Dan Nicholl is one of South Africa’s most sought-after personalities and presenters – warm, engaging, with a sharp sense of humour and a keen understanding of audiences. Having hosted events around the world, and worked with leading international brands, Dan has unparalleled experience on stage.
He is also the host and executive producer of The Dan Nicholl Show, which, after 16 successful seasons on DSTV has moved to podcast format. Dan is also the founder and host of Dan Really Likes Wine, an online show celebrating (mostly) South African wine. His love of both sport and wine stems from his career as a journalist.
Dan is a former PICA Magazine Columnist of the Year and has worked on television, radio, and in print and online journalism. He currently represents Bulgari and TaylorMade Golf and serves as an ambassador for the Laureus Sport For Good Foundation, and an Exco member of Reach For A Dream.
Dan is based in Johannesburg and married with two children.
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MC, SPEAKER, AUCTIONEER
Warm and engaging with a sharp sense of humour and a keen understanding of audiences, Dan has hosted hundreds of events around the world, and is one of South Africa’s most sought-after presenters. From Hollywood stars at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland, to sporting royalty at Laureus Awards in Berlin and Monaco, Dan has worked with stellar audiences, and has a glittering resume and a long list of very satisfied clients.
Amongst myriad events, Dan has hosted the King Power Polo Cup in London, Beyond Sport United and Awards in New York and Philadelphia, the Snow Bike Festival in Gstaad, Switzerland, the Bangkok Rugby Tens, the Just Challenge launch in Hong Kong, the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open, the Abu Dhabi Invitational, Criteo’s Dubai conference, and the King of Lesotho’s annual fundraising gala dinner.
Locally, Dan has hosted the Dimension Data Pro-am, Distell’s global conference, the Vodacom Origins of Golf Series, Bulgari launches, the Absa Cape Epic, the Cape Town Tens, the South African Tech and E-Commerce Awards, the Spur Group conference, the FNB Invitational, the Alfred Dunhill Championship, the launch of Saint restaurant, Nando’s Fireball Invitational, Kevin Pietersen’s Legacy Experience fundraiser, the BrightRock awards, the Ellerman House Sessions, Sanlam Cancer Challenge, and MasterCard’s Battle of the Banks, amongst many others.
Dan also serves as host and auctioneer at the Cape Wine Auction, which raises millions of rand every year for a series of charities, and included the sale of a single bottle of wine for R1.3-million in 2017, a South African record. Dan also hosts the Winelands Auction, Art Angels auction at Ellerman House, and numerous charity auctions locally and abroad.
BROADCAST
The Dan Nicholl Show was one of SuperSport’s most popular personality-led weekly shows on SuperSport. Airing for 16 seasons, Dan introduced viewers across Africa to local and international celebrity guests.
The show featured local and international guests including Evander Holyfield, Jamie Dornan, AKA, Wayde van Niekerk, Kelly Slater, Pearl Thusi, Shane Warne, Cassper Nyovest, Ruud Gullit, Nadia Comaneci, Maps Maponyane, AB de Villiers, Rolene Strauss and Luis Figo.
The show has included broadcasts from the Laureus World Sport Awards in Shanghai, the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland, the Hong Kong Sevens, and the 2019 Rugby World Cup.
In 2024 The Dan Nicholl Show returned in podcast format, allowing host Dan Nicholl’s signature combination of humour, fun and celebrity guests to play out in a more in-depth and engaged space, with famous faces from South Africa and beyond celebrating the ordinary and the extraordinary in the lives they lead.
WINE
Dan Really Likes Wine, Dan’s wine business, is based around a weekly pre-recorded online wine show, and a weekly live show with top winemakers and personalities from South Africa and beyond.
The show aims to make wine accessible and add an element of fun to a topic that’s often awfully serious, while telling the stories behind wine, and the people who make, sell and drink it. The show also extends to live events, private wine dinners, and tastings.
A WSET 2 (merit) level graduate currently studying for level three, Dan has written and spoken about wine for almost two decades, and has hosted myriad wine events, including the Cape Wine Auction, where he holds the record for a single bottle of wine sold in South Africa, at R1.3-million.
Dan recently worked on the international online conference Wine Future 2021, hosting the opening of each day as well as celebrity wine interviews, and continues to work with leading South African wine brands to grow and support the local industry.
WRITING
A former PICA Magazine Columnist of the Year, Dan has written extensively for two decades. He has a first-class honours degree in English from the University of Cape Town and served as Sports Editor of the iafrica.com website for four years. As well as writing two books and contributing to two others, Dan has written widely for publications including Sports Illustrated, Wisden Cricketer, Elle, Wine Magazine, Compleat Golfer, Time Out and TNT. Dan currently writes a weekly wine column for Food24, Africa’s largest food website.