Nagui

Nagui Fam, born on 14 November 1961 in Alexandria, Egypt, is a French-Egyptian TV and radio presenter. In his professional life he goes by his first name Nagui.

Biography

His family left Egypt in 1967 and Nagui has never returned. His Greek Orthodox Egyptian father was a university professor of French literature, and his mother was a professor of classical studies. After a period in Aix-en-Provence and in North America the family settled in Cannes in the French département of Alpes-Maritimes.

During the 1980s he escaped his commercial studies at HEC by participating in pirate radio (such as Radio Vintimille), and created, in 2004, a radio of his own: Loisirs AM. In 1988, he was hired by the French radio network RTL.

His television career began in 1987 on M6, and switched to TF1 in 1989. He became well known at the beginning of the 1990s with his game show Que le meilleur gagne (May the Best One Win) on La Cinq, which he carried over to France 2, which he joined in May 1992. His fame has been marked by frenetic humour in the part-parody N'oubliez pas votre brosse à dents (Don't Forget Your Toothbrush) or by a much more laid-back tone in the more serious Que le meilleur gagne. The former has received some harsh criticism, notably for using a pistol-shaped microphone to question the show's contestants. L'Appel de la couette (Invitation to the Duvet) has received similar criticisms form TV critics as it welcomes celebrity guests in their pyjamas, reclining in bed.

Nonetheless, in 1993 he also created a benchmark musical show Taratata where artists performed "live".

He founded his own production house, Air Productions, situated at the Plaine Saint-Denis. In 1996, he found himself caught up in the media turmoil swirling around host/producers at France 2. He was criticized for lucrative and advantageous clauses in contracts for his broadcasts. He then decided to host programs on the private channel TF1, while remaining a producer on the public channel, including Taratata.

In 1999 he attempted to take on the difficult job of succeeding Philippe Gildas and Antoine de Caunes on the Canal+ show, Nulle part ailleurs (Nowhere Else), a role that had already defeated Guillaume Durand. Nagui's failure chilled relations between the host/producer and the network until 2005, when a live musical show to be produced by Nagui was announced.

In 2003 he returned to France 2 to present a game show, Le Coffre (The Vault), then the revival of Intervilles (Intercity) during summer 2004.

As of 2009 he is hosting a daily game show called Tout le monde veut prendre sa place, meaning in French "Everybody wants to take their place" (the place being that of the current champion on the show), on France 2. The game concept has been bought by Michael Davies, the Power of Ten producer.

In addition, since mid December 2007, he is hosting a musical game show: N'oubliez pas les paroles, which is the French version of Don't Forget the Lyrics!

On radio, he currently hosts the morning show on Virgin Radio (France) (the successor to Europe 2), from 07:00 to 10:00, where he regularly invites musicians for live shows.

External links

• Ainsi va Nagui A fan's tribute (in French): "Cette bio est faite de tout ce que Nagui nous a livré. Le reste n'appartient qu'à lui" ("This biography comes from everything that Nagui has revealed to us. The rest belongs only to him")
• Air Productions Nagui's production house (in French)
• La Beurgeoisie (in French)
• [1] Nagui's unofficial Blog