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Holly Willoughby
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Holly Marie Willoughby (born 10 February 1981 in Brighton) is an English television presenter, known for her work in presenting children's TV and reality TV. In 2006, she won a BAFTA and was chosen to present Dancing on Ice, a highly popular UK celebrity talent show, shown on ITV which drew in an average of 8.9m million viewers in the most recently concluded series.
elder of two daughters to the manager of a double-glazing company and an air-hostess, she was educated at the independent Burgess Hill School For Girls in the town of Burgess Hill in West Sussex.
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Encyclopedia
Holly Marie Willoughby (born 10 February 1981 in Brighton) is an English television presenter, known for her work in presenting children's TV and reality TV. In 2006, she won a BAFTA and was chosen to present Dancing on Ice, a highly popular UK celebrity talent show, shown on ITV which drew in an average of 8.9m million viewers in the most recently concluded series.
Biography
The elder of two daughters to the manager of a double-glazing company and an air-hostess, she was educated at the independent Burgess Hill School For Girls in the town of Burgess Hill in West Sussex. She then went on to attend The College of Richard Collyer. Her sister, Kelly, also works in the television industry. She is related by marriage to actress Tamzin Outhwaite, and is best of friends with fellow TV presenter Fearne Cotton. Willoughby supports Watford FC, an English professional football club.
At the age of 23 Willoughby became engaged to Dan Baldwin, a former producer of Ministry of Mayhem, the same day that the couple moved into a flat in South London. Willoughby announced their engagement live on Saturday Showdown, on 6 May 2006. The wedding took place on 4 August 2007 at Amberley Castle, West Sussex. Fearne Cotton and Sarah Cawood were two of the bridesmaids and Dermot O'Leary was an usher. Whilst she was presenting The Xtra Factor on 1 November 2008, offhand comments by judges Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh led Willoughby to confirm that she was pregnant with her first child - a baby girl, due in the summer of 2009.
In 2006, Willoughby won a Bafta in recognition of her abilities as a children’s TV presenter. In early 2008, she helped make a point that the UK, as a nation, waste too much water, by having a 3-minute shower in a cubicle before the public fountain in the middle of Trafalgar Square, London. The event was part of the Be Water Wise campaign which lead up to World Water Day on 22 March 2008.
Willoughby has caused minor scandal on occasion. While presenting the children's programme Ministry of Mayhem in 2004, she accidentally exposed a breast. In January 2008, Willoughby presented Dancing on Ice in a very low cut dress which led to a small number of complaints by the viewing public.
Career
Modelling career
In 1995, at the age of 14, Willoughby was spotted by talent scouts at The Clothes Show Live exhibition. Storm Model Management signed her up. She appeared in teen magazines for girls such as Mizz, Just Seventeen and More!. From 1998, at the age of 17, she started modelling lingerie for various clients including Pretty Polly. She appeared in various adverts and posters.
Media career
Children's TV
In 2000, Willoughby won an audition for a show on CITV featuring S Club 7 called S Club TV. In this show actors represented an alternative S Club. She also acted in a show called S Club 7: Artistic Differences. She played a character called Zoe alongside the regular members of the band.
After these shows, she worked as a receptionist for a short while and then as a runner for the shopping channel Auction World TV. She also took on several menial jobs, and started an Open University course in psychotherapy. Eventually she found work as assistant floor manager during which time she persuaded a friend to make a show reel of her. This show reel secured her an agent who then contacted the BBC.
Later in 2000, she joined CBBC to present a factual entertainment programme for children called Xchange. She went on to host several other children's shows for CBBC: X-perimental, and CBBC at the Fame Academy (CBBC's version of the BBC-TV talent show Fame Academy).
Her breakthrough as a children's entertainer came when she re-joined CITV in 2004 to co-present their flagship entertainment show Ministry of Mayhem which aired on Saturday mornings. It was on this programme that she met her future husband Dan Baldwin, one of the show's producers. In 2006, the show's title was changed to Holly & Stephen's Saturday Showdown in order to reflect the popularity of its co-presenters, Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern. During the final episode of the show (1 July 2006), Willoughby accidentally revealed one of her breasts during a particularly energetic routine. CITV received a small number of complaints, though the wider audience merely wrote the occurrence off as unfortunate.
In 2005 Willoughby presented Feel the Fear, a children's entertainment programme in which the presenter's are set unnerving challenges. She has also had a number of minor appearances on other children's programmes and programmes relating to children. She co-presented the final in 2004 of the children's version of Stars in Their Eyes
The programmes listed below were broadcast on CITV (ITV) in 2000.
- S Club TV (2000)
- S Club 7: Artistic Differences (2000)
The programmes listed below were broadcast on CBBC (BBC), between 2000 and 2004.
The programmes listed below were broadcast on CITV (ITV), between 2004 and 2006.
Mainstream TV
Willoughby presented CD:UK for a short while in 2005, She replaced Cat Deeley before Myleene Klass became the regular presenter.
Willoughbys's major breakthrough as a mainstream family entertainer came when she was chosen to co-present the flagship ITV talent show Dancing on Ice, alongside Phillip Schofield, in 2006. In this show, celebrities from the UK are partnered with professional dancers to learn ice-dancing routines which are then judged by a panel of experts and voted on by the public. She continues to co-host the show. She was cricised for her choice of costume in January 2008 (see biography, above).
She has presented a number of other ITV programmes, especially spin-off show such as Celebrity Wrestling: Bring It On, Greased Lightnin and most recently, The Xtra Factor. She has also presented shows exploring celebrity gossip such as Lip Service and the comedy show Celebrity Juice. In 2007, she took over from Davina McCall as the presenter of Streetmate, a dating game show in the UK. She presented sections of The National Television Awards in 2007 and 2008.
She currently co-presents Holly & Fearne Go Dating alongside Fearne Cotton. In this show the two hosts, who are presented as best friends, attempt to find dates for single people that they meet in various situations in in UK. She also currently presents Here Come the Boys, a show celebrating the achievements of popular UK male singers of the past 50 years. She is expecting a baby girl, as revealed at the Brit Awards 2009.
All programmes listed below are broadcast on BBC channels.
All programmes listed below are broadcast on ITV (ITV1 and ITV2 channels).
Guest appearances
- Contestant Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway (29 September 2007)
- Contestant All Star Family Fortunes (3 November 2007)
- Guest presenter This Morning (5 December 2008)
- Cover Girl FHM (December 2008)
Awards
- BAFTA children's TV presenter (2006).
Other notable achievements
- She was voted 71st in FHM's 100 Sexiest Women In The World poll in 2005; 30th in 2006; 26th in 2007 and 100th in 2008.
- She turned on Brighton's first Christmas lights for 25 years on 16 November 2006.
- In August 2008, she and Fearne Cotton began a series of television advertisements promoting the Imagine game series for Nintendo DS.
- Holly was a model for Wonderbra adverts in 1999.
External links
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