David Adetayo Olusoga was born on 5 January 1970 in Lagos, Nigeria, the second child of a Nigerian father and British mother. At age five he moved to the UK with his mother, growing up in Gateshead, where his family endured sustained racist attacks from the National Front that eventually forced them from their home.

He studied History at the University of Liverpool (BA Hons, 1994), followed by postgraduate broadcast journalism training at Leeds Trinity University. He began his TV career as a researcher on BBC’s Western Front before becoming a history documentary producer, then presenter from 2014.

He hosts the long-running BBC Two series A House Through Time, and has presented Black and British: A Forgotten History, Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners, Civilisations, and Union with David Olusoga, among others. He is also Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester and Creative Director of Bristol-based production company Uplands Television.

Olusoga lives in Bristol with his long-term partner — a BBC Natural History Unit producer he met in the BBC canteen — and their daughter. He has consistently referred to her as his “partner,” not “wife,” and no public marriage record exists.