Back in the 1990s Dani Behr was one of Britain’s most recognisable faces on TV. With a smoky voice, undeniable charisma and a glamorous appeal that landed her countless men’s magazine covers, she presented cult shows like The Word, The Big Breakfast and Hotel Babylon.
But while her fame was cemented in a glitzy era of music, pop culture and television, today she lives a world away from studios and red carpets. Now 54 and based in Los Angeles, Dani is a single mother of two and a successful luxury real estate agent in Bel Air.
Born in Mill Hill, London, to South African Jewish parents, Dani attended the prestigious Sylvia Young Theatre School. Her father, a London estate agent, would later inspire the career she’s built today – but first came music. She was discovered by Pet Shop Boys manager Tom Watkins and placed in the all-girl pop trio Faith Hope & Charity. But despite being signed to WEA, the act didn’t take off and Dani pivoted to TV.
Her breakout came in 1992 as a presenter on Channel 4’s The Word, described on IMDb as “the show that pushed forward the boundaries of youth TV. Sometimes funny, sometimes just sick”. From there, she popped up in various places of the British TV landscape – Ice Warriors, The Big Breakfast and the BBC’s The Saturday Show, which she co-hosted in 2001 with Joe Mace.
She also dabbled in acting and voice work, including voicing the on-board computer in Privateer 2: The Darkening, appearing in the Nick Love film Goodbye Charlie Bright, and taking on roles in Like It Is and Rancid Aluminium.
But the edginess of her early persona sometimes clashed with mainstream expectations. In 2002, she was dropped from The Saturday Show after a racy Maxim interview in which she joked about having “really seedy, but great” sex in a car park and described her voice as ideal for phone sex.
BBC execs deemed the comments inappropriate for a children’s presenter. Despite the fallout, Dani’s career didn’t stall entirely. She soon moved to the US and joined EXTRA as a correspondent, eventually hosting multiple shows for NBC, Fox, VH1 and Bravo, including the ground-breaking gay dating show Boy Meets Boy in 2003.
While in LA, Dani met restaurateur Carl Harwin and the couple married in 2005. They had two children, Coco and Zane, and spent several years relocating around the world – from LA to Costa Rica to Sydney, Australia. But by 2014, they had divorced.
“We’d been growing apart for some time,” she told HELLO! magazine. “We moved to Costa Rica and Australia and, as Carl works such crazy hours, he’d often get home at 11pm and leave before the kids and I woke up the next morning. It was very isolating. I was like a single parent from the beginning.”
Post-divorce, she found herself in debt and with fewer job prospects in television. “TV here (in America) had completely changed,” she told Kate Thornton in a 2020 episode of podcast White Wine Question Time.
“There wasn’t really a TV market for me anymore. You’re either a news journalist or a sportscaster or a late-night comedian… and I didn’t fit into any of those categories.” Faced with the new reality, Dani returned to her roots – real estate. “What else do I know how to do? I didn’t go to college,” she said. “So, I was like, ‘I know real estate,’ so I thought, ‘OK, I’ll just get my license’.”
In 2015, she passed her real estate exams and launched a new career: Dani now runs her own agency, specialising in luxury properties across Los Angeles – including multimillion-dollar homes.
“I was once hanging out with the most famous people in the world, dating sportsmen and socialising with the trendiest bands. Now I sell houses to them. It’s funny how things work out,” she told The Mirror in 2024.
But she’s clear real estate isn’t a secure alternative to showbiz. “I’ve jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire,” she told White Wine Question Time. “Some years you do OK, and others you’re like, ‘What am I going to do?’ It’s brutal.”
Still, the potential rewards are high: “If you do big here, you do big because the commissions are higher (than in the UK).”
Behr lives in the exclusive Bel-Air neighbourhood, where stars like Kim Kardashian also reside. Her Instagram account is a mix of property glamour and personal snapshots – from beach weekends and ski trips in Aspen to nights out in LA with her partner, a “mystery man” she’s been dating for over two years. She documents their travels – Vegas, New York, whale watching at the coast – often flying via private jet.
She’s also deeply invested in motherhood. Her daughter Coco, now 19, and son Zane, 17, feature occasionally in her posts.
Though she largely turned her back on showbiz, Behr hasn’t left the media world behind entirely. In 2020, she launched a podcast called The Behr Essentials, released six episodes throughout the year, and picked it up again in 2023, exploring success stories in LA’s entertainment and cultural industries. “Join me in discovering real LA success stories from industry professionals,” she posted.
She’s also made guest appearances on UK television. In July 2024, she appeared on ITV’s Lorraine, broadcasting live from LA to deliver Hollywood gossip. She shared her excitement on Instagram: “Thku @itv @lorraine for bringing me back into the studio. Super fun getting back into that oh so familiar chair.”
And most recently, when wildfires hit LA in 2025, she used her platform to help, sharing fundraisers for affected families and urging support for relief efforts.
From her days as a music show host to her current role as a mother and real estate powerhouse, Dani’s reflected on her life of adapting: “I was never comfortable with the fame thing,” she told the Mirror. “It was never anything I really wanted.”
“My father’s delighted. He says he is so happy that finally I have got a proper job. He doesn’t have to worry about what he is going to read about me anymore.”