Jenna Brooks was born and raised in Australia, a country where sport plays a central role in culture and community life. Growing up in a sporting household strongly influenced her future career path. Her father and grandfather were both involved in rugby league, which meant that the sport was part of her life from an early age.

Sport has always played a central part in her life. As she grew older she focused more on swimming (50m butterfly and 50m backstroke) and track (400m). Growing up, her dream was to represent Australia at the Olympics in either discipline, but she ultimately chose a different path: “I thought the next best thing I could do was cover sports, so I went to uni, majored in journalism.”

After finishing her degree she went straight into work. She went on to work for multiple networks, including the three largest rugby league broadcasters in the world. In 2010 she moved to San Francisco and got a job as a freelance reporter for Comcast SportsNet. After almost three years in San Francisco, she and her husband relocated to London, which is how Sky Sports came into the picture.

Once she arrived in London and secured a role at Sky Sports News, she reached out to the Super League department and expressed her desire to cover rugby league. Through the late commentator Stevo (Mike Stephenson), who introduced her to Neville Smith, then head of rugby league at Sky Sports, she eventually secured a role producing and presenting the weekly rugby league news. From there it grew, and when senior producer June Fairhurst took over, she brought her in as the full-time reporter.

Brooks is also a producer, editor, organiser, and researcher on The Verdict, Sky Sports’ weekly rugby league magazine show. She plans the guests, targets topics based on the biggest talking points of the week, sources the pictures, and prepares guests — all in addition to her on-screen presenting duties. She currently lives in London with her husband and two sons.