Helen Skelton

/ SaraLeePR/

Television - Presenter

2016 has been an exciting year for Helen, having hosted the swimming and diving at the Rio Olympics.

Helen’s career started when she became one of the youngest breakfast presenters on BBC Radio Network at the age of 22, going on to present Newsround for CBBC.

One of Helen’s longest standing roles was as presenter for the flagship children’s series, Blue Peter.  The show developed Helen’s thirst for action and adventure, seeing her take on incredible challenges such as completing the Namibia Ultra Marathon (becoming the second woman to ever do so), kayaking over 2018 miles down the Amazon River for Sport Relief (breaking two Guinness World Records en-route), completing a 66 metre high wire walk between the towers of Battersea Power Station and in 2012, Helen travelled 500 miles across Antarctica to the South Pole becoming the fastest person to travel 100km by ski, breaking yet more World Records.

Helen has become a beloved face of the BBC having worked on two Olympics in London 2012 and Rio 2016 as well as presenting the World, Commonwealth and European swimming competitions for the channel.

Helen’s love of the great outdoors has been put to good use, being part of the Countryfile presenting team since 2012.  In 2013 Helen was able to feed her love for travel by co-presenting BBC 1’s Holiday Hit Squad.  Most recently, Helen presents The Instant Gardener, which just aired its second series on BBC Daytime.

Charity work plays a big role in Helen’s life and as a Sports Relief and Comic Relief Ambassador Helen has travelled to Sierra Leone, Uganda and South Africa to help victims of abuse and terminally ill children. As well as highlighting the vital work of Save the Children and Children in Need, going to India as part of Operation Smile and helping young children born with cleft lips and palates have corrective surgery.

If that isn’t enough Helen has also become a successful author and has published the popular Children’s adventure book Amy Wild.

For Management enquiries email lizzie@jamesgrant.co.uk

Louis Walsh

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Louis Walsh is the undisputed king of the Irish pop scene.

He is the man behind some of the most successful bands in pop history, masterminding the careers of Boyzone, Westlife, Samantha Mumba, Girls Aloud, Shayne Ward, Wonderland, Jedward, Shane Filan and his latest band Hometown. The fact that he has achieved over a staggering 28 No.1 hits is a testament to his success and is one of the reasons why Louis Walsh is one of the most respected names in the music industry today.

In 2001, Louis made his first foray into television on the Irish version of Popstars. The show made Louis a household name in both Ireland and the UK. The following year, Louis appeared as a judge on Popstars: The Rivals, along with Pete Waterman and Geri Halliwell. Louis went head to head with Pete Waterman on the show, with his all girl band Girls Aloud battling it out with Pete’s boy band, One True Voice. Girls Aloud won hands down and their debut single achieved the coveted UK Christmas No. 1. Louis went on to manage the girls till they parted company in 2005.

In 2004 Louis first appeared as a judge on The X Factor and remained on the panel for 11 years seeing success with series 1 runner’s up G4, 2005 winner Shayne Ward, 2008 runner’s up JLS. In 2009 he signed controversial act of that year Jedward, who despite finishing 6th in the competition went on to become one of the most successful acts to appear on the hit ITV show, releasing 2 albums, performing for Barack Obama and going on to represent Ireland twice at Eurovision.

Vernon Kay

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Vernon Kay first burst onto our TV screens on T4 in 2000 and has been a permanent feature ever since. 

Hailing from Bolton, Vernon’s first taste of fame came when he was spotted by a model scout from Select at the BBC’s Clothes Show Live. He began a successful modelling career but it was not long before he was picked out for stardom by Channel 4 when he won ‘Model of the Week’ on The Big Breakfast.

In 2000 Vernon landed a regular gig on Channel 4’s T4. This proved to be the perfect vehicle to show off his humour and warmth as a presenter. Vernon was with T4 until 2006 and during that time his love of music shone through as he became a presenter for BBC2’s Top of the Pops Plus, and the spin off series Top of the Pops @ Play for Play UK.

Vernon joined Radio 1 in 2006 & has been a regular on the station ever since hosting, not only his regular weekend show, but also filling in for some of the weekday DJs. He can currently be found from 10-1pm on Saturdays playing the best new music around and some classics for good measure.

Vernon whilst presenting Hit Me Baby One More Time for ITV1, such was its success the major US network NBC asked Vernon to host the US version of the show were it was a number one hit for a number of weeks.

