Samantha Renke

Samantha Renke is an actress, presenter, speaker, writer and disability rights campaigner who was named as number 3 in The Shaw Trust Power 100 List of 2020 – a list of the UK’s most influential disabled people.

Her credits include; Host of ITV Fresh Cuts – Unfiltered Woman. This Morning (ITV) Morning Live (BBC One), Sunday Morning Live (BBC One), Rip Off Britain (BBC One), Celebrity Antiques Road Trip (BBC Two), Loose Women (ITV), Good Morning Britain (ITV), How To Spend It Well At Christmas (ITV), How To Beat Ageing (Channel 4), Jeremy Vine / Jeremy Vine Extra (Channel 5) The Disability Paradox (BBC Four), Front Row (BBC Radio 4) and Word Of Mouth (BBC Radio 4). She has also been interviewed on ITV News, Channel 4 News, Channel 5 News, Sky News and BBC Radio 5 Live and guest speaker for Happy Place, BBC All Access Podcasts.

Samantha is a columnist for the Metro and Enable as well as having written for The Huffington Post and Pos’Ability, Lifestyle and Glamour magazine. She also featured in the highly successful series of adverts for Maltesers based on real-life experiences of disabled people and has collaborated with brands such as Amazon Prime Video, SHARK, Eurostar and WUKA.

Samantha is co-host of Motability Lifestyle podcast and LifeDownLow’ed.

She is an experienced speaker having spoken at events for companies and organisations such as the National Education Union, Lancaster University, Paramount, Houses of Parliament, the British Red Cross, Retail Week, British Retail Consortium (RPC AND BRC) ASOS, OMNICOM and Save The Children, Pinterest and Jones Day.

She has resided as disability lead for Paramount (formerly VIACOM), UNLRN and the Diversity Trust and international Speaker for TLC Lions.

Samantha is Trustee for The Brittle Bone Society an ambassador for Scope, Ferne Animal Sanctuary and Undressing Disability for Enhance The UK. Patron of Head2Head multi-sensory theatre company. She was also in The Shaw Trust’s Power 100 Lists of 2018 and 2019 as well as being nominated as Campaigner of the Year in the 2019 European Diversity Awards and Celebrity of the Year in the 2020 National Diversity Awards.

She has also been awarded in 2023 Outstanding Alumni from the University of Lancaster presented to Lancaster graduates who have made a substantial contribution to the field and have developed an outstanding international or national reputation amongst their peers.

Samantha launched her campaign Don’t Want Our Cash to highlight the barriers Deaf, Disabled and Neurodivergent people face when accessing the highstreets and the importance of recognising the strength of the Purple Pound in 2018.

She was a guest speaker at Happy Place Festival and her debut book, You Are The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread, was published in July by Penguin Books under its Happy Place Books imprint which is curated by Fearne Cotton.