Dawn O'Porter

Early life

Dawn O'Porter was born in Alexandria, Scotland, and raised in Guernsey. She studied acting at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. In her third year, she decided that acting was not for her and did work experience on the television series Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned rather than participate in a school production. Porter's father is Scottish and lives in Scotland.

Television career

O'Porter attempted to slim down to a size zero by using drastic dieting regimes for the BBC documentary Super Slim Me. O'Porter presented the product-testing section of How to Look Good Naked on Channel 4.

In 2008, O'Porter presented a BBC Three series of four documentary films, Dawn... (14 February–6 March), exploring attitudes to nudity, lesbianism, dating and pregnancy (including childbirth).{{cite web |title=Dawn... |work=BBC Three |publisher=BBC |url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00901j7 |access-date =3 September 2008}} O'Porter appeared in Seriously Dirty Dancing, a tribute to her favourite film Dirty Dancing, for Channel 5.

Later that year, she made a four-part series called Extreme Wife for Channel 4. In the first programme, Dawn Porter: Free Lover (2008), O'Porter travelled to San Diego, California, to investigate polyamory, then she travelled to former Germany to visit ZEGG in Belzig, a German free love commune. The programme highlighted the world of free love, such as ritual sensuous oil sessions with naked people covered in warm olive oil, and included discussions with the people who lived in the commune. It premiered with 1.75m viewers (10.7% share). In the second programme, Dawn Porter: Mail Order Bride, O'Porter travelled to Odesa, Ukraine, with a group of American men in their search for a partner. The third programme, Dawn Porter: Geisha Girl, saw O'Porter travel to Kyoto, Japan, and spend a week in a geisha house. In the fourth and final programme, Dawn Porter: Polygamist's Wife, O'Porter investigated women who are prepared to share their husbands with other women. This included a stay in Centennial Park, Arizona, US.

In 2009, O'Porter narrated the BBC Three series Undercover Princes. In 2009 she presented documentary, The Booby Trap, exploring breast cancer, for Sky1. The show aired on 6–7 July 2009, under the title My Breasts Could Kill Me. It premiered with 181,000 viewers (0.9% share).

O'Porter has her own television production company Hot Patootie TV.

In 2011, O'Porter made an appearance in Derren Brown – The Experiments entitled "The Secret of Luck" and later filmed six episodic advertisements for Andrex Washlets. She appeared in E4 drama Skins and has appeared on the television show Balls of Steel.

In 2012, O'Porter organised an Oxfam "get together" alongside friend Gemma Cairney, and raised money for Oxfam by selling clothing previously owned by celebrities.

In 2014, O'Porter hosted and co-produced a series for Channel 4 called This Old Thing exploring vintage clothing. O'Porter hosts Soul Food on Munchies for Vice.

Writing

O'Porter writes for many publications, on feminism and aspects of women's lifestyle.

In 2006, she published Diaries of an Internet Lover. In May 2013, she released her first novel, Paper Aeroplanes, the fictional tale of an intense female friendship loosely inspired by her own childhood in Guernsey.

Her publication, The Cows, was released in 2016 and has since been featured on the Sunday Times Best Sellers list. In 2019, HarperCollins published her novel, So Lucky. In 2022, HarperCollins published another of her novels, Cat Lady. In 2024, HarperCollins Canada published HoneyBee.

Personal life

In 2012, O'Porter married Chris O'Dowd and changed her name to Dawn O'Porter.

In 2015, O'Porter gave birth to a son. In 2017, O'Porter gave birth to a second son.

O'Porter was one of the founding members of the charity Help Refugees (now called Choose Love).

References

References

1. Porter, Dawn. (3 February 2009). "25 things you might not know about me...".
2. Foulds, Jenny. (18 April 2017). "Alexandria born Dawn O'Porter returns to Scotland to promote new book". [[Daily Record (Scotland)]].
3. Knock, Emma. (9 May 2011). "Dawn Porter interview". Emmaknock.wordpress.com.
4. ''[[8 Out of 10 Cats]]'', 17 February 2014
5. [http://www.channel4.com/health/microsites/D/dawn-porter/dawn-porter.html ''Dawn Porter: Extreme Wife''] Channel4.com
6. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/02_february/05/bbcthree.shtml BBC Three's new programming, new look and huge move forward into multiplatform ] BBC Press Office,
7. (19 February 2008). "Record share and reach figures for BBC Three". BBC Press Office.
8. "Seriously Dirty Dancing - Blink Films". Blinkfilmsuk.com.
9. (1 October 2008). "Jamie Oliver's ''Ministry'' welcomes 3m". [[Digital Spy]].
10. ''Radio Times'', 18–24 October 2008, p. 89
11. (January 2009). "Network TV BBC Week 2". BBC Press Office.
12. [http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/a155927/the-booby-trap-heads-to-sky1.html ''Booby Trap'' heads to Sky1] Digital Spy, 14 May 2009
13. [http://sky1.sky.com/dawn-porter-my-breasts-could-kill-me Dawn Porter: My breasts could kill me] Sky1 HD
14. [http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/a163877/59m-tune-in-for-new-torchwood.html 5.9m tune in for new ''Torchwood''] Digital Spy, 7 July 2009
15. Companies House [https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/06394090/officers Listing]; accessed 17 March 2017
16. "DAWN O'PORTER - LONDON".
17. (11 November 2011). "Derren Brown: The Experiments - Series 1 - Episode 4 - Derren Brown: The Secret of Luck". [[Channel 4]].
18. (25 February 2012). "Rumble in the jumble for International Women's Day – Now. Here. This. – Time Out London". Now-here-this.timeout.com.
19. (12 June 2014). "Dawn O'Porter interview for This Old Thing: The Vintage Clothes Show". Channel Four Television Corporation.
20. (25 June 2014). "This Old Thing: the Vintage Clothes Show, review: 'so predictable it felt second-hand'".
21. Porter, Dawn. (2006). "Diaries of an internet lover". Virgin Books.
22. Williams, Andrew. (2 May 2013). "Dawn Porter: I was sick of making TV documentaries all about me". Metro.co.uk.
23. "The Sunday Times Best Sellers".
24. O'Porter, Dawn. (2019). "So lucky". HarperCollins.
25. "Honeybee - Dawn O’Porter - Paperback".
26. (2024-09-28). "Guernsey is like a warm hug, says author Dawn O'Porter".
27. Husband, Stuart. (20 June 2011). "Chris O'Dowd Interview". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
28. Milton, Stephen. (27 April 2013). "I was never going to be Mrs O'Dowd". [[Independent News & Media]].
29. chris o'dowd. (26 August 2012). "Just married!!!!".
30. (2 February 2015). "It's a boy: Chris O'Dowd and Dawn O'Porter announce birth of son Art and joke 'I think we'll keep him'".
31. (13 July 2017). "Chris O'Dowd and Dawn O'Porter welcome baby boy'".
32. Anthony, Andrew. (12 June 2016). "Accidental activists: the British women on the front line of the refugee crisis".