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Susanna Reid celebrates 50th birthday, GMB career highlights

She's absent on her 50th birthday!

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GMB star Susanna Reid is absent today as she celebrates her 50th birthday (Thursday, December 10).

She normally hosts the breakfast show with Ben Shephard on a Thursday, but Charlotte Hawkins joins him today.

In honour of Susanna’s milestone, here’s a look back at her glittering career in the limelight. May there be many more to come!

From child actress to breakfast TV favourite, Susanna has been a ray of sunshine in viewers’ lives for over two decades.

But where did it all start for GMB star Susanna Reid?

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GMB fave Susanna Reid appeared in 1980s drama The Price (Credit BBC/YouTube)

When did GMB star Susanna Reid first appear on television?

Susanna started her acting career in a stage version of Agatha Christie’s Spider’s Web in 1982.

She appeared with legendary British actress Shirley Anne Field.

Read more: GMB: Piers Morgan takes playful swipe at Susanna Reid’s appearance as they celebrate fifth anniversary

Then it was on to TV, where she starred in the 1985 IRA thriller The Price on Channel 4.

Despite being a teen, she performed brilliantly and acted alongside Casualty legend Derek Thompson, who went on to play Charlie Fairhead in the BBC medical drama.

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Susanna graduated to the newsroom (Credit: BBC/YouTube)

Into the newsroom

Susanna began her news career on local station BBC Bristol.

She then appeared on BBC Radio Five Live, and went on to join BBC News 24 in 2000.

It was a move into TV journalism that set her up for the rest of her career.

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Susanna formed a lovely relationship with Bill Turnbull (Credit: BBC/YouTube)

BBC Breakfast with Bill

Susanna then landed a plum role of co-presenting on BBC Breakfast in 2003.

She formed an irresistible bond and presenting partnership with Bill Turnbull and was a huge hit with viewers.

Becoming a household name, she became known for her bubbly personality, probing journalism and occasionally risqué dresses, which some viewers couldn’t wait to leave comments on social media about.

She presented the New Year’s celebrations on the BBC in 2013 before she was poached by ITV in 2014.

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Susann wowed judges on Strictly (Credit: BBC)

Dancing up a storm on Strictly

Susanna accepted an invitation to appear on the 2013 series of Strictly Come Dancing.

Partnered with Kevin Clifton, she was a huge hit with judges and the audience at home alike.

So much so, she reached the final, where she competed against Corrie star Natalie Gumede and Artem Chigvintsev, and Abbey Clancy and Aljaž Škorjanec.

Despite some great performances throughout the series, she lost out to Abbey and Aljaž.

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The first-ever episode of GMB with Sean, Ben and Charlotte (Credit: ITV)

The Good Morning Britain years

In 2014, Susanna made her first appearance on Good Morning Britain.

The ITV breakfast show had been relaunched after the failure of Daybreak, and Susanna was the big name to get it going again.

After signing a reported £1million contract, Susanna appeared alongside Ben Shephard, Sean Fletcher and Charlotte Hawkins in that very first episode.

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Piers and Susanna struck up instant chemistry (Credit: ITV)

Along came Piers Morgan…

In November 2015, former tabloid newspaper editor and CNN host Piers Morgan became a full-time presenter on GMB.

During the five years they’ve presented together, they have become one of TV’s top presenting duos.

Reports claim that there was an ‘off-air feud’ between the two in the early days.

But a drunken night out in Soho sorted out their differences.

“You spend hours together every day, you have to put up with each other, agree, disagree and bicker but you have none of the benefits of a marriage and none of the marital ways of relieving the tension,” Piers said of their relationship.

Susanna Reid accidentally asks Dan Stevens if he has to beat off men for parts

THAT Dan Stevens interview

Over the years Susanna has provided us with lots of laughter and some great interviews.

But none are more infamous than when Downton star Dan Stevens appeared as a guest in 2014 to promote a new movie.

Susanna asked him during the interview: “Did you have to beat off a lot of American men to get the part?”

Read more: Body confident Susanna Reid celebrates having the ‘best bum in the world’

When Dan started giggling, she asked innocently: “Why are  you giggling?”

Never change, Susanna.

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Nancy Brown
Associate Editor