Award winning television personality Rachel Friend has managed to squeeze more into her career than most would dream of. From reporting on Channel Nine’s top rating A Current Affair, to travelling the world for the popular nature program Wildlife, Rachel is a seasoned television presenter. Fresh out of school, Australian audiences first came to know her in the hugely successful soap, Neighbours. A two year stint won her the Silver Logie and an enviable profile she used to open the door into journalism. At 21, Rachel convinced Ray Martin and Channel Nine executives she had the initiative, ambition and personality to produce and report segments for the Midday Show. Her first assignment took her to the jungles of Mexico, where she interviewed Hollywood legend Sean Connery on location for Medicine Man. During her two and a half years with the program she really proved her versatility covering everything from the Oscars live for the Nine Network, to swimming with sharks in Tahiti, to talking candidly with stars like Billy Joel. Still young, just 23, Rachel left Australia for London, and within a month of arriving, found herself a plum position with the London News Network, reporting for London Tonight. There she learnt to work to tight deadlines, writing and producing entertainment pieces on some of the world’s biggest names in showbiz including, Sir Antony Hopkins, Emma Thomson, Jennifer Saunders, Calvin Klein, Shaquille O’Neill, Kenneth Branagh, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Christian Slater and the list goes on. While still working in London, Rachel received an offer too good to refuse. A new program called Wildlife was about to go into production, involving two of her greatest passions – travel and animals. “It was one of the most interesting and exciting times of my career so far. Some of the highlights included spending five days on remote Round Island in Alaska, filming male walrus. Only twenty people get to visit the island each year and despite the challenging conditions, i.e. torrential rain, no running water or electricity, it was a unique experience. Who would have thought they would get to visit places like the Okavango Delta, Jaipur, the Marlborough Sounds, Chengdu, Phoenix, Madrid and get the chance to sit back and watch nature. The memories I have of my time on Wildlife will last me a lifetime.” But always looking for new challenges, Rachel set her sights on Channel Nine’s flagship program, A Current Affair. For twelve months she divided her time between ACA and Wildlife, before hanging up her travel boots for the pressures that come with a daily current affairs program. During her six year tenure with ACA, Rachel travelled to Kiev to investigate the legacy of Chernobyl, covered the Sydney Olympics and Commonwealth Games for the Network, reported live on two Federal Elections, followed Pat Farmer on his epic journey across the Simpson Desert and interviewed a diverse range of people, from Chopper Reid, to Diana Bliss, Robert Sangster to Pat Rafter, Chris Isaak to PM John Howard. Rachel has two children, writes features for New Idea and can be seen reporting for Channel 7 on its Olympic program called The Road to Beijing.