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Fiona Phillips (born 1 January 1961, Canterbury, Kent) is an English journalist, broadcaster and television presenter.

Early life[link]

Phillips was born in Kent and Canterbury Hospital in 1961 to Phil (died February 2012) and Amy (died May 2006).^[1] Her grandparents ran the Duke's Head pub in Church Street St. Paul's. Phillips attended Kingsmead Primary School.^[2] The family later moved to Southampton where Phillips completed her schooling at Millbrook Community School. After leaving school, Phillips worked for a short time at Mr Kipling's Bakery in Eastleigh, near Southampton. Phillips graduated from Birmingham Polytechnic (now Birmingham City University) with a BA (Hons) in English; she also undertook a PGCert in journalism.

Early career[link]

Phillips started her career in independent radio working as a reporter for local stations County Sound in Surrey, Hereward Radio and Radio Mercury in Sussex.

Moving from radio to television several years later, she joined BBC South East's Weekend Programme as co-presenter, before becoming a reporter with CNN News, later moving on to become the station's entertainment editor, producing, reporting and presenting CNN News' entertainment output.

GMTV[link]

In 1993, Phillips joined GMTV as entertainment correspondent and was promoted to GMTV/Reuters Television's LA correspondent in December 1993. For over two years Phillips provided daily and weekly reports and covered a number of big news stories including the Michael Jackson alleged child molestation case, the LA earthquake, the first OJ Simpson trial and the Oscars. She also interviewed some of the industry's biggest stars from Leonardo DiCaprio and Clint Eastwood, to Brad Pitt and Mel Gibson.

She also famously interviewed Heather Mills.^{[citation needed]}

From 1997 to 2008, she was the main anchor on GMTV, presenting GMTV Today every Monday to Wednesday. On 28 August 2008 Phillips announced that she was to quit her role as main anchor on GMTV for family reasons.^[3] She presented her final show on 18 December 2008.^[4]

Phillips returned to GMTV in 2010 in its last series GMTV with Lorraine.

Since September 2010 she has regularly guest presented the ITV Breakfast programme Lorraine (successor of GMTV with Lorraine).

Other activities[link]

Phillips has also presented other programmes, including as the celebrity lifestyle show OK!TV, Baby House and Room to Rent, Carlton's entertainment guide Good Stuff, LWT's Friday evening entertainment show Start the Weekend, ITV's Sunday Night and the Rich and Famous series. Phillips currently writes an opinion column in the Daily Mirror on Saturdays and works as an agony aunt in New! magazine

Fiona was a regular panellist on Loose Women in 2002, and was a guest anchor in 2004 and 2005. She returned to Loose Women as a guest anchor in March 2009 and again in March 2010.

She has also stood in for Simon Mayo on Radio 5 Live from 30 March to 3 April 2009. Phillips was a guest host on Channel 5's The Wright Stuff in April/May 2009 and in March 2010 on ITV's Loose Women.

In August 2010 she appeared as a panellist on ITV's new show 3@Three.^[5]

She voiced the character of Katie Current in the British release of Shark Tale. She took part in the third series (2005) of Strictly Come Dancing with professional partner Brendan Cole. The pair were voted out on Week 4 following several weeks of low scores.

Fiona had also been in the documentary The Killer in Me on 8 November 2007, a show that saw four celebrities agree to take a groundbreaking test that revealed the secret killers lurking in their genes. Fiona joined former England footballer John Barnes, political commentator and presenter Andrew Neil, and Heart FM DJ Toby Anstis who all found out their risk of developing 11 major diseases, including cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's disease.

Phillips hosted a show on Smooth Radio in the 2-5pm slot every Sunday, starting from Easter Sunday, 23 March 2008,^[6] until 2009 when she left the station. On 13 March 2008, Phillips, who is the Age Concern Ambassador, presented the Age Concern Grandparent Of The Year 2008, which took place in the Houses of Parliament.^[7]

On 7 September 2008 she was a guest on Soccer Aid and again on 12 September 2008, this time on Al Murray's Happy Hour both shown on ITV1.

Politics[link]

Phillips claimed to have been offered a job in November 2007 as public health minister in the administration of Gordon Brown, as well as a peerage. Phillips said she declined due to her responsibilities to her two small children.^[8][9] She attended the 2009 Labour Party Conference in Brighton, where she introduced an address by the Home Secretary Alan Johnson.^[10][11]

She was a panellist on BBC One's Question Time in June 2009, and in May 2010 and January 2011 appeared on This Week.

Charity work[link]

Phillips is a supporter of many charities frequently related to conditions affecting her family. Phillips' mother suffered from breast cancer before dying on 15 May 2006 from Alzheimer's disease. Phillips took a break from her work on GMTV, and has since supported many organisations associated with the two diseases. On 15 February 2007 she appeared as a contestant with her brother Andrew on Dale's Supermarket Sweep, playing to raise money for their charity for people with Alzheimer's. In 2010 Phillips participated in the Memory Problems? campaign lending her celebrity to raise public awareness of the early symptoms of Alzheimer's.

