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Gennaro "Gino" D'Acampo (born 17 July 1976) is an Italian chef, television personality and winner of ITV's 2009 series of I'm a Celebrity… Get Me out of Here. D'Acampo lives in the United Kingdom.

Career[link]

Early life[link]

Born in Napoli, Gino D'Acampo grew up with his parents and his sister, Marcella. He inherited his love of cooking from his grandfather—who was head chef for Costa Cruises—and, at the age of thirteen, entered Luigi de Medici Catering College. He went on to gain further culinary experience working in many top restaurants in Europe including Perignon in Nice and Sylvester Stallone’s Mambo King in Marbella.

In 1995, aged 20, he moved to the United Kingdom to work in The Orchard Restaurant in Hampstead, London, and the Cambio Restaurant in Guildford, Surrey. Around this time, he served a two year prison sentence for burglary of Paul Young's house. He stole Mr Young’s £4,000 guitar collection, alongside a prized platinum disc ^[1]

Business[link]

D'Acampo co-owns Bontà Italia Ltd., a supplier of Italian ingredients and has a career in the development of ready meals, beginning with the Tesco Finest range. This experience led to his first engagement as a guest on Great Food Live on UKTV Food and began his television career.^{[citation needed]}

Television career[link]

He shot a TV series for Great Food Live called Essential Ingredients which focused particularly on Italian ingredients. He became a regular guest on the BBC's Saturday Kitchen before the show moved to ITV under the name Saturday Cooks!, since then he has also appeared frequently on Daily Cooks!. He regularly features on Ready Steady Cook for BBC 2 and has appeared in his native Italy on La Prova Del Cuoco. In 2005, he starred in Chef v Britain with Claire Sweeney and also travelled around Mexico shooting his own show, An Italian in Mexico for UKTV Food. A second series began airing in 2007.

D'Acampo appears regularly on This Morning and Too Many Cooks as well as The Terry and Gaby Show for Five.

He participated in and won the 2009 series of I'm a Celebrity… Get Me out of Here!. After the show, he and fellow contestant Stuart Manning were charged by the Australian police with animal cruelty, for killing and cooking a rat on the show. However, the charges were later dropped after ITV accepted responsibility for the incident.^[2]

On the 15th December 2009 he appeared on The Paul O'Grady Show as a guest.

D'Acampo has also been a guest on Celebrity Juice four times.

D'Acampo also appeared on Celebrity Grime Fighters.

On 27th January 2011 D'Acampo cooked gammon and Italian mushy peas completely naked on This Morning following the show's success at the National Television Awards. D'Acampo had previously stated that he would cooked naked if the show won an NTA.

D'Acampo is currently filming a new TV programme for ITV network called 'There's No Taste Like Home'. D'Acampo will be travelling to 30 different parts of the UK for the series. In each show he’ll meet three home cooks, each boasting a treasured recipe that has been passed down through their family for generations - http://www.itv.com/beontv/theresnotastelikehome/default.html

From 8 August to 2 September 2011 D'Acampo, along with Melanie Sykes, hosts a daytime cooking and chat programme on ITV, Let's Do Lunch With Gino and Mel.

Radio[link]

D'Acampo currently hosts a Sunday afternoon cookery/discussion show on LBC 97.3. He has recently done an interview with Stoke-on-Trent's local radio 6 Towns Radio.^[3]

Books[link]

He is the author of five books published by Kyle Cathie: Fantastico! (2007), Buonissimo! (2008), The Italian Diet (2010), " Gino's Pasta " (2011) and " Italian Home Baking " (2011) .

Apps[link]

D'Acampo launched his first iPhone app "Gino D'Acampo - Eating Italian" in 2010.^[4]

Other work[link]

He still stays true to simple Italian cuisine and often returns to the Luigi de Medici College to give talks to students and do live demonstrations. He is a member of the Federazione Italiana Cuochi and the Associazione Professionale Cuochi Italiani. He was involved in the Gala Dinner for Pavarotti in 2002 and a private party for the Italian Ambassador.

