Kim Woodburn

Kim Woodburn (born Patricia Mary McKenzie; 25 March 1942, Portsmouth, Hampshire) is an English television presenter and expert cleaner who is best known for co-presenting the British television programme How Clean Is Your House? and in 2007, starred in the Canadian series Kim's Rude Awakenings.

Career

Early career

Born in 1942 in Eastney, near Portsmouth, as a child Patricia was fascinated by her grandmother, a charwoman, who taught her how to clean. She undertook many jobs in her adult life. She worked for a time as a social worker to teenage girls also as a member of staff in children's homes in Liverpool, in retail, and as a Littlewoods model in Liverpool in the late 1960s. In 1983, she made her first appearance on television on Pebble Mill at One, demonstrating knitwear. This was her only television appearance for the next 20 years, while she worked as a house cleaner in the UK and US.

Television career

In 2002, she auditioned for Channel 4, while earning £1,000 a month as a cleaner. She was hired as a presenter of new show How Clean is Your House?, which began in February 2003, and eventually became the highest paid Channel 4 female presenter. At the age of 61, Woodburn was catapulted into stardom as the show became an instant success. She filmed a version of the show in the US. In 2006 she wrote an autobiography, Unbeaten, which detailed her early life and was the first time she revealed the death of her baby. This revelation led to a police investigation, which she readily assisted with. In 2008, the sixth and final series of How Clean is Your House? was aired. She has also appeared in pantomime with TV co-star Aggie MacKenzie, appearing at the Theatre Royal in Brighton.