Griffin was born on 23 December 1984 in Hackney, London, United Kingdom, to an Irish mother and a Jamaican father. He and his twin sister are the youngest of four siblings. He was educated at The Ravenscroft School and attended the after-school drama club at the Anna Scher Theatre School, where he met friend and future co-host Reggie Yates.
Dev began his radio career in 2000 aged 16 on pirate station Freek FM, specializing in garage and jungle. Here he was known as DJ Devstar and presented with Reggie Yates, known as MC Nobizzi. In 2002, whilst studying for his A Levels at The Ravenscroft School, Griffin landed a job co-presenting the children's interactive TV show Smile (credited as DJ Devstar) alongside his childhood friend Reggie Yates and Fearne Cotton. Six months into filming, he was approached by BBC Radio 1Xtra to present a Saturday afternoon show with his Smile co-presenter Reggie; the 'Reg and Dev' show was born. In 2003, Griffin left Smile to concentrate on his radio career.
In 2006, Dev created and starred in children's sitcom The Crust He will also star as himself in Friday Download: The Movie, as a result of campaigning at length on air to get himself a role in a B movie.
Dev was a member of Rebellious and has played in Ayia Napa and Faliraki at Ibis, Insomnia, Club Ice and Gas with Reggie Yates. Griffin warmed up for Kanye West at the Hammersmith Apollo and Jurassic 5 at the London Astoria. He also played at the Radio 1 Teen Awards, and was asked to calm the crowd down after getting them too excited.
Dev joined BBC Radio 1Xtra at the launch in August 2002, where he presented "The Lowdown with Reg and Dev", on Saturday afternoons between 12PM and 3PM. In August 2004, The Lowdown with Reg and Dev moved to Saturday mornings between 9AM and 12PM, with Dev additionally doing the show by himself on Sunday mornings. Yates left 1Xtra in December 2004, so from January 2005, Dev presented both Saturday and Sunday morning shows by himself. Following further schedule changes in September 2005, Dev moved to Saturday afternoons again between 12PM and 2PM, where he stayed until 2007 when he became presenter of the weekday early morning show (not the Breakfast show) between 6AM and 8AM.
On 5 June 2009 the BBC announced that Dev was moving from his early morning show on BBC Radio 1Xtra across to BBC Radio 1 to take on the weekend breakfast show. This show started in July 2009.
In a further shake up to their daytime programming, during the Summer of 2009, it was announced that Dev would be moving from Weekend Breakfast, to replace Greg James, as the host of the weekday Radio 1 early breakfast show, between 04:00 and 06:30. His first show as permanent presenter was on 21 September 2009 and his last on Friday 28 March 2014. This can be downloaded from the unofficial Radio 1 Archive.
From Saturday 29 March 2014, Dev took over the weekend breakfast show previously hosted by Gemma Cairney. Cairney moved to Dev's previous time slot of Mon-Fri 4am-6:30am. Initially the show was from 7-10am, however following changes to the specialist schedule, the start time of the show was pushed back to 6am still finishing at 10:00.
Dev made his debut presenting The Radio 1 Breakfast Show sitting in for Nick Grimshaw in February 2014, at short notice after Grimshaw called in sick, which Dev has done again since. He regularly covers both Scott Mills' show and Greg James' show when they are away.
Weekend Breakfast Show- 0600-1000AM, Saturday-Sunday, 29 March 2014 – present (BBC Radio 1)
Early Breakfast- 0400-0630AM Monday-Friday, 21 September 2009 – 28 March 2014 (BBC Radio 1)
Weekend Breakfast Show- 0700-1000AM Saturday-Sunday, 4 July 2009 – 20 September 2009 (BBC Radio 1)
Early Show- 0600-0800AM Monday-Friday, 8 October 2007 – 1 July 2009 (BBC Radio 1Xtra)
Weekend Afternoon Show- 1200-2PM Saturday, September 2005-6 October 2007 (BBC Radio 1Xtra)
Weekend Morning Show- 0900AM-1200PM Saturday-Sunday, 8 August 2004-September 2005
Lowdown with Reg & Dev - 1200-3PM Saturday, 17 August 2002 – 31 September 2004 (BBC Radio 1Xtra)
The CD Graveyard- Listeners sent Dev their old CD singles and he would play them on Radio 1 one last time before sending them to the 'CD Graveyard', to either CD Heaven or CD Hell.
I'm Here All Week- On Monday 23 November 2009 a new feature began called "I'm Here All Week", also known as "Resident DJ", where a listener gets to choose a song for each day with a theme for each day. The original themes were: Metal Monday, Trance Tuesday, One Hit Wonder Wednesday, First Bought Thursday and Freedom Friday. They were later changed to: Mosh-Pit Monday, Cheesy Tuesday, Work-Out Wednesday, Zombie Apocalypse Thursday and Film Friday.
First Text of the Day- Just after 4AM Dev reads out the first texts received to Radio 1's text number during his show, and rewards the first by calling them back and sending them a "First Text Certificate". Usually, the first text would come in at exactly 04:00:00. He would also mention the First Tweet of the Day.
Fish Fact or Fish Fiction- a game based on fish trivia.
Name That Tune- Dev learned a current song on the piano in preparation for his Radio 3 performance and listeners had to guess what song it was.