Personal life[link]

He lives with his wife Jessica, whom he married in 2002; the couple have two sons.^[5] He is a fan of the rugby union team Leicester Tigers.^[6]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Gino D'Acampo: Celebrity Chefs: Good Food Channel
• Biography at Jeremy Hicks Associates
• Gino's Radio Show

Fearne Cotton
Born	(1981-09-03) 3 September 1981 (age 30)[1] Northwood, Greater London, England
Nationality	British
Education	Haydon School
Occupation	Radio and television presenter voice-over artist
Years active	1998–present
Employer	BBC Radio 1
Predecessor	Jo Whiley
Successor	Incumbent
Parents	Lin and Mick Cotton
Relatives	Bill Cotton (first cousin, twice removed, deceased)
Website
OfficialFearneCottonWebsite BBC Radio 1 minisite

Fearne Cotton (born 3 September 1981) is an English television and radio presenter who is known for presenting a number of popular TV programmes such as Top of the Pops and the Red Nose Day telethon. In 2007, she became the first regular female presenter of BBC Radio 1's Chart Show. She currently presents Radio 1's weekday mid-morning programme, having replaced long-time host Jo Whiley, and is a team captain on the comedy panel show Celebrity Juice.

Biography[link]

Cotton was born in Northwood, London to Lyn and Mick Cotton; she has a younger brother, Jamie. Her father was a signwriter for events such as Live Aid and her mother worked in alternative therapy.^[2] She grew up in Eastcote, Hillingdon and was educated at Haydon School. She is a pescatarian and an animal lover.^[3] She runs 5 km at least three times a week,^[4] and has participated in several half marathons for charity.^[5] Former BBC executive Bill Cotton (1928–2008) was her paternal grandfather's cousin.^[6] He was the son of the well-known entertainer and band leader Billy Cotton.

She began her presenting career in 1998, at the age of 17, with early morning GMTV children's programme The Disney Club, after she was discovered in a nationwide talent search during the show.

Cotton studied art at A level,^[7] a skill she made much use of whilst presenting the series Draw Your Own Toons. She also enjoys body art and claimed on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross that she has eleven tattoos over her body, the most notable of which is a fern leaf, covering her right hip up to her rib cage.^[8]. She also plays the trumpet.

Cotton has been romantically linked to several celebrities including Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins,^[9] Fame Academy's Peter Brame,^[9] and Channel 4 presenter Steve Jones.^[10] Her long-term, on-again-off-again boyfriend^[11] is skateboarder Jesse Jenkins; he proposed on her 29th birthday.^[12] The engagement was called off and the couple split 9 months later.^[13] Cotton is currently dating Jesse Wood, son of The Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood.^[14]

She is good friends with fellow TV presenter Holly Willoughby, with whom she has co-presented several shows.^[15] Cotton and Sarah Cawood acted as two of the bridesmaids at Willoughby's wedding to Dan Baldwin on 4 August 2007.^[16]

Presenting career[link]

UK children's TV[link]

After being discovered by The Disney Club in 1996, Cotton continued with the show and with its replacement Diggit. She left in 2000, to concentrate on her other projects with CITV, including Draw Your Own Toons and Mouse, aimed at encouraging children to use computers.

Cotton joined CBBC in 2001 to present children's science programme Eureka TV. In 2002 she presented Finger Tips, an arts and crafts programme for children, with co-presenter Stephen Mulhern. She later co-presented on CBBC's Sunday morning show, Smile and on The Saturday Show. She has also made appearances in CBBC show 'Only in America' alongside her friend Reggie Yates.

UK mainstream TV and radio[link]

In 2003 Cotton moved over to mainstream broadcasting. She and Simon Grant (her co-presenter from The Saturday Show) presented the spin-off show Top of the Pops: Saturday (later renamed Top of the Pops: Reloaded) that year. In 2004, she moved up to work alongside Reggie Yates on the main programme, Top Of The Pops (the then flagship chartshow for BBC-TV) becoming one of the last regular presenters for that programme, which ended in July 2006. Due to other commitments, she was unable to present the final show itself, appearing instead in a short film shown at the head of that show, in which she made her personal farewells. Cotton and Yates presented the one-off Christmas and New Year specials in both 2008 and 2009, as well as the Comic Relief special in 2009.

