Amanda Holden - Biography

In a nutshell

She came to prominence in the press through her failed marriage to Family Fortunes presenter Les Dennis, but the performer has more than 'cut it' as a presenter, actor, talent-show judge and musical stage star in her own right.

Amanda was hungry for TV fame even before she graduated from drama school in 1994, appearing as an (unsuccessful) contestant on Blind Date three years earlier, revealing that her ideal man was Jack Nicholson. (Poor old Les had much to live up to).

She grafted away at a TV acting career getting a break in 1998 starring in BBC comedy Kiss Me Kate opposite Caroline Quentin. After that, there was seemingly no stopping Ms Holden who went on to take TV light entertainment by storm, becoming a household name in comedy series' such as Kiss me Kate and The Grimleys.

But her celluloid honeymoon came to a swift end in 2002. Her affair with the badly behaved man Neil Morrissey caused a terrific backlash against her in the press, especially since husband Les Dennis (at the time residing in the Celebrity Big Brother house) was still something of a national treasure. They went on to divorce a year later.

Nonetheless, she pulled herself up by the bootstraps, going on to star in primetime dramas such as Cutting It and Wild at Heart and also picking up a Lawrence Olivier Award nomination for her role in the stage musical Thoroughly Modern Millie.

Arguably her biggest career break to date though has been as a reality show panel judge alongside TV titans Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan in Britain's Got Talent. Despite the obvious set-backs (sitting next to Piers Morgan) she got to pout and wear lots of cleavage-friendly dresses while enjoying the obvious perks her new status awarded.

Amanda is currently the UK correspondent for US news programme The Early Show and has presented a number of one-off programmes for TV, most recently 'Amanda Holden's Fantasy Lives' for ITV1 where she got to be, amongst other roles, a Parisian showgirl for the day. Les who?

She's due to take her place on the esteemed panel of judges for the 2010 series of Britain's Got Talent.

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