Decode the Load- Dev must guess what cargo a lorry driver is carrying in his/her (usually his) lorry.
Dyer Watch- this consists of Dev playing out clips of Danny Dyer from EastEnders appearances.
Lucky Last Night- listeners text in to let Dev know whether anything lucky happened to them last night, and what they would rate the lucky experience out of 10.
Super Good Friday- listeners would phone in on a Friday to tell Dev that they're feeling "GOOD, GOOD, SUPERGOOD!" over a German electro-dance track (Super Gut by Mo-do).
Super Bad Girls- also on a Friday. Dev (conscious of restoring the male-female balance of the show) would invite his "Super bad girls" (men with female versions of male names doing women's voices) to call in, and tell him how they feel (bad, bad, superbad!), to the music of "Superbad" by Flux Pavilion and Doctor P.
The Bass Cannon- After playing songs considered particularly downbeat for the time of day, Dev would offer "a few squirts of the Bass Cannon" by means of compensation, to restore the balance. The Bass Cannon is the song by Flux Pavilion, championed on BBC Radio 1Xtra by MistaJam. This has been used once so far on the Weekend Breakfast Show.
"First Text of the Day" continued on the Weekend Breakfast Show until late 2016, and new features were introduced:
Sports Stars- Dev speaks to a listener taking part in a sporting competition on Saturday's show, and sets them a target to achieve. They are called back on Sunday's show to find out how they did, and if they achieved their target, they can choose any song to be played on Radio 1. If they failed to achieve their target, Dev plays them an extract from "In the End" by Linkin Park ("I tried so hard, and got so far, but in the end, it doesn't even matter"). This feature ended in 2015.
Whosbeat- a short lived feature involving Radio 1 DJs humming a tune and inviting listeners to guess what it is. Whosbeat was dropped after the move to the 6AM start.
Rihanna's Bargain Bin Review- Radio 1 film critic (known as "buff movie buff" to Dev) Rhianna Dhillon reviews a B Movie found in the bargain bin of a supermarket, usually slating it and getting frustrated. This feature ended when Dhillon left Radio 1.
Blagger's Guide to the World Cup-During the 2014 World Cup, Dev would get Dan Walker of BBC Football Focus to teach him useful quotes about the World Cup Matches that he could use to blag his way through football related conversations. This led to Dev being invited to take part in the Match of the Day Fantasy Football League.
Dev's Massive Topic- on Saturday's show, in an attempt to be more highbrow (like Radio 4), Dev puts a subject up for debate. Previous massive topics have included: left or right, sponge or puff, and tea or coffee. This has since been renamed to "Which is Best".
Stags vs Hens- On Sunday's show, Dev gets a member of stag and hen parties on the phone, to compete against each other in a stag and hen based quiz. The first edition of Stags vs Hens was played on Sunday 5 September 2014, and the final edition on Sunday 4 January 2015. The feature was discontinued because Dev ran out of stag and hen based questions.
Mini Manager- Dev was invited to take part in the Match of the Day Fantasy Football League following the 2014 World Cup. However, knowing nothing about football, he enlists the help of a Mini Manager, typically a child of around 10 years old, to instruct him what changes to make to his team for the following week. This happens on Saturday's show. Dev has enjoyed reasonable success in the Fantasy Football League, as a result of his help, at one point being third in the table, and beating Match of the Day 2 presenter Mark Chapman
The Best Friend Test- A listener prank calls their best friend, making some strange, difficult or outrageous demand and sees if their best friend will agree to it, testing how much of a good best friend they are. It mainly features on Dev's daytime cover shows, but has appeared on the Weekend Breakfast show on occasion.
Heads or Tails - A caller phones in to guess whether a coin Dev tosses will land on heads or tails. This takes place after 6am on both Saturday and Sunday.
My Weekend Sounds - A caller describes an activity they have partaken in during the weekend only in sound effects and Dev must guess what the activity is. This takes place after 9am on Saturday and Sunday.
The 7am Pen Game - A caller must direct Dev by telling him to move up, down, left and right in five moves, after which Dev throws a pen to try and land it in a receptacle held in a random part of the studio by the Producer. This has been discontinued.
Request Roulette - Dev has a roulette wheel with four spaces, on which four songs are placed. One of them is a listener's request; the other three are usually themed. Dev plays whichever song the ball lands on when the roulette wheel is spun. The caller has the option to decide whether the wheel is spun clockwise or anticlockwise, and after one spin, the caller is given the opportunity to go 'double balls' and spin again, without knowing what it landed on originally. This is played after 7am on Saturday and Sunday.
Review Taboo - Radio 1's Film Critic Ali Plumb comes to deliver a review of a film currently in the cinema. However, Dev complies a list of ten banned words or phrases that Plumb is not allowed to include in the review, without Ali knowing what they are. If and when Plumb says one of the banned words or phrases, he is buzzed by Dev, much to his frustration and Dev's amusement. This occurs after 8:30 on a Saturday.
Smile (BBC2)
Bring It On (BBC1)
The Crust — Starring Dev Griffin and Reggie Yates (Darrall Macqueen)
Emmerdale
I Bring You Frankincense (Crucial Films)
The Bill
Hollyoaks
EastEnders
Dev currently lives in South London where he is the DJ in Left Step Band.
