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Short Biography

Sara Cox (born 13 December 1974), affectionately known as "Coxy", is an English TV Presenter and Radio DJ. Her most prestigious role was that of presenting the breakfast show on BBC Radio 1 from 2000 to 2003.

Cox, a farmer`s daughter, was born in Bolton, Greater Manchester, England as Sarah Joanne Cox, but later dropped the use of the letter `H` from her first name.[3] She attended Smithills High School until aged 16 and left Canon Slade School after her A-levels to pursue a career in modelling. She also played a small role in the popular children`s TV series, Byker Grove.

Cox won her first television show role in 1996, presenting early "Girl Power" show The Girlie Show.[4] She later had stints on Channel 5 entertainment show Exclusive and Channel 4 music programme Born Sloppy. During this period she appeared in photo spreads for UK `lads mags` such as Loaded. In 1997 Sara presented on the UK feed of MTV, hosting MTV Hot a late night music show. In September 1998 she landed a role as a presenter of The Big Breakfast, following in the footsteps of her friend Zo? Ball (Cox was a bridesmaid at Ball`s wedding to DJ Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim, in 1999). During her time on The Big Breakfast she interviewed such stars as Robbie Williams, Sting and Leonardo DiCaprio. However, unlike Paula Yates`s famous "On the Bed" interviews, Cox preferred to do interviews in her dad`s caravan which was situated in The Big Breakfast garden.

BBC Radio 1 and the Breakfast Show
A transfer to radio came in 1999 where she joined BBC Radio 1. At first she co-hosted the Saturday lunchtime with Emma B from 1pm-3pm. In September 1999 she launched the hugely popular Sunday Surgery with Dr. Mark Hamilton. This was a health and welfare show where listeners called in about their problems, with Sara acting as "Nurse Coxy". The Sunday Surgery still proves hugely popular today, and is now hosted by Kelly Osbourne.

In December 1999 it was announced that Cox would again step into Zo? Ball`s shoes - this time as presenter of the weekday breakfast show. Ball had decided to leave the organisation to bring up a family. Cox`s breakfast show stint began on 31 March 2000, three days early so she could calm her nerves. Initially her listening figures were very good, earning Radio 1 its largest breakfast audience ever - higher than that of Chris Evans and Zoe Ball. The number of listeners grew from 6.9m to 7.8m over her first fifteen months in the job.

The tide turned however, and by August 2002 numbers had dipped back under 7m. In August 2000, she said live on air that the Queen Mother "smelt of wee"[5] and was reported to have been very close to losing her job. In January 2003, she denied rumours that she was preparing to leave the BBC for a rival show, and signed a three-year contract with the public service broadcaster, tying her to the breakfast show until April 2004 and with the BBC for two years after that. In August 2003, the BBC again denied rumours, reported in the Daily Mail, that she had been given 10 weeks to increase ratings, or to face replacement. However just two months later the BBC announced that Cox, whose listening figures had slipped to 6.6m, would be replaced by Chris Moyles in January 2004. She hosted her final breakfast show on 19 December 2003. Her final track was "(I`ve Had) The Time of My Life" by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes from the soundtrack to the film "Dirty Dancing".

Cox then presented the afternoo