Phillips is well known as one of the judges of the Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Awards, and for presenting the GMTV Emergency Services award. She has also been one of the judges for the Children of Courage awards. From 15 October 2007, she reported from Geita, North Tanzania, for one week to visit Neema, a 13-year-old girl who Phillips has been sponsoring, and her family, friends and local schools.^[12] On 1 March 2007 she published a 'Quick Reads' book for World Book Day A Day To Remember which is aimed at emergent readers and adult learners. Phillips hosted the Breast cancer Care's annual fashion show in October 2007.

Phillips is also a patron of Barnardos, Alzheimer's Society, Age Concern, Richard House Children's Hospice, and Mildmay Mission Hospital.

Honours[link]

In 1996 Phillips was nominated for the Royal Television Society Interview of the Year Award.

On 7 November 2007, Phillips received an Honorary Master of Arts degree from Southampton Solent University, for "being a person distinguished in eminence and by attainments".^[13]

On 21 July 2011, Phillips received an Honorary Fellowship from Cardiff University.^[14]

Personal life[link]

While working as the Los Angeles based entertainment reporter for GMTV, Phillips had thought her replacement for the Christmas holidays Martin Frizell "arrogant and cold."^[15] But when he came out to LA, the pair had dinner. They met again at a friend's dinner party when she returned to the UK four months later, and began dating soon after. The couple married in May 1997 and have two sons, Nathaniel, born 1999, and Mackenzie, born 2002.

A vegetarian, in June 2007 Phillips was a nominee for PETA Europe’s “Sexiest Vegetarians” poll, and subsequently won the award as 'Sexiest Female Vegetarian 2007'.^[16]

Phillips is a supporter of Chelsea F.C.,^[17][18] although she followed her home town club, Southampton F.C. when she was younger before dropping them and proclaiming to support a more successful team.^[19] She also supports the Labour Party.^[20]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Fiona Phillips GMTV
• Fiona Phillips at the Internet Movie Database
• Fiona Phillips column Mirror.co.uk

The following is a list of significant men and women known for being the father, mother, or considered the founders mostly in Western socities in a field, listed by category. In most non-science fields, the title of being the "father" is debatable.

Church[link]

Games[link]

Humanities[link]

Military[link]

Nations[link]

Natural and social sciences[link]

Sports[link]

Technology[link]

Fields[link]

Inventions[link]

Towns, cities and regions[link]

Transport[link]

See also[link]

• List of inventors
• Father of medicare
• Founders of statistics

References[link]

Hari Dhillon (Punjabi: ਹਰੀ ਢਿੱਲੋਂ (Gurmukhi), ہری ڈھلوں (Shahmukhi), हरी ढिल्लों (Devanagari)), also rendered Hari Dillon or Harry Dillon, is an American television, film and stage actor, best known for playing Mr Michael Spence in over 100 episodes of the British television medical drama series Holby City.^[1] On 20 December 2011, Dhillon's character appeared to leave the show, although there had been no publicity to say that Dhillon was leaving, and he returned on the 27th December 2011, deciding to return after saving a young boy's life in Ukraine.

Background[link]

Dhillon was born^[2] and raised in San Francisco, but spent nine months of his childhood in India due to his parents' concern that he would lose touch with their Punjabi heritage.^[3]

He attended UC Berkeley and took an acting class in his senior year as a means of filling an art credit.^[4] After graduation, he worked as a prison AIDS educator in California and Hawaii before helping some friends to set up a theatre company in San Francisco. In 1994, he attended drama school in the United Kingdom.^[3]

Career[link]

Dhillon originally appeared in Holby City in 2001 as recurring minor character Dr. Sunil Gupta, before returning in November 2007 as consultant Michael Spence.^[5] His appearances in US TV shows include Medium, Charmed, Without a Trace and The Loop.^[6] He also had minor, unnamed roles in the films Cradle 2 the Grave, Wit and Entrapment.

Dhillon's theatre roles include the premiere production of Charles L. Mee's A Perfect Wedding, which was the inaugural production of the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles,^[7] and the original production of Stephen Belber's Drifting Elegant at San Francisco's Magic Theatre, which was later developed into a feature film.^[8] In London, he appeared in the original production of Helen Edmundson's Mother Teresa Is Dead at the Royal Court Theatre.

Television[link]

• Dream Team (1997)
• Arabian Nights (2000)
• Trial & Retribution (1 episode, 2000)
• Lawless Heart (2001)
• The Agency (1 episode, 2002)
• She Spies (1 episode, 2003)
• Charmed (2 episodes, 2005)
• Medium (1 episode, 2005)
• Mr. Nice Guy (2006)
• Without a Trace (1 episode, 2007)
• The Loop (5 episodes, 2007)
• Holby City (109 episodes, 2001–2003, 2007-present)

Film[link]

• Entrapment (1999)
• New World Disorder (1999)
• Wit (2001)
• Cradle 2 the Grave (2003)

Theater[link]