Other shows that Vernon has hosted include: Boys and Girls (Ch4); Celebrities Under Pressure (ITV1); FBI (BBC); T in the Park (Ch4); The Grill (Ch 4); Wife for William (E4); Head Jam (BBC2) During 2007, Vernon hosted a variety of shows for both BBC1 and ITV1 – he started the year by co-hosting the live celebrity singing show Just the Two of Us (BBC1) working alongside his wife, Tess Daly. In the spring, he took over as the host of ITV1 hit show Vernon Kay’s Gameshow Marathon. 

Being a massive fan of Elvis, he jumped at the chance of spending his summer travelling the globe attempting to find The World’s Greatest Elvis (BBC1). Vernon signed an exclusive contract with ITV in 2007 to host a number of shows for them and over the last 3 years has hosted Beat the Star, The Whole 19 Yards and a number of series of the ever popular Family Fortunes.

In 2010, Vernon got the chance of a life time when he was asked to be the host for quiz show Million Dollar Mind Game for the US Network ABC. Such was his success with the network that he was then asked to host Skating with the Stars, the ice-skating spin off to the huge US hit, Dancing with the Stars.

Vernon married Strictly Come Dancing host Tess Daly in 2003 – they have two daughters – Phoebe who was born in 2004 and Amber who was born 30th May 2009.

For Management enquiries email ClaireDundas@jamesgrant.co.uk

Sarah Millican

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Sarah Millican

Sarah Millican is an award-winning stand-up comedian and writer.
Since winning the 2008 if.comedy Best Newcomer Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for her debut solo show, Sarah Millican’s Not Nice, Sarah has fast-established herself as a household name, being nominated three times for The British Comedy Awards People’s Choice: Queen of Comedy and winning the award in 2011. In 2013 she was also nominated for the British Comedy Awards Best Female TV Comic for the fourth time, her eighth nomination in total.

On top of this raft of awards and nominations, Sarah‘s debut DVD, Chatterbox Live!, is the biggest selling stand-up DVD by a female comedian of all time, shifting over 150,000 units in the first five weeks of release alone. Sarah’s second DVD, Thoroughly Modern Millican Live, was released in November 2012 and was one of the biggest selling stand-up comedy DVD’s of 2012, entering the live comedy DVD top 10 chart on its first day of release. Her third DVD, Sarah Millican: Homebird, was a best seller in 2014 and her fourth DVD, Sarah Millican: Outsider is on sale from November 21st 2016

A consummate live performer, she has notched up countless appearances on top comedy shows including QI, Mock the Week, Have I Got News For You, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Big Fat Quiz, Live at the Apollo, The Jonathan Ross Show and as a headliner on Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow. Sarah’s very own series, The Sarah Millican Television Programme, combined TV-inspired stand-up and unique interviews with some of her favourite TV stars. It aired on BBC2 in March and April 2012. A second series, (which followed a Christmas Special in December 2012) broadcast January 2013 and notched up an incredible 2.4 million viewers for its first episode, with a third series being broadcast in the Autumn of 2013. Sarah earned two BAFTA nominations for the series for Best Entertainment Performance. In December 2010, Sarah appeared at The Royal Variety Performance performing stand-up to Princes Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall at the Palladium Theatre. She made her second appearance at the legendary variety show in November 2014.

Sarah has also written and performed two series of Sarah Millican’s Support Group for Radio 4 and in June 2012 Sarah began writing her own column for national magazine the Radio Times. In 2014, Sarah started online women’s magazine Standard Issue, dedicated to providing a progressive alternative to other options on the market.

After two critically acclaimed, sell-out Edinburgh Fringe runs in 2008/9, Sarah returned to Edinburgh in August 2010 with a brand new show, Chatterbox. An unqualified success, Sarah capped the brilliant sell-out run with a nomination for the much sought-after Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Award, affirming her status as one of the most exciting comics in the country. In the autumn of 2010 she embarked on her first national tour, also named Chatterbox, which completely sold out and in March 2011 announced her second national tour, Thoroughly Modern Millican, which sold over 190,000 tickets. The tour proved exceptionally popular with extra dates added up and down the country and an unprecedented 13 sold out nights at the Newcastle Tyne Theatre. Spring 2014 saw Sarah complete on her third sold-out national tour, Sarah Millican: Home Bird. Her latest tour, Outsider, has just come to the end after a staggering 176 date sell out tour across the UK and Ireland to a combined audience of over 225,000. The DVD of her latest tour. Sarah Millican: Outsider produced by Chambers Touring Ltd and Universal is on sale from Nov 21st 2016. 

.To read Sarah's online magazine go to www.standardissuemagazine.com

For Management enquires email Hannah@chambersmgt.com or katy@chambersmgt.com