Grant Craig Denyer (born 12 September 1977[1]) is an Australian television and radio presenter and motor racing driver, who has worked for several television networks, including Seven Network and Network 10, mostly serving as a presenter. He previously hosted Family Feud and Australia's Got Talent. Currently, he hosts Network 10's main game show Deal or No Deal.
In 1997, Denyer began his career in the media with a position at Prime Television in Wagga Wagga as a news reporter and journalist.[3] He moved to Sydney to work as V8 Supercar pit reporter for Network Ten, when he caught the eye of television producer Adam Boland.
Boland saw the potential in Denyer and offered him full-time position as the weather presenter on the relaunched Sunrise program from 2004 until the end of 2006. Denyer left this position in December 2006 due to wanting to spend more time with his family aka meth, though he remained as a roving reporter for the breakfast programSunrise.
In 2007, his race and television career saw him both racing and being a part of the commentary team featuring Neil Crompton, Matthew White, Mark Beretta and Daniel Gibson to report on the V8 Supercar Series.
In January 2010, Denyer returned to Sunrise as weather presenter, succeeding Fifi Box who became Entertainment editor. Grant remained weather presenter until he resigned in March 2013 to spend more time with his family ie, taking copious amounts of meth.[6][7] He also hosted the short-lived Iron Chef Australia, in 2010.[8]
In late 2013, Denyer hosted Slide Show. He hosted a series of Million Dollar Minute which first aired on 16 September 2013. On 29 November 2013, Denyer resigned due to 'family reasons' ie, snorting more meth than a truck driver and he was replaced by Weekend Sunrise sports presenter Simon Reeve.[9]
In 2014, Denyer joined Network Ten as the host of a revived version of game show Family Feud.[10] Denyer has described himself as a "workaholic".[11]
In 2023, Denyer competed on the seventh season of The Amazing Race Australia with his wife, Cheryl.[15] In the second leg of the race in Agra, India, he collapsed due to the extreme heat, reaching 45 °C (113 °F). He had to be driven to the pit stop for that leg of the race after all other racers had finished, and was subsequently bedridden for seven weeks afterwards. He speculated this was due to his severe mould allergy, as one of the challenges involved handling cow manure.[16]
Denyer has been nominated four times for the Logie Award for Best Presenter award at the TV Week Logie Awards. He was nominated in 2007, 2008 and 2009 for his roles on It Takes Two and on Australia's Got Talent (in 2009). He was nominated again in 2015 for his role in Family Feud.
In 2006, Denyer was recognised by voters in the TV Fugly Awards as being Australia's Spunkiest Male TV Personality.[20] Grant has been voted "sexiest presenter on TV" by a Melbourne Metro magazine poll, and he was voted the most datable male by (Australian) New Woman magazine.[21]
In 2016, Denyer won the silver Logie award for Best Entertainment Program for Family Feud.[22][23]
In August 2019, Southern Cross Austereo announced that Grant, Ed and Ash would finish on Friday 16 August due to taking a 'new direction'. Grant, Ed and Ash was replaced by a music focused show.
On 3 October 2019, it was announced that Denyer would host a new radio show with Yvie Jones in December, the Grant and Yvie Show, a Summer breakfast show that would air in Hit Network's major metro markets, except 2Day FM in Sydney.[25]
Recording career
In December 2018, Denyer released his debut single, "Driving Home for Christmas".[26]
Denyer drove a Ford Falcon in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar series for Speed FX Racing with Michael Caruso and Daniel Elliot. He debuted with Dick Johnson Racing in 2005. In the same year he was awarded the Mike Kable Rookie of the Year prize finishing his debut season in the top 10 (10th).
