Matthijs van Nieuwkerk was born in
Amsterdam. In 1980 he started his study
Dutch language at the
University of Amsterdam, which he never finished. With his childhood friend Mark van den Heuvel, van Nieuwkerk started his career in journalism interviewing sportsmen and sportswomen for the Dutch newspaper
Het Parool. Interviewees included chess grandmasters
Kasparov and
Karpov, and footballer
Johnny Rep. Soon after, he also started interviewing writers, and he was responsible for renewing the literary section of the newspaper. In 1988, he became an editor for the arts section. In 1996, he was promoted to editor-in-chief of
Het Parool. In 2001 he became the editor-in-chief of
AT5, the local television channel of Amsterdam. However, in 2002 he transferred to national television when he became the net coordinator of the Dutch public channel
Nederland 3. Out of frustration with the inner workings of the Dutch public broadcasting system (which stood in the way of the changes he envisioned), van Nieuwkerk quit his job. After six months, he started working in front of the cameras. Ahead of the 2003 elections, he presented the political programme
Nederland Kiest with
Felix Rottenberg. The duo started presenting
Nova, a Dutch programme about politics, but they both quit after a conflict with the editorial staff. In 2005 van Nieuwkerk started his daily talk show
De Wereld Draait Door (literal translation:
The World Keeps on Turning; "draait door" is also figurative speech for "goes crazy"), a popular show that airs on weekdays. The programme received the 2007
Gouden Televizier-Ring (the Dutch equivalent of the
Emmy Awards) for best TV programme. Another successful programme of his is
Holland Sport, a Monday night programme in which he and co-presenter Wilfried de Jong discuss sports. (a music expert) and van Nieuwkerk created and still present the annual
Popquiz and Top 2000 à Go-Go. Van Nieuwkerk was nominated for the
Zilveren Televizier-Ster for best show host in 2006 and 2007, but didn't win on either occasion. On 12 February 2020 it was announced that Matthijs van Nieuwkerk would stop with his programme
De Wereld Draait Door after the current series, due to finish on 27 March 2020. At the same time van Nieuwkerk is reported to have signed up with
BNNVARA (Dutch public broadcaster) for another three years and that he is in the process of setting up a series Saturday evening programmes for them, due to run from January 2021. ==Accusations of bullying==