Baroness Floella Karen Yunies Benjamin, OM, DBE, DL is a Trinidadian-British actress, singer, presenter, author, businesswoman, and politician. She was the first Trinidadian woman elected to the House of Lords in 2010.
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She also speaks out on children’s, diversity, and media issues, and she was recently successful in convincing the government to pass legislation requiring commercial broadcasters to provide UK-made television programming.
She hosts several children’s shows, including Play School, Play Away, Jamboree, and Fast Forward.
She has been in the entertainment industry for 49 years, appearing on stage, film, radio, and television. She rose to prominence after appearing on the classic children’s shows Playschool and PlayAway. Her greatest love, children’s television, continues to be her greatest love after 43 years.
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Her broadcasting work has earned her an OBE in 2001, a BAFTA Special Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004, and the J.M Barrie Lifetime Award in 2012 for her lasting cultural legacy. She was named a Fellow of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 2013 and President of the Society of Women Writers and Journalists in 2017.
She is the author of over 30 books, including ‘Coming to England,’ which was named a ‘Guardian Children’s Book of the Year’ in 2016.
For over two decades, it has been used in schools and universities to explore the Windrush generation.
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