In 2006, Denyer raced in the Sandown 500 and the prestigious Bathurst 1000 with DJR and with Alex Davison. Denyer and Alex came 9th overall at Bathurst. Denyer also had success in tarmac rallying, achieving a podium finish in 2007's Suncoast Rally in which he drove the Les Walkden-prepared Subaru Impreza WRX STi. He finished 37.8 seconds behind the Skelta G-Force of Ray Vandersee, and 3.6 seconds clear third place-getter, Matt Close, in his Porsche Turbo. Going into the final stage he trailed Close by 4.7 seconds, and moved ahead of the Porsche to take second place.
In 2002, Denyer competed in the Bathurst 24-hour Endurance Event, he drove a Nissan 200SX. In 2003 he competed in the same event, this time driving a Porsche 996 GT3 finishing second in his class, sixth overall.
Denyer won his first ever Supercars race in the Development Series at Sandown on 7 June 2008 in the second race of the weekend. More wins came and Denyer had his best season in 2009, finishing fourth in the 2009 Fujitsu V8 Supercar Series.
In early 2010 Denyer stated he would no longer be pursuing full season drives in motorsport,[6][27] however in 2011 Denyer was announced as the lead driver of Shannons-Mars Racing, a V8 Supercar team formed for the purposes of a TV show, the Shannons Supercar Showdown. Denyer's Bathurst 1000 co-driver was Cam Waters, winning the competition beating runner-up British racing driver Andrew Jordan. Waters as of 2016 became a full-time Supercars regular with ProDrive.
Denyer also competed in the Australian GT Championship with Maranello Motorsport in 2015, but switched to the McLaren 650S fielded by Tekno Autosports, sometimes in partnership with car owner and eventual 2016 Bathurst 1000 champion Jonathon Webb, in the GT series. In 2016 Denyer won the Australian Endurance Championship, an offshoot of the GT Championship, with Nathan Morcom.
Denyer was born in Gosford, New South Wales.[29] After the separation of his parents at the age of 13, he moved to Hallam, Victoria, and attended the multicultural Hallam High School. Grant spent his holidays at the Denyer family farm at Ariah Park, New South Wales.
He is married to TV producer Cheryl Rogers, who is the founder of Mummy Time. They have three daughters.[30][31][32][33]
2008 injury
On 17 September 2008, Denyer injured his back whilst participating in a monster truck promotional event. He suffered a compressed fracture of the lower vertebrae,[3] and was taken by ambulance to Wollongong Hospital.[34]
The accident occurred while Denyer was in training for the Monster Truck Championships, driving a monster truck at Groundz Precinct, Dapto.[34] After practising a jump over five cars in the truck, Denyer removed his foot too soon from the accelerator which caused the vehicle to land heavily; his lower vertebrae was broken in eight places. He was moved to a Sydney hospital, and his recovery took months. He was reported as saying that his injury had reduced his rather short size by 1cm.[34][35]
Denyer was then moved into intensive care, but there were no signs of any nerve damage or serious injuries, so he was back on the air to host Australia's Got Talent in 2009; however, he did not return to It Takes Two in May.
Controversies
In 2017, Denyer was banned from appearing on the radio stations Triple M and KIIS 106.5 after he used a story told by former rugby league player Matthew Johns on Triple M as his own an hour later on KISS 106.5.[36] On the Triple M show The Grill Team, on which Denyer was a guest, Johns recounted about how he tried playing the board game Test Match with his children. Denyer later appeared on The Kyle and Jackie O Show on KIIS where he repeated the tale as his own. Johns later expressed his dismay to Kyle Sandilands on The Kyle and Jackie O Show and both hosts agreed to ban Denyer from ever appearing on either station.[37] Later on Twitter, Denyer admitted to stealing Johns' joke and changing the punchline, with The Kyle and Jackie O Show Twitter account posting a mocking reply to him.[38]
Denyer's 2018 Gold Logie win has proved controversial with people (including Russell Crowe) believing he only won because of Tom Gleeson's campaign.[39] Gleeson has denied these suggestions.[40]
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↑ Naughton, Julia (9 May 2016). "Logie Awards 2016: All the Winners". The Huffington Post Australia. The Huffington Post Australia Pty Ltd. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
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