Niall Gray: My career took off in a £250 Toyota Starlet

Niall Gray is a radio presenter on Capital FM but is best known for his viral videos on TikTok.

Gray, 27, who hosts the weekend breakfast show, is the youngest presenter at the station, where he started working when he was 21.

He was studying acting and posting videos on YouTube in his spare time when he was spotted by a radio producer. His parody videos, which have mocked shows including Top Gear, A Place in the Sun, and Location, Location, Location, routinely attract millions of views.

Gray, who lives alone in London, says that it is a 25-minute drive to the studio in Leicester Square — although that is only because his alarm goes off at 3.45am. “I’m out the door by 4am. The congestion charge hasn’t kicked in by then and I’ve even managed to find free parking near the building,” he said.

How much is in your wallet?

I can’t remember the last time I used cash in the UK but I do have $20 from a recent trip to New York. We have family who live there so it was a good excuse to go. We did all the classic touristy things: Top of the Rock, Times Square, Statue of Liberty. But even in America, it’s hard to spend cash — I got that $20 out and I have a feeling it will stay in my wallet for a while.

What credit cards do you use?

I use my BA Amex card and pay it off in full every month. My company card is a gold Amex, so I’ve been racking up those points. I should’ve done it sooner and now that I’ve realised all the benefits, I’m gutted I didn’t. My aim is to save up so I can get an upgrade to business class.

I have a Chase bank account but I think if you’re going to be spending on a debit card anyway, you might as well whack it on a credit card and get the points. You can tell I’ve been listening to a lot of business podcasts; I really like The Diary of a CEO [a podcast hosted by Stephen Bartlett].

Are you a saver or a spender?

Overall I’m a saver. I read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad a couple of years ago, and since then have been on board with the idea of buying assets, not liabilities. It’s the idea that it’s more satisfying to buy something that’s going to help me grow my business, like camera equipment or recording equipment.

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Are you better off than your parents?

We haven’t compared bank balances, but my parents work hard and I’m in the fortunate position where I’ve somehow managed to blag a career that doesn’t feel like work.

My dad was a fireman before he retired and my mum works in property. My sister, who is two years older than me, also works in property.

I was doing other presenting jobs and posting interviews on YouTube, and then someone from Heart Radio got me in and they passed me over to Capital. That was six years ago now. Everyone’s route into the industry is so different that it’s hard to give advice, but I would say just put yourself out there and be in the right place at the right time. My YouTube videos weren’t even getting that many views at the time, to be honest; I just got really lucky with it.

TV and radio was always my goal and my parents have always been super supportive, although maybe they questioned how I was going to make money out of it in the early days. It’s nice to be able to treat them every now and then.

How much did you earn last year?

All I know is that every year I seem to be paying more tax, so at least that means my income is going up.

What has been your most lucrative work?

Posting TikTok content. The first time I worked on a TikTok brand campaign, I got paid the same for that one campaign as I did in a whole year of being self-employed. It was an advertising partnership, posting about three videos for a TV channel. I’ve got a manager who deals with the negotiations and the serious stuff, and I just have to do the creative side of things.

You have to disclose when it’s an advert and I try not to take on too many. It’s great for the income but people get fed up if you’re just posting ads, so you end up losing followers and viewers, and then that has a knock-on effect on the income.

Longevity is what I’m aiming for — playing the long game rather than making as much as possible in the shortest time. There have definitely been a few odd ones I’ve turned down: a vape company, a condom company … I’d prefer to keep the parody sketches coming.

Have you ever been really hard up?

I was lucky my parents didn’t have to kick me out when I was 18. So I stayed at home until I was in the position with work to move out. It was when I was 22 and working at Capital FM in Brighton, so I moved there for seven months.

But I underestimated how much it costs to be an adult. I spent a lot of my first pay packet on DJ equipment and not enough on rent and bills. I was renting a two-bed flat in Brighton Marina for about £1,500 a month. Now I’m in London and every year the rent goes up; I managed to get a good deal on my place because I moved in during lockdown times, but it has still crept up to about £2,000 a month. That’s why I want to buy somewhere now — I don’t want to be paying someone else’s bills.