Dhillon has had positive reviews for many of the stage plays in which he performed. These include Mother Teresa Is Dead (2002), Royal Court Theatre, London,^[9] Drifting Elegant (2004), Magic Theatre, San Francisco,^[10] A Perfect Wedding (2004), Kirk Douglas Theatre, Los Angeles,^[11] and Morbidity and Mortality (2006), Magic Theatre, San Francisco.^[12]

Theater recognition[link]

Of Dhillon's performance as Dr. Anil Petal in the stage play Morbidity and Mortality, reviewer Dennis Harvey of Variety wrote "Dhillon is terrific as a modest misanthrope cured by ultra-awkward amour"'^[12] while theater critic Robert Hurwitt of San Francisco Chronicle wrote his performance was "engagingly candid".^[13]

Awards and nominations[link]

Dhillon was nominated to the long-list of the 2010 National Television Awards in the category for "Best Drama Performance".^[3]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Hari Dhillon at the Internet Movie Database

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Gail Porter (born 23 March 1971 in Edinburgh) is a Scottish television presenter.

Life and career[link]

Porter attended Portobello High School. She studied a BTEC HND in Media Production at West Herts College.^[2] After making an unsuccessful bid to join the presentation team of the BBC children's show Blue Peter,^[3] Porter has tended to present family-friendly television programmes, or ones aimed directly at children. This includes The Movie Chart Show, Top of the Pops, and Live & Kicking, work for CITV, and other programmes such as The Big Breakfast and Gail Porter's Big 90s for VH1.

In the late 1990s she began to pose for photos in men's magazines such as FHM. Probably the best-known product of her many photo sessions is one particular still in which she is seen completely nude from behind. The image became well known due to the events of one night in 1999, when FHM, along with guerrilla marketing company Cunning Communications and projectionist/artist Malcolm Litson and Jason Bridges, beamed an enormous projection of her onto the exterior of the Houses of Parliament, with an accompanying message urging people to vote for Porter in the FHM Top 100 Sexiest Women Poll.^[4] In her autobiography, Porter claims that she did not know about the stunt until it was reported in the news the following day.^[5][6]

In 2001, Porter took part in the Reality TV show Celebrity Blind Man's Bluff ^[7] and in 2003, she was a contestant on Channel 4's The Games, although injury truncated her participation.

Recently^[when?] she presented three series of Dead Famous and episodes of The Gadget Show, temporarily replacing Suzi Perry.

Since 2008, Porter has been a regular panellist on Channel 5's The Wright Stuff.

In early 2009, Porter's mother died of lung cancer, aged 60.^[8]

In 2010 she was a celebrity guest team captain on What Do Kids Know? along with Rufus Hound, Joe Swash and Sara Cox on Watch. In August 2010, Gail launched the Two Way Street campaign on behalf of national solicitors Russell Jones & Walker: an initiative to develop the relationship between HGV drivers and cyclists on the road, keeping them safer. In October 2010, Porter hosted a documentary on Current TV titled Gail Porter on Prostitution^[9] which investigated prostitution laws.

Alopecia[link]

In 2005 Porter started suffering from alopecia areata, causing her to lose much of her hair.^[10] She refused to wear a hat or wig, deciding instead to maintain a public profile and raise awareness of the condition. She became Ambassador for the Little Princess Trust, a charity which provides wigs to children with hairloss.^[11][12] On an appearance on the Richard & Judy show on 15 February 2006 she showed that her hair, eyebrows and eyelashes were beginning to grow back.^[13] On 12 April 2006 Porter said "It is possible that I'm going to get my hair back."^[14] As of May 2010, hair had grown back on over 75% of her scalp, and she was beginning to colour and style her hair.^[15] By the end of the year, her hair had started falling out again.^[16]

Porter's experience with alopecia areata was the subject of the BBC ONE Life series documentary Gail Porter Laid Bare on 31 May 2006.^[17]

Her autobiography, Laid Bare: My Story Of Love, Fame And Survival, was published in September 2007.

Comedy[link]

Porter tried stand-up comedy^[18] and appeared at the Comedy Store on 23 November 2009, as part of the Laughing Point event in aid of the youth homelessness charity Centrepoint.^[19]

Personal life[link]

Porter married Toploader guitarist Dan Hipgrave in August 2001^[1] and gave birth to their daughter Honey on 3 September 2002.^{[citation needed]} She revealed in February 2005 they had separated eight months earlier.^[1]

She dated guitarist Jonny Davies from late 2009.^[20]

Porter has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder^[21] and says she suffers from insomnia.

On the 8th of September 2011 Porter gave a Radio interview to Radio 5 live's Phil Williams (a first for Porter) in which she stated that she had been detained (under the Mental Health Act of 2007^[22]) for 17 days of treatment against her will.^[21] Porter also stated that one of the signatures on the documents to have her sectioned was that of her (at the time) boyfriend after sending a text to him stating that she was feeling suicidal, even though she says she had no intention of acting on it she admits to "being very frail, so who knows". She claims to have felt no benefit to the stay at all. Porter has praise for the staff at the facility but does say that the resources and facilities are under funded and was only seen by 3 Doctors for a very short amount of time in the 17 days.^[21]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Gail Porter at the Internet Movie Database