Joel Defries

In 2010 Joel learnt to fly a hang glider for Blue Peter with Airways Airsports instructor Judy Leden MBE with the aim of flying with Lucy a peregrine falcon

He went to Turkey with the Blue Peter team filming the 2009 Summer Expedition. The 2009/10 series of Blue Peter returned on 22 September 2009. Joel announced on 29 November 2010 that he would be leaving the show on 14 December 2010.

During 2009 Defries presented the 26 episodes of the CBBC programme Keep Your Enemies Close, a children's game show that tests friends by wrenching them apart and forcing them to work with their rivals instead.

He went to sixth form at Fortismere School in London, in Haringey, and is six feet tall exactly. He is Jewish, but says he is not religious and has only actually visited a synagogue twice. This was explored by the BBC during a Blue Peter episode titled "Joel's Journey" broadcast on 27 January 2009. It featured him exploring his Jewish heritage, and then looking at modern day Jewish life in the UK by spending time with a religious family. The climax of the programme was his visit to Auschwitz – where he met Freda Winemann – a Holocaust Survivor who was returning to Auschwitz for the first time.

On 5 September 2008, it was announced that he would replace Gethin Jones as a presenter on the children's TV show Blue Peter, and joined the other members of the team, Andy Akinwolere and Helen Skelton, on 23 September 2008.

Joel Nirmalan Defries (born 14 March 1985) is a British-born presenter, who worked on the BBC1 children's programme Blue Peter from 2008-10. He previously worked on the New Zealand television station, C4.