Holly Willoughby



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 CD:UK. In 2006, she won a BAFTA Award and was chosen to present Dancing on Ice on the ITV network, which drew in an average of 8.9 million viewers in the 2010 series.

She later stepped down from the role in 2011 due to new commitments and was replaced by Christine Bleakley. In July 2009, she was selected as a replacement for Fern Britton onThis Morning. She began presenting on This Morning on 14 September 2009, alongside Phillip Schofield. On 23 November 2011, it was announced that Willoughby would be co-hosting the BBC talent show The Voice UK with Reggie Yates.

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.

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 ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More! More!]''. From 1998, at the age of 17, she started modelling underwear for clients including Pretty Polly. She appeared in adverts and posters.

[edit] Children's TV
In 2000, Willoughby won an audition for a show on CITV featuring S Club 7 called S Club TV.[8]  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 an 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 calledXchange. 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 Willoughby 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. The programmes listed below were broadcast on CITV in 2000

[edit] Mainstream TV
Willoughby presented CD:UK for a short while in the spring of 2005, replacing Cat Deeley before Myleene Klass became the regular presenter. Her 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 stepped down from the role in 2011 due to new commitments. She was criticised for her choice of costume in January 2008.

She has presented a number of other ITV programmes, especially spin-off shows 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 also best friends, attempt to find dates for single people that they meet in the 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.

On 23 November 2011, it was announced that she would present The Voice UK in 2012, along with BBC Radio presenter Reggie Yates.

On 30 March 2012 she won celebrity cleavage of the year in a competition sponsored by Wonderbra.

In November 2012 Willoughby was a guest at Rod Stewart's Christmas performance where she interviewed him and other celebrity performers in Stirling Castle which was aired in mid December on ITV.