Jeff Stelling was born on 18 March 1955 in West Hartlepool, England. His parents’ names are not publicly known. He was raised in a council house in Hartlepool, a coastal town in northeastern England, where a passion for sports — particularly football — took firm root from an early age.

His broadcasting career commenced in the late 1970s as a reporter covering Middlesbrough F.C. for Radio Tees. In the early 1980s, he served as a sports presenter on LBC Radio’s Sportswatch programme in London. In 1992, Stelling joined Sky Sports, initially presenting coverage of horse racing, greyhound racing, snooker, and darts.

In 1994, Stelling became presenter of Sports Saturday, which became Gillette Soccer Saturday in 1998, hosting a programme lasting up to six hours of football discussion and live reports on the afternoon’s games with a panel of pundits including Frank McLintock, Chris Kamara, Rodney Marsh, and George Best.

Stelling left Sky Sports at the end of the 2022–23 season after 29 years presenting Soccer Saturday. Since 4 December 2023, Stelling has been presenting talkSPORT’s breakfast show every Monday and Tuesday alongside Ally McCoist.

Stelling lives in Bishop’s Waltham, Hampshire, with his wife Liz and the couple has two sons, born in 1998 and 1999, and a daughter, born in 2003.