The TV Week Logies.

In 2005, he hosted the short-lived Dragons Den.

From 2007 until 2009, O'Keefe hosted the quiz show The Rich List, and in 2006 took the helm of Weekend Sunrise, which he currently hosts every Saturday and Sunday morning with journalist Samantha Armytage.

In 2010 Andrew appeared in the Christmas special episode of Review with Myles Barlow.

Other Interests[link]

O'Keefe is the chairman of the White Ribbon Foundation in Australia, an organisation dedicated to the prevention of violence against women. He was one of the founding members of the campaign in Australia and has been an ambassador since 2004. The campaign is active in schools, workplaces, sports clubs, councils and other community organisations, and seeks to rally men and boys as leaders in the fight against violence.^[1]

As a result of his work with the Foundation, O'Keefe was appointed to the inaugural National Council for the Prevention of Violence Against Women, which drafted the report Time for Action: Australia's National Plan for Reducing Violence Against Women and their Children on behalf of the federal government.^[2]

O'Keefe is also a supporter of several other charity organisations including the Garvan Institute for gene research, Kids of Kokoda, the Bell Shakespeare Company and The Wilderness Society.

Personal life[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2011)

O'Keefe studied arts and law at the University of Sydney, where he was heavily involved in Theatresports and faculty revues. He played Theatresports most Sunday nights at the Belvoir Street Theatre in Sydney, winning a Cranston Cup series with two-man team Dirty Harry's Bathwater.

In 2001 he was a member of the Australian Theatresports team that won the Just for Laughs Improv Tournament at the Montreal Comedy Festival. He has an A.Mus in classical singing (baritone), was the frontman for several Sydney bands in the '90s, and plays trumpet and piano.

O'Keefe and his wife Eleanor have three children.

See also[link]

• Deal or No Deal
• Weekend Sunrise

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sunrise profile
• Andrew O'Keefe at the Internet Movie Database
• Video shows Deal or No Deal host Andrew O'Keefe drunk in Chapel St Melbourne- Sunday Telegraph

Chris Moyles
Born	Christopher David Moyles[1] (1974-02-22) 22 February 1974 (age 38)[2] Temple Newsam, Leeds, England
Occupation	Broadcaster
Years active	1990–present
Partner	Ana Boulter (1999–2002) Sophie Waite (2002–2010)

Christopher David Moyles (born 22 February 1974) ^[2] is an English radio and television presenter and author, who currently presents The Chris Moyles Show on BBC Radio 1 and Chris Moyles' Quiz Night on Channel 4.

Born in Leeds, he attended Mount St Mary's Catholic High School in Leeds and volunteered to work at WBHS (Wakefield's Broadcast to Hospitals Service). He has worked at various radio stations including Radio Luxembourg (under the pseudonym Chris Holmes) and Capital FM. Moyles moved to BBC Radio 1 in 1997 and has remained there ever since, presenting the early breakfast show, a Saturday morning show, the drive time show and currently, the breakfast show. On 7 September 2009 he became Radio 1's longest serving breakfast presenter. Moyles has become famous for his irreverent broadcasting style on Radio 1 and has been embroiled in numerous controversies, including homophobic and sexist accusations, due to statements he has made on the air and in the press. Despite that, Moyles' regular audience figures averages 8 million listeners per annum, and remains one of the more popular presenters on BBC Radio 1.

He has achieved various Radio awards, and has helped raise money for charity by taking part in challenges, aired on T.V on behalf of Comic Relief. He has recorded a parody album and written two autobiographies. He frequently appears on television having appeared on Hotel Babylon, a celebrity version of Dale's Supermarket Sweep, Top Gear, The Charlotte Church Show, The F-Word, The Friday Night Project, The One Show, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Richard & Judy and The New Paul O'Grady Show. In 2009 he launched his own show, Chris Moyles' Quiz Night for Channel 4 which is currently in its fifth series.

