Celebrity Spotlight
B
orn on the 10th of February 1981 to Brian, a sales manager for a double-glazing company and his wife Linda, a former air stewardess, Holly’s early life with her parents and her older sister Kelly was a comfortable, middle-class existence. West Sussex proved a happy, relaxed place and Holly’s schooling took place at the independent Burgess Hill Girls School and, later, at the College of Richard Collyer in Horsham. At the age of 14 Holly was spotted by a talent scout working for The Clothes Show Live Exhibition and she was soon signed up by the internationally renowned Storm Model Management agency. Naturally, being signed this young by a company with such a sterling reputation meant that the young Holly soon found that she suddenly had a career to pursue alongside her school work. Appearances in teenage magazines such as Mizz, Just Seventeen, Shout and More! meant that the world began to be aware of the unique Willoughby charm. In 1998 she also started work as an underwear model for companies, including Pretty Polly and
THERE WERE TIMES WHEN WE WENT STRAIGHT FROM THE HOTEL BAR TO GOING LIVE ON AIR AT 6AM. IT DOESN'T HELP WHEN YOU READ THE SCRIPT AND FIND YOU'VE GOT TO DRINK ANCHOVIES IN CUSTARD WITH SOME 8-YEAR-OLD. THAT DAY I WAS SICK LIVE ON TV. was seen on billboards all over Britain. Her TV career took off in 2000 after she won an audition for S Club TV on ITV’s children’s network in which, along with some other youngsters, she represented an alternative version of the pop band S Club 7. She also played a character called Zoe in an offshoot, entitled S Club 7: Artistic Differences and, to prove that she was also prepared to work hard, found employment as a receptionist and a runner for a shopping channel. Whatever your opinion of Holly Willoughby, one thing is certain – here is a woman who isn’t afraid of hard work. For a while she took on a series of unrewarding jobs to support herself financially while she undertook a psychotherapy course via the Open University but then opportunity finally knocked when a showbiz agent, impressed by a showreel she had made with the assistance of a friend, contacted the BBC on her behalf and petitioned for work.
By the end of 2000 (an especially auspicious year) Holly had landed the job of presenting Xchange, a factual entertainment programme aimed at youngsters and her easy, unforced style led BBC bosses to recommend her for further duties, including CBBC at the Fame Academy, an adolescent offshoot of Fame Academy, the BBC’s take on that popular Spanish staple, Operación Triunfo. In 2004 Holly returned to CITV in a new role as children’s entertainer; Ministry of Mayhem certainly served up what it promised and gave her a world of
experience in managing a crowd of overexcited children. It also introduced her to her future husband, Dan Baldwin who was working as a producer on the same show. Holly and her copresenter Stephen Mulhern proved so popular that, in 2006, the programme continued under the title, Holly & Stephen’s Saturday Showdown. By 2005 Holly had also presented Feel the Fear, another children’s entertainment show in which participants were set a series of eye-watering challenges and, in acknowledgement of her sterling work in children’s TV, she was awarded a BAFTA in 2006.
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