Jaime Bayly Peruvian Journalist Born 1965 in Lima

Early life

Jaime Bayly was born on 19 February 1965 in Lima, Peru, into an upper-class family. He was the eldest son among eleven children, and his uncle Walter Bayly Llona went on to lead the financial group Credicorp.

Bayly attended Markham College, a British private school in the capital, and later Colegio San Agustín. As a teenager he worked part-time at the daily newspaper La Prensa, a job his mother arranged so that he would become more responsible. In 1982 he enrolled at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, but after four years he had to leave because he could not pass one of the required courses.

Career

Bayly's first television appearance came in 1983, during Peru's municipal elections, when he interviewed candidates and politicians. He then built a career as a late-night host who talked with celebrities. His first late-night programme, 1990 en América, drew the attention of viewers and critics, and the following year he fronted ¿Qué hay de nuevo?, a local take on David Letterman's Late Show. During the 1990s he also presented late-night shows in the United States, working for CBS Telenoticias and Telemundo over a period of six years.

In 2001, after Alberto Fujimori sought asylum in Japan to avoid corruption charges, independent media in Peru had more room to operate. Bayly used it to host the political programme El Francotirador (The Sniper), where he interviewed candidates in the presidential election. His political opinions upset several public figures and he eventually left the show; he turned the experience into a book of the same title and later returned to the programme.

His public positions have been closely tied to his work. In 2006 he supported Lourdes Flores's presidential bid. In 2010 he announced that he intended to stand in the 2011 presidential election, and in the same year he backed Susana Villarán in her successful campaign for mayor of Lima, after which the broadcaster Frecuencia Latina cancelled his programme. He returned to Peru in July 2013 for an interview on Channel N, in which he said he would run for the presidency for the Popular Action party. On his programme for the Miami-based channel MegaTV, he has been known for sharp criticism of the Venezuelan governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro.

Alongside television, Bayly is a novelist. His first novel, No se lo digas a nadie (1994), was adapted into the 1998 film Don't Tell Anyone, directed by Francisco Lombardi, with Bayly credited as writer. Another novel, La mujer de mi hermano (2002), became a 2005 film directed by Ricardo de Montreuil under the title My Brother's Wife. His other titles include Fue ayer y no me acuerdo (1995), Los últimos días de La Prensa (1996), La noche es virgen (1997), Los amigos que perdí (2000), El huracán lleva tu nombre (2004), Y de repente, un ángel (2005) and El canalla sentimental (2008). The Morirás mañana trilogy appeared between 2010 and 2012, followed by La lluvia del tiempo (2014), El niño terrible y la escritora maldita (2016), Pecho frío (2018) and Los genios (2023).

He has also published a poetry collection, Aquí no hay poesía (2001), a short-story book, Yo soy una señora (2019), and a journalistic chronicle, El francotirador (2002). His books deal with politics, sexual freedom and friendship, and several of them contain semi-autobiographical elements. In 2006 he directed the television series Bayly.

Recognition

Bayly won the Premio Herralde de Novela in 1997 for La noche es virgen. In 2005 Y de repente, un ángel was a finalist for the Premio Planeta. He received a GLAAD Media Visibilidad award in 2007, and in 2008 he won a Suncoast Regional Emmy in the on-camera commentator and editorialist category for his television work.

Personal life

Bayly is married to Silvia Núñez del Arco.