Holly Willoughby Biography
Summary
"Holly Marie Willoughby" (born 10 February 1981) is an English television presenter and model, known for her work in presenting children's TV and entertainment shows. In her early career she modelled underwear and went on to present "". In 2006, she won a BAFTA and was chosen to present "Dancing on Ice", a highly popular UK celebrity talent show, shown on ITV1 which drew in an average of 8.9m million viewers in the 2010 series. In July 2009 she was selected as a replacement for Fern Britton on This Morning. She began presenting on This Morning on 14 September 2009, alongside Phillip Schofield.
Early life
The younger of two daughters of the manager of a double-glazing company and an air stewardess, Willoughby was educated at the independent Burgess Hill School For Girls in the town of Burgess Hill in West Sussex. She went on to attend The College of Richard Collyer in Horsham.
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 underwear 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. and after these shows, she worked as a receptionist for a while and then as a runner for the defunct shopping channel "Auction World TV".
She also took on menial jobs and started Open University course in psychotherapy. Then eventually she found work as assistant 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 presented 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 was 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 Holly presented "Feel the Fear", a children's entertainment programme in which the presenters 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 of the children's version of "Stars in Their Eyes" in 2004. In 2006, she also appeared as Stephen Mulhern's regular illusion assistant in series 2 of "Tricky TV".
Credits
The programmes listed below were broadcast on CITV in 2000
"S Club TV" (2000)
"S Club 7: Artistic Differences" (2000)
The programmes listed below were broadcast on CBBC between 2000 and 2004
"Xchange" (2000-2004)
"CBBC at the Fame Academy" (2002-2003)
"X-perimental" (2003)
The programmes listed below were broadcast on CITV between 2004 and 2006
"Ministry of Mayhem aka Holly & Stephen's Saturday Showdown" (2004-2006)
"Stars in Their Eyes Kids" (2004)
"Feel the Fear" (2005)
"Tricky TV" (2006)
Mainstream TV
Willoughby presented "" for a short while in the spring of 2005, she replaced Cat Deeley before Myleene Klass became the regular presenter.
Willoughby'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 criticised for her choice of costume in January 2008.
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 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 has also presented "Here Come the Boys", a show celebrating the achievements of popular UK male singers of the past 50 years.
Willoughby has co-presented "ITV"s morning show "This Morning" with Phillip Schofield since September 2009 after she took over the role from Fern Britton.
Willoughby has had an almost unbroken run of work on television since August 2009. From August to December she worked on the 6th series of "The Xtra Factor" and from January 2010 she presented "Dancing On Ice" for the fifth series alongside Phillip Schofield. And since September she has worked on "This Morning". At one point she was on TV everyday except Fridays; Monday-Thursday "This Morning" and Saturday-Sunday "The Xtra Factor".
Credits
All programmes listed below are broadcast by ITV (ITV1 and ITV2 channels)
"Junior Eurovision" (2004)
"" (2005)
"Celebrity Wrestling: Bring It On" (2005)
"Dancing on Ice" (2006-present)
"Lip Service" (2006)
"The Westlife Show: Live" (December 2007)
"Greased Lightnin (2007)
"Streetmate" (2007)
"Holly & Fearne Go Dating" (2007)
"The Xtra Factor" (2008-2009) 66 episodes
"Celebrity Juice" (2008-present)
"The National Television Awards" (2007 and 2008)
"Here Come the Boys" (2008)
"This Morning " (2009-present)
"Cheryl Cole's Night In " (2009)
"James Corden's World Cup Live " (25th June 2010)
"Magic Numbers " (17th July 2010)
"Agatha Christies Marple " (30th August 2010)
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)
Contestant "All Star Mr and Mrs" (2 January 2010)
Other activities
In early 2008, Willoughby helped make a point that the UK, as a nation, wastes too much water, by having a 3-minute shower in a cubicle in front of the public fountain in the middle of Trafalgar Square in London. The event was part of the "Be Water Wise" campaign which led up to World Water Day on 22 March 2008.
Bibliography
Holly and her friend Fearne Cotton have written an advice book entitled "The Best Friends' Guide to Life" published in October 2010
Awards
In 2006, Willoughby won a BAFTA in recognition of her abilities as a children's TV presenter.
Personal life
Willoughby's sister, Kelly, also works in the television industry.
She is related by marriage to actress Tamzin Outhwaite, and is close friends with fellow TV presenter Fearne Cotton. Willoughby is a vocal supporter of Premier League football club Arsenal.
At the age of 23, she became engaged to Dan Baldwin, a producer on "Ministry of Mayhem", and on the same day they 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.
Willoughby and her husband Dan became parents to their first child, a boy named Harry James Baldwin, weighing 7 lb 4oz, on 11 May 2009.
External links
(Holly Willoughby) on Facebook
(Holly Willoughby) at The X Factor
(Holly Willoughby) at This Morning
(ITV Celebrity Playlist for Holly Willoughby)
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Holly Willoughby.