Cotton has hosted many reality TV programmes. In 2006 Cotton presented the second series of Love Island with Patrick Kielty on ITV, taking over from Kelly Brook. She also presented the Friday night live eviction programme that year for the Five reality TV series Make Me A Supermodel. In 2007, she took over from Ben Shephard as the host for the X Factor spin-off programme, The Xtra Factor on ITV2. She presented it for one series before resigning to work in America.^[17] Starting on 5 September 2007, Cotton hosted a dating programme, alongside Holly Willoughby, called Holly & Fearne Go Dating. In this programme they find dates for lonely singles.

Cotton has also presented many telethons. In July 2005 she presented Live 8 in Hyde Park. During the event, the British pop-star Robbie Williams flirted with her in front of the cameras, causing much speculation in the media at the time, but which was later repudiated by the pair.^[9] She has also hosted the BBC's annual telethon, Children in Need, alongside Terry Wogan and Natasha Kaplinsky, since 2005. On that first appearance in 2005, she was spectacularly sawn in half by Scott Penrose. In 2006, she designed the official BBC Children in Need t-shirt - featuring a henna style design of the charity's mascot, Pudsey Bear.^[18] In 2008, she hosted a Strictly Come Dancing special as part of Children in Need 2008.

She has hosted parts of the Red Nose Day telethon for Comic Relief (2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011) presenting several strands alongside Jonathan Ross and Lenny Henry. In 2009, she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, alongside Ben Shephard, Gary Barlow, Alesha Dixon, Ronan Keating, Denise Van Outen and Chris Moyles, and Girls Aloud members Cheryl Cole and Kimberley Walsh. Cotton and others collapsed from altitude sickness during the five-day climb. She was in the first group (with Van Outen, Shephard and Cole) to reach the summit and helped raise £3.3m.^[19] Cotton filmed a video piece for Comic Relief about Malaria. She visited a children's Hospital in Uganda where she witnessed a young child in pain through Malaria. Cotton had to walk out the room and collapsed as she did so but was able to continue shortly after. The child died later. Cotton also recorded her voice for the BT Speaking Clock to raise funds for Comic Relief.^[20] In 2011, she appeared in an all-in-one swimsuit after viewers of Alan Carr's Late Hour of Red Nose Day donated over £1M to the charity via more than 100,000 text messages in less than an hour, joking that she felt she looked like a 13-year-old boy.

In September 2005 she joined BBC Radio 1, to present the Friday early morning slot with Reggie Yates,^[21] whom she had previously worked with on CBBC, Only in America and Top Of The Pops. Since 14 October 2007, Cotton and Yates presented BBC Radio 1's Chart Show, taking over from JK & Joel, who had left the station.^[22] Cotton then became the first ever permanent female presenter of a BBC radio chart show. (Jo Whiley had preceded her as the first female presenter of The Official UK Top 40, as it was then called, but presented it only once, on November 24, 2002.)

Cotton has presented parts of the BBC's coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest. On 20 May 2006 she read the United Kingdom's votes at the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, held in Athens, Greece. On 17 March 2007 she, along with Terry Wogan, hosted Making Your Mind Up 2007,^[23] the show to decide which song the UK sent to the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 in Helsinki, Finland. On the night, after the final "sing-off" between the two remaining acts, Wogan and Cotton simultaneously announced different winners. Since Wogan was the more experienced presenter, it was assumed that he was right. In fact, Wogan had accidentally announced the wrong artist, Cyndi, as the winner. Cotton had to persist in repeating the correct name until the confusion was resolved.^[24] The group Scooch was quickly proclaimed as the correct winner but came only second from bottom in the main competition, just avoiding Nil Points.^[25] Cotton also presented the United Kingdom's votes at the show itself, held in Helsinki, Finland on 12 May 2007.

She has made many other TV appearances in the UK.

She also presented the Isle of Wight Festival 2009 on ITV2 alongside Rufus Hound. On 16 July, it was announced that Cotton would become the new presenter of BBC Radio 1's weekday mid-morning show, taking over from Jo Whiley. Her new programme began on 21 September 2009.^[26][27][28]

It was reported in the press^[29] on July 21, 2009, that whilst presenting the Radio 1 Chart Show two days previously Cotton had been the target of threatening text messages. These messages had been sent via the station's listener SMS service and seem to relate to Cotton taking over Jo Whiley's show. Cotton was driven home after the show by police escort and a 21 year old male was arrested and charged with harassment.

