Julia Hardy | |
---|---|
Born | Harrow, London, England |
Occupation | Presenter |
Years active | 2005–present |
Website | itsjuliahardy |
Julia Hardy, also known as Jules Hardy, is a British television presenter known for her interests in gaming, music, e-sports, and new technology. She is the creator and presenter of the online fitness programme Game to Train. In addition to her professional work, she is a live streamer on Twitch and a YouTuber.[1]
Born in Harrow, London,[2] Hardy began her career in 2005 when she was chosen to be a founding presenter of the British television channel Rockworld TV. On Rockworld TV, she co-presented Rockjaw and went on to become a field reporter, covering music events such as Maschinenfest, Download Festival and the Reading and Leeds Festivals.[3] In 2008, she became a presenter on Current TV show The Countdown, and in 2009 joined Ginx TV as presenter of GameFace[4] and Ginx Files which were shown on Bravo and later Challenge.[3][5][6] Also in 2009, she launched an online television show called AE:On.[7][8] She presented GameFace's successor The Blurb for Ginx TV on Challenge in 2011.[citation needed]
In 2015, Hardy started hosting a show on the internet radio station, TotalRock.[citation needed] She was also a presenter for MineCon 2015.[citation needed] As well as presenting, she also contributes articles to magazines and newspapers such as GamesMaster, Tuned, Big Cheese and the Sunday Telegraph.[3] In 2016, she became BBC Radio 1's gaming presenter[9][10] where she makes a monthly gaming show for BBC iPlayer and features on other radio shows talking about video games.[11] That same year, Hardy gave a TEDx talk about sexism, misogyny, and online trolls.[12] This related to her blog Misogyny Monday.[13]
In 2017, Hardy hosted an AOL original series called Tech Hunters, looking at retro and nostalgic technology.[14][15] In November 2017, she hosted Minecon Earth's Post and Pre-show which was an online stream broadcast around the world based on the game, Minecraft.[16] In October 2019, she hosted Runefest, a convention for fans of the game RuneScape. In 2020, she joint hosted the This Game Changed My Life podcast series on the BBC with Aoife Wilson.[17] This series has been nominated for an award in the Best New Show category of the 2021 Audio and Radio Industry Awards.[18] On 25 April 2022, she hosted the Gayming Awards 2022 at Troxy in London.[19][20][21]
In 2020, Hardy created the free online exercise programme Game to Train. The exercise programme is based around routines inspired by characters from well known computer games.[22]
Hardy, who calls herself Jules, is non-binary and uses she/her/they/them pronouns.[23][24]