Katie living the dream on Good Morning Britain

Katie living the dream on Good Morning Britain

3 March 2021

SHE dreamed of being a TV weather presenter as a child and now Saintfield woman Katie Andrews has landed her dream job working in television for UTV.

The 26 year-old is a production journalist and has been working on the station’s news bulletins since 2019.

She has also become a familiar face in front of the cameras having moved into presenting for Good Morning Britain and weekend news bulletins since last November.

Katie said: “I had originally wanted to be a weather woman from a very young age. I always watched breakfast TV news shows before I went to school in the morning and was always attracted to TV news as I always wanted to know what was happening.”

She took her first step to her ideal career when she applied for the Multi-Media Journalist course at Belfast Metropolitan College.

“It was my preferred choice for further education as I admired the course’s reputation. It provided me with opportunity to continue my higher education in Multimedia Journalism at Teesside University, where I graduated with a first class honours.”

Katie said her time at Belfast Met was a springboard  for university.

“We did a lot of group projects working in the TV and Radio studios where I had the opportunity to work on the programme Brilliant NI, so I got a real sense of what it’s like to self-shoot using industry standard cameras,” said Katie. “I also presented some segments of the programme and having this opportunity to present on Brilliant NI was when I realised that I felt comfortable presenting in front of the camera.

“My favourite part of the course was the broadcasting module, as we learnt so much from our lecturers who worked in broadcasting themselves. It helped me to develop the skills I needed to work in TV and broadcasting as a whole. The course was very sociable - everyone worked together well, and we had a lot of fun along the way.

After graduating from Belfast Met, Katie continued her higher education journey at Teesside University where she was named Video Journalist of the Year.

This award included work experience at a local television channel in the North East of England, North East Live, where she worked as a self-shooting reporter and presenter for for two and a half years before pursuing a career closer to home with UTV.

“There isn’t a more exciting and fulfilling job in the world. No two days are the same which I love, and I really get a buzz from working to deadlines every day,” she said.

“My work patterns vary from producing bulletins, editing, writing and writing articles for our website. The best part of working at UTV is the teamwork that’s involved, and I’ve also really enjoyed being in front of the camera more recently as well.

“I get a real sense of achievement from working behind the scenes with correspondents and reporters that I have always looked up to. It’s so rewarding to see the final news bulletin being broadcast following a busy day in the newsroom.

“I feel very lucky to be in the role I am in now, and hope I continue to have a successful career in broadcast journalism and can eventually progress into a reporting role within UTV.”