Toby Amies

Toby Amies born 27th June 1967 in Birmingham, UK is an oustider television personality and photographer, best known for his work on MTV's Alternative Nation, Film Four and now as the host of Lonely Planet's Six Degrees.

Toby was brought up in Worcestershire and went to University in Exeter and Lawrence Kansas, where he was awarded a scholarship in Art History which he declined in favour of work in music tv in the UK. He started djing in art college in Cheltenham [he was in the same class as British Artist Tim Noble]and after leaving the UKworked behind the decks in Arizona at top 40 radio station KRQ. He later worked at MCA Records in Los Angeles and then moved to work in the news department at MTV Europe partly thanks to work/appearances with Quentin Tarantino and Traci Lords at MCA.

Whilst at MTV he worked on the programmes Alternative Nation, Weekend Edition, The Big Picture and was the co creator of the programme MTV Hot which later featured Paul Tonkinson, Sarah Cox and the German actor Christian Uhlmann as hosts.

Toby moved to MTV USA to host MTV Live with Carson Daly, this show later became TRL, in 1999 Toby moved on to form the band Genius Steals with New York photographer Brooke Williams, working with Moby, Romanthony, Darry Logan, Jim Sclavunios and Matt Verta-Ray amongst others. At this time he also hosted the anarchic US Top 20, most famous for the show that attempted to measure the length of Long Island.

In 2001 Toby moved back to the UK where he covered film festivals for the Film Four Channel, worked for Radio 4 and now concentrates on photography and making short films and pop videos.