Phil Keoghan: from Spot On to the world...

Interview – 2013

New Zealander Phil Keoghan became an internationally-known TV host thanks to his role on Emmy-winning reality series The Amazing Race. He began his career as a TVNZ cameraman before moving on to present kids show Spot On. He hosted a number of TV shows in New Zealand, including That's Fairly Interesting. Keoghan moved to the United States in the 1990s, eventually landing the coveted role as host of The Amazing Race.

In this ScreenTalk interview Keoghan talks about:

Loving the chance to perform on kids show Spot On
How That's Fairly Interesting helped hone his storytelling skills
Being mentored by fellow presenter Mark Leishman
Learning to cope with live TV on 3:45 LIVE!
An embarrassing moment with Milli Vanilli on set
Fighting with actor Kevin Smith for Gloss
How his Kiwi accent lost him the role of presenting Survivor
Faking an American accent to host The Amazing Race
Believing the show opens up world culture to an American audience
The challenges of making feel-good series No Opportunity Wasted
How his documentary The Ride has become one of his favourite projects
Being proud of the show earning a million dollars for multiple sclerosis

This video was first uploaded on 18 February 2013, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside

They've got Simon Cowell and Nigel Lythgoe and all these foreign accents on television. But in 2000, 2001, there were no foreign accents on American television. So I had to Americanize my accent to get the job. Which I did, which I've done, and now If I had a New Zealand accent it would actually in a way be a better accent for the show. Now it would be perfect, but back then being a New Zealander on network television in America just wasn't done.
– Phil Keoghan on his accent on The Amazing Race

Phil's Full Profile