Introduction
Peter Overton (born 5 April 1966 in England) is an Australian television journalist and news presenter.
Career
Overton joined the Nine Network as a reporter for National Nine News and graduated to weekend sports presenter on National Nine News in Sydney and substitute for Ken Sutcliffe. Peter also filed weekday news updates from the newsroom during Brian Henderson's tenure as presenter of National Nine News in Sydney.
Peter occasionally presented weekend news bulletins, and substituted on National Nine Early News and Today news for Sharyn Ghidella. Peter also co-hosted Nine's coverage of the Thredbo disaster with Tracy Grimshaw, and co-hosted Today with Grimshaw on at least one occasion.
Overton's recognition within the newsroom led to his most prominent appointment as a reporter for 60 Minutes. Peter has held positions at 2UE, SKY Channel, Channel 7 Adelaide Peter is also well-known to appear to be leaning over in his chair when reading the news bulletin.
As well as holding previous positions in radio he can still be heard updating the days news ahead of the nightly bulletin with Christian McEwan on C91.3 and several other stations.
In January 2009, Overton was appointed presenter of Nine News Sydney replacing Mark Ferguson following poor ratings. Ratings did not improve in his first week, with Nine dropping to fourth behind then-leader Seven, Ten and the ABC, however, since then, he has turned Nine's fortunes around to the point that it has regained the ratings lead in the Sydney market as of 2011.
Peter had a cameo role as himself in the 2011 Australian Horror film The Tunnel
Personal life
Early life
Overton grew up in Longueville, a suburb on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, where Nicole Kidman, then a neighbour, became one of his childhood friends.
He was educated at Lane Cove Public School and North Sydney Boys High School. He graduated with a Bachelor of Economics with a minor in Communications from Macquarie University.
Family
His father Dr John Overton was an Associate Professor of Anaesthesia at the University of Sydney, worked at the Children's Hospital at Westmead and had also attended North Sydney Boys High.
He is married to Studio 10 presenter Jessica Rowe and has two daughters, Allegra and Giselle. They reside in Vaucluse.
Philanthropy
Overton's sister, Rebecca Overton GP was a close friend of Fiona Pearce when she was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 2005. Peter became the Patron of The MonSTaR Foundation, raising money and awareness of motor neurone disease, and hosted the inaugural MonSTaR Cup in 2007
Peter Overton is a long term national ambassador for Special Olympics Australia, a not for profit movement and organisation that supports children and adults with an intellectual disability. In 2010, he attended the games in Adelaide and hosted the Special Olympics Australia National Games and in 2011 hosted and celebrated the departure of the Australia team for the World Games in Greece. Special Olympics thanks Peter for his endless support and for always being an advocate for all abilities and promoting acceptance.