Robert Rinder

Rinder attended Queen Elizabeth’s School in Barnet, London, from 1989 to 1994, where he took part in the drama club and played title roles in productions such as Bugsy Malone. At 14 he won a place at the National Youth Theatre, where he starred opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor in a production of Julius Caesar.⁠[1][1][1][1]

He read politics and history at the University of Manchester, where he met Benedict Cumberbatch and the two became close friends; he gave up acting for debating, won international inter-varsity competitions, graduated with first-class honours, and went straight from university into a pupillage in barristers’ chambers.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

Rinder was called to the Bar in 2001 and went on to practise for about fifteen years in serious national and international criminal cases. Practising at 2 Hare Court chambers in London, he focused mainly on international fraud, money laundering, and other financial crime; he was instructed by the British Government as counsel to the Turks and Caicos Islands’ Special Investigation and Prosecution Team, set up by the Foreign Office to prosecute allegations of bribery, international corruption, and fraud, and in the UK he advised on and appeared in cases involving fraud against the NHS, counterfeit medicines, multi-million-pound money laundering, and pension fraud.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

He also regularly worked on murder and other serious violence cases, usually for the defence, including the manslaughter of detainees in Iraq by British servicemen and the 2003 New Year drive-by shooting in Birmingham in which 17-year-old Letisha Shakespeare and 18-year-old Charlene Ellis were killed.⁠[1][1]

In his spare time Rinder wrote scripts and worked on programme formats; an unsuccessful pitch to update the 1970s drama series Crown Court brought him to the attention of ITV executives who were looking for someone to front a UK version of the long-running US daytime show Judge Judy. In the summer of 2014, while still a practising barrister, Rinder began presenting ITV’s Judge Rinder, which portrays a fictional small-claims court where he hears consumer disputes, personal and business fall-outs, and allegations of negligence. He is not a real judge, but he stresses the show’s legal accuracy. The programme won a Royal Television Society Award.⁠[1][1][2][1][1][1][3]

In October 2015 Rinder published Rinder’s Rules: Make the Law Work For You!, a popular legal guide that explains legal jargon and covers consumer rights, making complaints, and common mistakes in everyday legal issues.⁠[1][2]

In the summer of 2016 Rinder presented the ten-part factual series Judge Rinder’s Crime Stories, covering real cases ranging from a couple duped by a surrogate mother to the murder of a young woman and a sulphuric acid attack. That autumn, appearing under the name “Judge Rinder,” he competed in the BBCBBCThe BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is the United Kingdom’s public broadcaster. Its predecessor was the British Broadcasting Company, formed in 1922, and since 1927 it has been established under a Royal Charter. It provides television, radio, and online services in the UK, is funded mainly by the television licence fee, and broadcasts worldwide in multiple languages through BBC World Service.Open the full entry’s primetime Strictly Come Dancing with professional dancer Oksana Platero, against contestants including Ed Balls, Olympic long jumper Greg Rutherford, and singer Will Young; he lasted until the 11th week of the 13-week series.⁠[1][1][1][1][1][1]

In May 2018 the BBC announced the line-up for series 15 of the family history programme Who Do You Think You Are?, which included Rinder. In his episode he retraced the story of his grandfather, a Holocaust survivor; the episode won a BAFTA.⁠[4][4][2][5]

Following Who Do You Think You Are?, Rinder presented the two-part BBC documentary My Family, the Holocaust and Me, broadcast from November 9, 2020, in which he took second- and third-generation descendants of survivors back to the places their families came from to uncover what had happened to their relatives. In the programme he visited a mass grave in Voranava, Belarus, calling it “the most articulate expression of human evil I’ve ever come close to,” and stressed the importance of naming the victims.⁠[2][6][7][6][6][6]

In June 2021 Rinder was appointed MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to Holocaust education and awareness; his mother, Angela Cohen, chair of the ’45 Aid Society, a charity set up by child Holocaust survivors, received an MBE on the same day. He said he hoped the honour would persuade more people to hear the stories of the survivors and of those who perished.⁠[8][8][8]

On February 3, 2022, Solent University in Southampton awarded Rinder an honorary Doctor of Law degree, recognising him for making the law relevant and accessible. At the time he was also a legal ambassador for the charity Shelter and was working on a BBC documentary series about the history of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.⁠[9][9][9]

In June 2023 Penguin published Rinder’s first novel, The Trial, about the first murder case taken on by trainee barrister Adam Green. It was a Number 1 Sunday Times bestseller in July 2023 and a Richard and Judy Book Club pick in January 2024. He has since published The Suspect and, in 2025, his third novel The Protest in the same series; the novels draw on his experiences as a barrister.⁠[3][3][3][3][10]

In 2024 University College London (UCL) awarded Rinder an honorary Doctor of Literature for his writing, teaching, and advocacy in social equality and Holocaust education. The same year he presented Channel 4’s Britain Behind Bars: A Secret History and The Princes in The Tower: The New Evidence.⁠[5][5]

On April 21, 2026, The Venture Room published a compilation of street interviews filmed in London’s Marylebone that included a segment with Rinder. Asked how he made his first million, he did not talk about income but instead spoke about owning one’s life story, answering doubters through action, and how success should be measured.⁠[11][11][11]

On June 18, 2026, Penguin released the ebook and audiobook of Rinder’s new Adam Green novel, The Defence, with the hardback following on July 18. In the story, an MP-turned-wellness-guru dies at the glitzy launch of a bath salt that turns out to be poisoned, and barrister Adam Green defends his assistant, the prime suspect.⁠[12][12][12][12][12][12]

Rinder regularly explains the law on programmes such as This Morning and Good Morning Britain, where he is a regular host; he has also presented The Rob Rinder Verdict and hosted the BBC Radio 5 Live series Raising the Bar, which aims to demystify the legal system. He co-hosts BBC Two’s Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby and an art and travel series with Rylan, and presented the documentary series The Holy Land and Us. He has written columns for The Sun and the London Evening Standard and is president of Orion Orchestra.⁠[2][5][2][5][5][9][2][5]

“Grab back the pen and write the chapters of your own.” He said the world will write your narrative for you and can script you into someone else’s book; whether in business or anything else, you should write your own story and not let other people be the voice (at 03:20 in the video).⁠[11][11]

“Be contrarian.” He said the common trait he sees among the most successful people is showing anyone who doubts them, through their deeds and their work, that they do not get to determine their story (at 03:44 in the video).⁠[11][11]

“If you’re chasing financial success in life and that’s your pure mission, you’re onto an absolute loser.” He said the most important thing is not the money but the freedom: you cannot buy time, and what money can do is give you sufficient time to make really beautiful choices (at 04:10 in the video).⁠[11][11][11]