Career[link]

Pre-Radio 1[link]

Chris Moyles was born on 22 February 1974 in Leeds and was educated at the Mount St Mary's Catholic High School in Leeds.^[2][3] While at school, he began his broadcasting career at WBHS (Wakefield's Broadcast to Hospitals Service), a voluntary staffed hospital radio station in the West Yorkshire city.

He then started out at local station Aire FM as an assistant for DJ Carl Kingston. During this time, he was also a presenter on Radio Top Shop in the Leeds Briggate branch. After hosting his own Saturday Evening Show on Aire FM (and occasionally serving as a stand-in presenter), he was then employed as a presenter at Radio Luxembourg in 1992, until the station closed.

In 1993, he gained a job at The Pulse of West Yorkshire, presenting the evening show from 7–10 pm. He remained there until early 1994 when he was dismissed^[4] for comments made about the station's previous programme controller. Moyles subsequently turned up at Signal 1 in Stoke-on-Trent – again presenting The Evening Bit from 7–10 pm. In 1995 Moyles was heard on the Chiltern Radio Network, presenting the evening show from 7–10 pm, before taking on the late show from 10 pm–1 am. This show was simulcast on Horizon Radio, Chiltern Radio, Severn Sound and Northants 96.

In 1996, Moyles joined London station Capital FM hosting his weekend show 'The Late Bit', which went out on a Friday & Saturday evening, and covering for other DJs. It was at Capital that Moyles fell out with fellow DJ 'Doctor' Neil Fox. After declining the offer of presenting the breakfast show on rival station Kiss 100,^[5] Moyles joined Radio 1 in July 1997.

Radio 1[link]

Moyles was voted one of the Faces for 97 by SKY magazine and presented his first show on Radio 1 on 28 July 1997, hosting the 4–7 am Early Breakfast show – soon called The Early Bit. In May 1998, his work was recognised with the award of the Silver Sony Awards DJ of the Year, and he was styling himself as 'The Saviour Of Early Morning Radio'. Within the year Moyles was promoted to a Saturday breakfast, then Saturday mid-morning slot from 10 am–1 pm. At Radio 1, he has presented most of his shows with David "Comedy Dave" Vitty, who worked behind the scenes at the station prior to Moyles' arrival.

After standing in regularly for Kevin Greening and Zoe Ball on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show, Moyles's next promotion came in October 1998 when he took control of the drivetime show from 4–5.45 pm. The show was extended to 3–5.45 pm in February 2001. Moyles has co-presented the show from 1998, with his sidekick.

On 5 January 2004, Moyles started presenting Radio 1's flagship programme The Breakfast Show, switching places with Sara Cox. He had been appointed to increase the ratings for the show and did so, putting on an extra 1,000,000 listeners to the audience in the first quarter of 2004. After a successful first year, Moyles was awarded 'DJ of the Year' by readers of The Sun.

By 2005, Moyles and his team had succeeded in hugely increasing the morning audience, with his programme's audience swelling to 6.5 million. This was coupled with an increase in the overall Radio 1 audience share. With 895,000 listeners in London in the third quarter of 2005, he succeeded in overtaking Johnny Vaughan to take the position of the capital's most listened to youth breakfast show. Moyles's audience rating's continued to increase each week and led to him winning a gold Sony Radio Award in 2006 for best entertainment show.

With the release of the RAJAR listening figures on 3 August 2006, Moyles had added a further 470,000 listeners to the Breakfast Show, taking the average listenership up to 6.79 million. On 10 May 2007, RAJAR figures confirmed that Moyles had increased his listening figures to 7.06 million, breaking the seven million barrier for the first time with the station having 10.55 million listeners overall. Moyles again increased his audience to 7.72 million as of 1 May 2008 slightly narrowing the gap between him and Terry Wogan, the current highest rated radio show in the UK. The station's overall listener figure is now over 11 million.

Wikinews has related news: Chris Moyles breaks record for longest running breakfast show on BBC Radio 1