Magenta Devine

Who is Magenta Devine?

Magenta Devine is a TV presenter and journalist best known for presenting the youth travel programme Rough Guide and "Reportage" on BBC2 in the 1990s. She later presented "Young, Gifted and Broke" for ITV.

Devine originally worked for Queen/Thin Lizzy/Whitesnake publicist Tony Brainsby. While still living with boyfriend Tony James, she became the music promoter for James's new band, Sigue Sigue Sputnik. Her first television exposure was as a presenter of BBC Wales's pop music show, Juice, produced in and around the BBC studios in Cardiff. Following her breakup with James Janet Street-Porter booked Devine, a statuesque upper-class "punk", to be a presenter on Channel 4 youth programme Network 7, before switching channels to present DEF II on BBC2, of which Rough Guide was a feature, before it became a separate programme.

In 2004 she appeared on Richard & Judy and in 2005 she appeared on Extreme Celebrity Detox. She has also done voice-over work, including a dfs advert and writes for the Guardian and the Mail on Sunday. She presented the film programme "On Screen" for BBC World Service. In 2006 Devine fronted an Office of Fair Trading campaign urging consumers in the travel market to book with a member of ABTA. She also supports various charities, as well as speaking at events.