Cotton presented Sport Relief 2010 alongside Patrick Kielty and others.

Cotton will host Sky1's latest talent search Must Be The Music.^[30]

US mainstream TV[link]

In 2008, Cotton moved to the USA to host The Guinness Book of Records - Live.^[31] Cotton later co-hosted the NBC reality show Last Comic Standing. She resigned her presenting role on The X Factor spin-off The Xtra Factor to concentrate on her US career, and was replaced in that role by her friend Holly Willoughby. Cotton was also seen making a special appearance on the show of Katie Price and Peter Andre, where she was seen in a gift lounge before the Oscars.^[32]

TV appearances[link]

Bibliography[link]

Cotton and Holly Willoughby wrote an advice book entitled The Best Friends' Guide to Life which was published in October 2010.^[33]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Fearne Cotton Radio 1
• Fearne Cotton at the Internet Movie Database
• Fearne Cotton on Myspace
• Fearne Cotton on Twitter
• Pictures of Fearne

Holly Willoughby
Born	Holly Marie Willoughby (1981-03-10) March 10, 1981 (age 31) Brighton, East Sussex, England, United Kingdom
Residence	Clapham, London
Nationality	British
Ethnicity	English
Occupation	TV Presenter, Model
Years active	2000–present
Employer	ITV BBC
Television	Presenting: This Morning (2009–present) Celebrity Juice (2008–present) The Voice UK (2012–present)
Spouse	Dan Baldwin (m. 2007) «start: (2007-08-04)»"Marriage: Dan Baldwin to Holly Willoughby" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Holly_Willoughby)
Children	Harry James Baldwin (born 11 May 2009) Belle Baldwin (born 14 April 2011)
Website
OffficialHollyWilloughby.com

Holly Marie Willoughby (born February 10, 1981)^[1][2], 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 and was chosen to present Dancing on Ice, a UK celebrity talent show, shown 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.^[3] In July 2009, she was selected as a replacement for Fern Britton on This Morning.^[4] She began presenting on This Morning on 14 September 2009, alongside Phillip Schofield. On 23 November 2011, it was announced that Willoughby would be hosting the singing show The Voice UK on the BBC along with Reggie Yates.^[5]

Early life[link]

The younger of two daughters of the manager of a double-glazing company and an air stewardess,^[6] 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[7] 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[link]

Children's TV[link]

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.^[9] 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.^[10] 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.^[8] 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 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

Mainstream TV[link]

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.^[11] 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.^[12]

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 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.

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^[13] in a competition sponsored by Wonderbra.

Filmography[link]

Guest appearances[link]

• Panel Member Never Mind the Buzzcocks (31 October 2005)
• 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)
• Contestant Chris Moyles' Quiz Night (29 November 2010)
• Guest presenter Britain Unzipped (24 April 2012)

Bibliography[link]

Willoughby and Fearne Cotton have written an advice book entitled The Best Friends' Guide to Life published in October 2010

• The Best Friends' Guide to Life. Vermilion. 14 October 2010. ISBN 978-0-09-193540-5. 

Awards[link]

In 2006, Willoughby won a BAFTA in recognition of her abilities as a children’s TV presenter.^[14]

She has also appeared in FHM's 100 Sexiest Women poll every year since 2005, ranking at #51 in 2010, #74 in 2009 and #100 in 2008.^[15]

On March 30th, 2012, on the National Cleavage Day, Holly Willoughby was awarded the title “Best Celebrity Cleavage”,^[16][17] based on a poll of 1000 women who chose her as the first celebrity to get into the Wonderbra Cleavage Hall of Fame.^[18]

Personal life[link]

Holly Willoughby is dyslexic.^[19] Her sister, Kelly, also works in the television industry.^[20]

On 4 August 2007 she married Dan Baldwin, a producer on Ministry of Mayhem. Her son, Harry James Baldwin, was born in May 2009.^[21] Her daughter, Belle Baldwin, was born in April 2011.^[22]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Holly Willoughby on Twitter
• Holly Willoughby on Facebook
• Holly Willoughby at The X Factor
• Holly Willoughby at This Morning
• ITV Celebrity Playlist for Holly Willoughby