Toby Amies

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Toby Amies

Toby Amies, born 27 June 1967 in Birmingham, UK is an outsider television personality and photographer, known for his work on MTV UK's Alternative Nation, FilmFour and now as the host of Lonely Planet Six Degrees.

Amies was brought up in Worcestershire and went to the University of Exeter in Devon and subsequently the University of Kansas, where he was awarded a scholarship in Art History. He declined the scholarship in favour of work in music TV in the UK at The Powerstation, where he was on the air with Chris Evans, Boy George, Steven Wells and Suggs. He started DJing in art college in Cheltenham (he was in the same class as British artist Tim Noble) and after leaving the UK he worked behind the decks in Arizona at top 40 radio station KRQ alongside Jimmy Kimmel. He later worked at MCA Records in Los Angeles and then moved to work in the news department at MTV Europe partly thanks to work/appearances with Quentin Tarantino and Traci Lords at MCA.

Whilst at MTV UK he worked on the programmes Alternative Nation, Weekend Edition, The Big Picture and was the co-creator of the programme MTV Hot which later featured Paul Tonkinson, Sara Cox and the German actor Christian Ulmen as hosts. He also worked alongside Davina McCall.

Amies later moved to MTV USA to host MTV Live with Carson Daly. This show later became TRL. He also hosted his own show, Countdown to the Ten Spot. In 1999, he moved on to form the band Genius Steals with New York photographer Brooke Williams, working with Moby, Romanthony, Darry Logan, Jim Sclavunos and Matt Verta-Ray amongst others. At this time he also hosted the anarchic US Top 20, most famous for the show that attempted to measure the length of Long Island.

In 2001, Amies moved back to the UK where he covered film festivals for FilmFour, worked for Radio 4 and became the host of three series of Lonely Planet Six Degrees. He now concentrates on photography, making documentaries and pop videos.

Amies recently has presented programmes on Eat Cinema, BBC Two, BBC Four and BBC World Service. He currently has a music show called Outside on Totally Radio.