Barra Best - BBC Northern Ireland

Barra Best was a member of Belfast Community Circus School in the early 1990s, where he mastered such skills as riding a unicycle and walking on stilts, but he grew out of that with age.

Barra was raised in Belfast with his younger sister and lived there until he moved to the north west of England to study information systems with media and communications at Edgehill University.

After a brief stint working in computing back in Belfast, Barra decided to pursue a career in journalism and studied the subject at University of Central Lancashire in Preston.

He says it was the best decision he ever made because for the first time he wakes up in the morning and looks forward to work.

After working in commercial radio in Belfast for nine months Barra joined the BBC in February 2007 where he has worked as a broadcast journalist ever since.

He has taken on a number of roles in radio and television, including reporting, presenting and working behind the scenes.

Barra jumped at the opportunity to present the weather when the position came up and says that, although the move from news to weather has been a challenge as he has had to learn new skills and graphic systems, he is very excited to be a member of the weather team.