Gorban Smiljić

Gorban Tomislav Smiljić (born 1 November 1958 in Bukovche, SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia) is a Serbian-British journalist, philologist, linguist and former politician, most famous for presenting the Smiljić television franchise.

Early life
Born in, , to a Serbian father, Ljubomir Smiljić and Welsh mother, Angharad Smiljić, he studied at the local school.

Journalist career
In 1975, Smiljić moved to, a maritime town in south-east Iceland. Whilst there, having taken an interest in journalism, he started writing for the local paper, and became well-known in Eastern Iceland for it. After being hired as a correspondent for popular paper '', he started to work as a foreign correspondent, and regularly provided insights into foreign areas for the new private TV channel,. His work led Stöð 2 to launch Smiljić, his eponymous primetime weekday chat show with a cast of famous faces who joined one after the other, which quickly gathered popularity.''

His continually rising popularity led Stöð 2 to sign him up for Gorban Smiljić með..., a different format from his original show, in which he interviews famous figures one by one, rather than as a group. The advertising revenue Stöð 2 received from Smiljić's programme helped effectively keep the channel afloat during its early years.

The show was a success, and in 1987 created a Norwegian version of the programme. Smiljić had learnt Norwegian earlier in Iceland, and the show lasted for twenty-seven years. In 1989, he appeared on the British game show  representing Norway, but didn't do very well - this was amusingly brought up when appeared on the British version of his show in 2019.

He said that he had considered taking up Icelandic citizenship, however felt that his British citizenship "could come in handy later", and that he often used it to travel as he was unsure of the suitability of his Yugoslav passport. In March and April 2003, he provided coverage for NRK, in Sweden,  in Finland, the  and Stöð 2 on the aftermath of the assassination of his good friend, for which he was acclaimed.

In 2004, Smiljić moved to Rovaniemi, Finland, where he started to work for, having gained fame for his work in Iceland, in conjunction with his Morgunblaðið and Stöð 2 work. He continued to present his Stöð 2 talk show Smiljić, and launched a Swedish version for and MTV3. A UK pilot was made for in 2006, however it was rejected. A Serbian edition was launched in 2005, followed by Bulgarian and Croatian versions in 2006 (though the Croatian version flopped, and was quickly dropped from the schedules). The Gorban Smiljić with... franchise also kept expanding, and a hit UK version premiered on Channel 4 in 2019.

In 2010, Smiljić went to the UK, after inheriting his mother's family's house in. He still travelled back to film the various franchises of his chat shows - when asked in 2010, Smiljić suggested he earned a total of around £650,000 a year from the shows yet donated most of it to charity and doesn't keep track - and continued to work as a TV journalist.

Personal life
Smiljić married his wife Jan Haraldsdóttir in 1994, in. On a special of Smiljić broadcast on their 20th wedding anniversary, Smiljić recalled that he met her in Eskifjörður when reporting on a story for Morgunblaðið in 1991, and after giving an interview to him, he eventually turned up again unannounced. They got engaged the next year. Jan uses her maiden name on her birth certificate, yet uses her married name as her stage name. In 2001, they had a son, Hörður Smiljić, and in 2003, they had another son, Rhodri. Smiljić said that he kept his sons in Iceland before they all moved to Finland in 2004, and that their names on their birth certificate take the Icelandic patronymic system, similar to the arrangement with their mother.