Kanak Asha Huq was born in the Hammersmith district of London on 17 July 1975,[1][2] the daughter of Muslim parents who emigrated from Bangladesh in the 1960s.

She attended Notting Hill & Ealing High School and obtained nine GCSEs, then gained A-levels in chemistry, mathematics, and physics.

[9] Before the 1992 general election, Huq interviewed Labour leader Neil Kinnock for the children's programme Newsround, and appeared as a contestant on Blockbusters in the same year.

In 1997, several months before joining Blue Peter, Huq presented Channel Five's early morning children's programme Milkshake!

[15] In the programme's 2004 Summer Expedition to India, Huq became an extra in the Bollywood film Musafir (2004), and practised dancing alongside its stars.

[17][18] For the programme's 2004 Welcome Home appeal, she visited Angola, hoping to reunite children and their families who had been separated due to war.

[19] In 2008, during her last programme, she broke a Guinness World Record by pinning 17 Blue Peter Badges onto fellow presenter Andy Akinwolere's shirt in a minute.

[20] In March 2007, she apologised on air on behalf of the programme to viewers, after the result of a competition to identify the celebrity owner of a pair of shoes was faked.

These are Stuart Miles, Katy Hill, Romana D'Annunzio, Richard Bacon, Simon Thomas, Matt Baker, Liz Barker, Zoe Salmon, Gethin Jones and Andy Akinwolere.

[27] In December 2007, Huq appeared on a celebrity version of Ready Steady Cook with Blue Peter co-presenter Andy Akinwolere.

[31] Huq appeared with her future husband Charlie Brooker in his satirical review programme Screenwipe in December 2008 on BBC Four.

[36] Huq presented the seventh series of The Xtra Factor on ITV2, replacing Holly Willoughby who was unable to fulfil the role due to her ongoing commitments at This Morning.

[15] For two consecutive years she presented the Royal Shakespeare Company's Live from Stratford upon Avon, a web project aimed at showing theatre productions in schools.

[40] On 15 September 2006, Huq became one of the presenters of The Tube with Tony Wilson, Alex James and Emily Rose on Channel 4 Radio[41] working with production company UKoneFM.

[50] In 2013, Huq played a presenter of the fictional telethon "Help a Blameless Child" in television comedy series A Touch of Cloth.

[51] In 2019, she appeared briefly as a breakfast television presenter of the in-universe show Pam & Sam in Good Omens, which was based on the book written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

[56] She co-wrote the second episode of the Channel 4 anthology series Black Mirror, "Fifteen Million Merits", which is a satire of entertainment shows, with her husband Charlie Brooker.

[73][74] On 26 July 2010, Huq married writer and satirist Charlie Brooker at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas after a nine-month relationship.