Austin Washington is the media's favourite descendant of George Washington, an Oxford trained historian, TV presenter and host, amateur song-writer, and professional bon vivant.

When he was twelve years old he saw a debate from the Oxford Union in an old video. It seemed as distant and remote to him as Monty Python, or The Beatles. (For those of you who don't know, The Oxford Union is the most famous place to speak, on earth. The first place Nixon spoke after Watergate, the last place Churchill ever spoke - Mother Theresa, once, on a trip to England, fell ill - she cancelled all her engagements but two - tea with the Queen, and speaking at The Oxford Union.)

Inspired with a Tony Robbins style American enthusiasm, he blustered his way into the greatest university on earth without even finishing high school (he now holds two degrees from this fabled institution, having dined in the "Harry Potter" dining hall regularly - really Christ Church's dining hall - befriended presidents of countries, billionaires, adventurous heroes and even the world's first "space tourist"...)



When he arrived at Oxford, he went straight to The Oxford Union, where he stood up in an introductory speaking workshop, and, knees trembling and sick to his stomach, uttered five fateful words that would change his life forever.

Sadly, he forgets what those words were.

But, everyone laughed. In a good way. With, not at.

Within a year, he was featured on The BBC as a "future leader of the world", and was flown by The Discovery Channel to New York, where he debated, live, from Rockefeller Center, on national television, an invitation that was to lead to his own television show (currently being developed!)

But, things were not always so easy for Austin. The most gruelling ordeal of his life was so gruelling that a television documentary was begun, by the top television journalist in England. This story is soon to be a major feature film. Further information will be available on this site.

The Master of Lincoln College called his performance in Oleanna "better than the Royal Court", but after tiring of speaking others' words and turning his attention to "debating" (which, at the Oxford Union, at least in Austin's hands, was more a cross between comedy, politics, and theatre), news that he would speak at the union was said to pack the 850 seat chamber. Less known was that his spare time was spent doing charity work, helping disabled children with sports. He also used his empathy, enthusiasm, and experience, to help inspire people in need through local charities, as well as to advise the best and the brightest in Oxford on the most effective way to utilise their prodigious talents to help both themselves and the world. Both in person and on television, Austin has been using his gift  to relate to almost anyone, which he developed as a teenager by interviewing people from all walks of life for PBS television, to try to be a force for good in the world.

Also useful in helping others was his personal story of self-transformation which, to bring it full circle, evokes his most well-known ancestor - George Washington - who, like Austin, did quite well for himself for someone who didn't finished high school! (Churchill is also in this illustrious group...as is Richard Branson, Abe Lincoln, and not so illustriously, John Major, who notoriously failed the exam to become a bus driver, before eventually coming a - albiet mediocre - Prime Minister...and so it goes....)

Austin has been making music since he was four, and recording it since he was fourteen. His biggest success was writing and producing all the music for the largest theme park in the Middle East, Dreampark (formerly Dreamland), and writing the first big internet hit, Falling Out of Time, a bit of which is in the video above (the video was done last Fall, the song, quite a while before!)

More television stuff is on the way in 2009. To help ease the pain of being without him there, he's making something really cool for the internet...info available here, soon!