Tessa Dunlop FRHistS (born 1974) is a Scottish historian, broadcaster, and author, best known for presenting BBC's Bafta-winning series Coast, and on The Vault for co-presenting Paranormal Egypt alongside medium Derek Acorah in 2007.
Early life and education
Dunlop was born in Rannoch, Perthshire, the daughter of Donald Henry Dunlop and granddaughter of physician Sir Derrick Dunlop. She was educated at Pitlochry High School and Strathallan School before reading Modern History at St Hilda's College, Oxford, where she won the Gertrude Easton Prize. She went on to complete a Master's degree with distinction and a PhD at Sheffield Hallam University, researching Romania's international identity during the First World War.
Broadcasting career
After university, Dunlop worked in London radio at LBC and BBC London 94.9, before moving into television history presenting for the BBC, Channel 4, Discovery Channel, UKTV History, and the History Channel. In 2005, she won a Royal Television Society award for her work on the regional magazine programme Inside Out West. She later became a lead presenter of BBC Two's Coast.
Paranormal Egypt
In 2007, Dunlop co-presented Paranormal Egypt, an eight-part series filmed on location in Egypt alongside medium Derek Acorah, combining Dunlop's historical research with Acorah's claimed psychic impressions to explore ancient Egyptian mysteries including the Great Pyramid, the Sphinx, and the tomb of Tutankhamun.
Writing career
Dunlop is the author of several history books centred on oral testimony, including The Bletchley Girls (2015), profiling women who worked at Britain's wartime code-breaking centre; The Century Girls (2018), marking 100 years of women's suffrage through the accounts of women born in or before 1918; and Army Girls, documenting the last surviving women who served in the British Army during the Second World War. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, The Mail on Sunday, and The Herald.
Personal life
Dunlop lives in London with her two daughters.