Julia Reed (now Conklin) is a British television presenter, best known as the co-presenter of Robot Wars: The Fourth Wars and Robot Wars Extreme: Series 1.
Robot Wars[]
A promotional image of Julia Reed with Sir Killalot for Robot Wars Extreme
Julia Reed took over the role from original Robot Wars co-host Philippa Forrester, since Forrester was unable to participate in the aforementioned series due to her pregnancy. She inherited Forrester's position as pit reporter, and would speak to competing teams about their robots before and after battles. Reed also joined main presenter Craig Charles in presenting trophies for Series 4 and some events shown in Extreme 1, including the All-Stars Tournament and the UK broadcast of The Second World Championship. For Series 5-6 and Extreme 2, Forrester returned to the role.
Outside Robot Wars[]
Reed was also a reporter in the second series of the Robot Wars spin-off show, Techno Games in 2001. The show was presented by Jayne Middlemiss and would later be presented by Philippa Forrester, both of whom, like Reed, served as Robot Wars pit reporters in the original series' run.
Prior to appearing on Robot Wars, Julia Reed worked on the Sky Technology show Gear; other technology-based shows she has hosted include the interactive video games series Blam!!! in 2000, the Sky One game show Hi-Score in 2001, and the Channel 4 science programme SuperHuman in 2004. Reed was also the cover star and feature of the February 2001 edition of British technology magazine Stuff[1].
Reed was once the Hampshire under-18 fencing champion and holds a first-class degree in psychology from Bristol University. Now working under the name Julia Conklin, she has worked as a psychotherapist since 2012 and is a member of the UK Council for Psychotherapy, offering her services to a London-based private practice.
Trivia[]
- In an interview from Issue 5 of the original Robot Wars Magazine, Julia Reed stated that her favourite competitor was Hypno-Disc, and that her ideal robot design would be an invertible full-body spinner.[2]
- According to interviews from the Robot Wars File and the Swedish dub of Series 4, Reed's favourite House Robot was Sir Killalot.[3][4]