Waheed Alli

Waheed Alli, Baron Alli of Norbury (born 16 November 1964) is a British media entrepreneur and Labour politician, born in Croydon, London. A co-founder of Planet 24, he held executive posts at Carlton, Chorion and Silvergate Media, and was made a life peer in 1998 at the age of 34, then the youngest member of the House of Lords and its first openly gay peer; he led the campaigns to repeal Section 28 and to equalise the age of consent. ¹

Alli was born in Croydon, Surrey, on 16 November 1964. ^{1 2} His mother, a nurse, was an Indo-Trinidadian from Trinidad and Tobago and his father, a mechanic, an Indo-Guyanese from Guyana; his mother was Hindu and his father Muslim, and he has two brothers, one Hindu and one Muslim. ¹ The South Asian Britain research profile states of Alli himself that he is Muslim, while no source names a school or order for him. ³ He attended Stanley Technical College in South Norwood and left school at 16 with nine O-levels, beginning work as a junior researcher on a finance magazine. ¹

Alli built his career in finance publishing and investment banking before moving into television, co-founding Planet 24 with Bob Geldof and Charlie Parsons in 1992; the company, maker of The Big Breakfast and Survivor, was sold to Carlton, where he became an executive. ^{1 3} He went on to chair Chorion and ASOS and to serve as chief executive of Silvergate Media until 2022. ¹ Made a life peer on 18 July 1998 as Baron Alli of Norbury, he was the youngest and the first openly gay peer in Parliament; in the Lords he spearheaded the repeal of Section 28, argued for an equal age of consent, enacted in 2000, and later campaigned for civil partnerships and equal marriage. ¹ He was Chancellor of De Montfort University from 2006 to 2015. ¹

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