I was quite lucky to be able to keep going into the studio during the pandemic; some presenters had to do it from home. The roads were deserted. I got pulled over a couple of times by police asking where I was going. I was a key worker apparently, and I had a letter from work in case they didn’t believe me. They said, “What, you’re going to be on the radio in ten minutes? You can go, but we want a shout-out.”

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Do you own a property?

No. I have rented a two-bed flat in the Docklands in London for three and a half years now, but I do want to buy a place. I’m trying to weigh up where that would be — my work and friends are in London, but my family are in Essex and a flat costs half as much there. Every now and then I get motivated enough about buying to look on Rightmove, and then I see how ridiculous the market is and the shocking price of living in London and lose all motivation. A lot of the time, in my price range, only studios come up. I was searching recently and a car-parking space came up. Hopefully I’ll have bought by the end of the year — but not a parking space.

Do you invest in stocks and shares?

I’ve got a couple of Isas. I started investing in the S&P 500 a couple of years ago. I set up a £200 monthly direct debit with Vanguard and that’s to forget about until retirement — hopefully there’s a nice pot waiting for me. I’d been reading about investing and listening to podcasts, and it seemed a good thing to do. I’m still trying to understand the stock market and figure it all out, but the S&P seemed to pop up quite a lot. It’s done really well since I started, it’s up about 40 per cent — I must’ve got in at a good time.

I’ve got a few mates that do crypto, but I’ve seen how volatile it is. I prefer to stick to a Warren Buffet style of investing. I use a compound interest calculator online, which is fun to play about with. You can change the amounts and see what it’s going to be worth in 30 years — if you start at 25 then by 65 you should have a million.

What’s been your best business decision?

My best investment was a £250 Toyota Starlet. I think it was from 1997, bright red, and I bought it to film some videos a couple of years ago. One of the videos was a Top Gear parody that went viral. I took this little car across nine countries in four days — we started in France, went through Switzerland, Luxembourg, and finished up in Monaco. It was the most surreal feeling going round the F1 circuit in Monaco in this car with two mates. The views that video got and the following I got off the back of it, the brands that got in touch and wanted to work with me, that’s what made it a good investment. I turned down the brands and started doing more videos off my own back.

And the worst?

The worst was a bit of a nerdy obsession I got last year, which was drones. I bought one to catch some cool, creative shots for videos and became obsessed. At the start of this year, I decided to build my own drone; I watched the videos and bought all the equipment and then at the first obstacle I gave up. So there’s £1,000 of drone equipment scattered across my flat. I live right by London City airport so I can’t fly a drone anyway. I don’t know why I tried — the last time I did anything creative was in school and next thing I know I’m ordering soldering irons and circuit boards.

What’s the most extravagant thing you’ve bought?

Last year I bought a cinema camera with a few lenses, which came to about £7,000. That’s quite a lot for a camera when I mostly just use my iPhone camera anyway. I thought it would bump up the quality of my videos but weirdly, on TikTok and stuff, when it looks really glossy, people don’t like it as much because they assume it’s an ad or an actual TV show.

What’s best for retirement, property or pension?

I don’t know a lot about either. But I was talking to a financial adviser recently and he cringed at the idea of me not starting a pension yet. I am investing in the stock market though, so that’s my way of doing a bit for retirement.

What would you do if you won the lottery?

You have to share the love. Give away a lot of the money to friends and family; you don’t want to enjoy it on your own. I’d buy that flat in London, and that would be the money gone — a flat in Battersea would be nice.

What’s your money weakness?

New tech. I’m a sucker for tech. Laptop, camera, video production equipment — I see a glossy trailer and convince myself: I need that now. How much tech do I have? At least three GoPros, about four cameras, four microphones … even though there’s only one of me.

What is the most important lesson you’ve learnt about money?

Invest. When people said “save” I thought it meant just sticking it in your bank account, but I’ve learned that it’s about making your money earn you money — that’s the one.