Kate Bottley Background

Originally from Sheffield, the Reverend Kate Bottley is a priest in North Nottinghamshire. Ordained in 2008, she is passionate about bringing stories of faith and belief to the widest audience possible. Kate was not raised in a church-going family, and started going to church because she fancied the local vicar’s son. They have been married since 1998 and have two children.

TV career

In 2012 Kate did a dance as part of a wedding flashmob which subsequently went viral, with more than seven million hits on YouTube; it was this that led to her being approached by Channel 4’s BAFTA and National Television Award-winning series show Gogglebox.

Kate presented BBC One’s flagship Easter documentary In the Footsteps of Judas’. She is also a frequent contributor to the ‘Pause for Thought’ feature on Chris Evans’ Radio 2 Breakfast Show and has written for a variety of newspapers and magazines including The Guardian, The Independent and Radio Times.

In 2017, Kate journeyed to Camino de Santiago for The Pilgrimage, a three-part travelogue series for BBC 2. As well as this, Kate headed the award-winning documentary In the Footsteps of Judas as a special Easter commission for BBC1.

She has also made guest appearances on Would I Lie To You, The Wheel, Celebrity MasterChef, Hairy Bikers Cracking Christmas, Impossible Celebrities, Rip Off Britain (BBC 1), Richard Osman’s House of Games (BBC 2) and 8 Out of 10 Cats (Channel 4).

TV Projects

Kate is taking a break from full-time parish ministry, but will continue to take church services and officiate at weddings and funerals, as part of a wider remit which will include writing and broadcasting projects. Kate loves telly and dancing. Her karaoke songs of choice are 9 to 5 or Ice, Ice Baby. She is owned by a retired racing greyhound called Buster.

Speaker

Kate is available for After dinners speeches, motivational talks and conference speaking

Kate is really positive, inspiring and lots of hilarious stories from her experience as a parish priest but also navigating her career through a predominantly male environment. She is an accomplished speaker and event host and feedback includes:

Kate certainly got our conference off to a positive and joy-filled start! As well as mingling with delegates on their arrival prior to her speech, she made time to chat to speakers and organisers afterwards, offering photos and smiles all round. Her energy, enthusiasm, honesty and seem.