Mwaksy Mudenda

Mwaka "Mwaksy" Mudenda (born 19 December 1994) is a British television presenter from South London. She is best known for being the 39th presenter of Blue Peter, a programme she presented between 2020 and 2023, and has also presented Becoming Xtraordinary.

Mwaksy Mudenda
Mudenda in 2022
Born	(1994-12-19) 19 December 1994 (age 30) London, England
Occupation	Television presenter
Years active	2018–present
Known for	Blue Peter Becoming Xtraordinary

Life and career

Mudenda was born in South London on 19 December 1994^[1] to a Zambian family,^[2] and started YouTubing under the name Mwaksy in 2014,^[3] later moving to Manchester to study anthropology at university.^[2] In 2018, after graduating, she got a job at MediaCityUK as an assistant producer for BBC Sport,^[4] where her job entailed making sports content relatable for younger audiences and filming videos for Instagram;^[5] one of these, her "Bust Down with Mwaksy", brought her to the attention of BBC Children's and Education,^[6] who invited her for a screen test.^[5]

In May 2020, Mudenda was announced as the 39th presenter of Blue Peter, a CBBC show; her first episodes were presented at home due to the first COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom.^[2] While on the program, she, former Blue Peter presenter Sarah Greene, and numerous pupils from Wormholt Park primary school opened a 42-year old Blue Peter Time Capsule recovered from White City in 2022,^[7] and later produced language learning lessons in French,^[8] Spanish,^[9] and science.^[10] Mudenda co-hosted Chester Zoo's 2022 Wildlife Connections Festival with Chantelle Lindsay.^[11][12] Mudenda departed Blue Peter in September 2023, the third presenter to leave the program in 14 months,^[13] prompting suggestions that the program could be cancelled after 65 years.^[14] After a period with Lauren Layfield as guest host,^[15] she was replaced full-time in January 2024 by TikToker Shini Muthukrishnan.^[16]

In 2023, it was announced that Mudenda would co-host Becoming Xtraordinary for Da Vinci, a streaming service, with Evan Edinger and Bear Grylls, during which she interviewed several celebrities including Julia Roberts, Roger Federer, Courteney Cox, Channing Tatum, and Olympic gold medallists and Nobel laureates.^[17] She has also appeared as a contestant on Crackerjack!,^[18] Celebrity Mastermind,^[19] Celebrity Catchpoint,^[20] Celebrity Bridge of Lies,^[21] Celebrity Catchphrase^[22] and Pointless Celebrities.^[23]