Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters: Meet Paralympian Ade Adepitan
As someone who has made their bravery and resilience clear throughout their career, perhaps it's not such a surprise to see Paralympian Ade plunged into a shark cage on the show after all. And if it's made you question where you've seen him before then you've come to the right place. Here's everything you need to know about the presenter.
Ade, whose full name is Adedoyin Olayiwola, is a TV presenter and wheelchair basketball player who has hosted travel documentaries and sports programmes for BBC and Channel 4 for more than 20 years.
In 2004, Ade won a bronze medal at the Summer Paralympics playing wheelchair basketball. He is an advocate for promoting access to sport for disabled people and received an MBE for his services to disability sport in 2005.
Ade got his start as an actor and appeared in Casualty and Desperados and Eastenders before moving into presenting in the early 2000s. He appeared on Channel 4's Unreported World during the 2010s and That Paramlympic Show in 2012 with Rick Edwards.
Ade hosted Africa with Ade Adepitan in 2019 and Climate Change: Ade on the Frontline in 2021. Ade has also presented the Invictus Games, The One Show and World's Biggest Cities on the BBC.
In 2025, Ade appeared on Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters alongside Lenny Henry, Amandaland star Lucy Punch, Helen George, Rachel Riley, Dougie Poynter and Ross Noble. In the show's attempt to showcase sharks in a new light, Ade takes on the physical challenges with twice the difficulty and vigour because of his disability, making him twice as impressive.
Ade was born in Lagos in Nigeria where he contracted polio as an infant. This caused damage to his legs which required him to use a wheelchair.
Yes, Ade has been married to singer Linda Harrison, who performs as Elle Exxe, since 2018. They have a son who was born in 2021.
Nikki Peach is a writer at Grazia UK, working across entertainment, TV and news. She has also written for the i, i-D and the New Statesman Media Group and covers all things pop culture for Grazia (treating high and lowbrow with equal respect).
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