Denise van Outen Biography

Denise van Outen (born Denise Kathleen Outen, 27 May 1974) is an English actress, singer and television presenter. Her most notable roles to date are as a presenter on The Big Breakfast, and as Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago both in the West End and on Broadway.

Early life

Born Denise Kathleen Outen in Basildon, Essex, she is the youngest of Ted and Kathleen Outen's three children and was brought up a Catholic. She has a brother Terry and sister Jackie.

At the age of seven, she began modelling for knitting patterns, and showed an early flair for performing. This resulted in her attending the Sylvia Young Theatre School. In 1986, at the age of 12, she played Éponine in Les Misérables alongside fellow Sylvia Young student Melanie Blatt (the role paid her school fees), the Anthony Newley directed production of Stop the World - I Want to Get Off, and A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Early career

As a teenager she had brief roles on a number of television dramas including Kappatoo and The Bill. She also sang with Cathy Warwick in "girl group" Those2Girls, by which time she had become Denise van Outen. She also did backing vocals with Melanie Blatt for the band Dreadzone.

Van Outen was voted Rear of the Year in 1999, and was top of a poll to find the most desired "bikini body" in a 2007 poll of readers of Grazia magazine.

Television

Television
Year	Title	Role
1995-96	Massive!	Presenter
1997-98, 2000"01	The Big Breakfast	Presenter
1999	Something for the Weekend	Presenter
2001	Prickly Heat	Presenter
2004	Passport to Paradise	Presenter
2005	This Morning	Guest Presenter
2006	The National Lottery: Christmas Special	Presenter
2007	Any Dream Will Do!	Judge
	Grease: You're the One that I Want!	Presenter
	The Friday Night Project	Guest Host
2008	Backstage at the Brits	Presenter
	Who Dares, Sings!	Co-presenter
	Hairspray: The School Musical	Presenter
	Who Wants to be a Millionaire?	Contestant
2009	Hotel Babylon	Guest Appearance
2010	The 5 O'Clock Show	Presenter
2010, 12	Lorraine	Guest Presenter
2010"	The Only Way Is Essex	Narrator
2011	Born to Shine	Head Judge
	The Marriage Ref	Panellist
2012	Big Fat Quiz of the 90s	Panellist
	Strictly Come Dancing	Contestant

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Jack and the Beanstalk	Jill	TV Movie
1999	Tube Tales	Alex	in segment "Horny"
2000	Love, Honour and Obey	Maureen
2007	Are You Ready for Love?	Rita
2012	Run for Your Wife	Michelle Smith

Acting career

During her first stint on the Big Breakfast show, she appeared as Jill in ITV1's version of the pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk alongside Julie Walters and Neil Morrissey. Wanting to further develop her acting career, she left The Big Breakfast at the end of 1998. In 1999, she appeared on several episodes of The Bill and The Young Person's Guide To Becoming A Rock Star, the BBC's Murder in Mind short series of crime dramas, and on 2 series of Babes in the Wood with Karl Howman and Samantha Janus.

Van Outen has also appeared in film, initially as Maureen in the crime comedy Love, Honour and Obey. In the anthology film Tube Tales, set on the London Underground, she played the lead character of Alex in the "Horny" segment, directed by Stephen Hopkins. Van Outen has played a small role in the romantic comedy Are You Ready For Love?

She first played Roxie Hart on the stage in the hit musical Chicago at the Adelphi Theatre in the West End in April 2001. Her run proved a hit with theatre-goers, selling out for the entire 20 weeks. Unknown in the United States, she reprised her role on Broadway in the spring of 2002, before returning to the show's London version in late April 2002. Late the same year, Van Outen appeared as one of many special guest stars in a performance of The Play What I Wrote once again in London's West End.

In 2003, she returned to the London stage at the Gielgud Theatre in Andrew Lloyd Webber's one-woman show Tell Me On A Sunday, which he reworked for her. She was a huge success and the show ran for nearly a year. She then joined the cast of the established ITV sentimental drama Where the Heart Is as one of the lead characters, playing single mother Kim Blakeney, continuing for two series.

Van Outen played Maureen in the 2007 London revival of Rent Remixed directed by William Baker until 22 December. She was forced to cancel some performances due to a throat infection.

In July 2009, van Outen played Mary in Hotel Babylon for the BBC. Her character was at the hotel for a science convention.

In August 2009, van Outen made her Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut in Blondes, a show by Jackie Clune.

Van Outen took over the role of Paulette Bunafonte from Jill Halfpenny in the West End production of Legally Blonde on 25 October 2010. She continued in the role for 6 months.

In 2012, Van Outen was cast in the film of the Ray Cooney farce Run For Your Wife alongside Danny Dyer, Sarah Harding and Neil Morrissey.

Radio

It was announced on 10 January 2008 that van Outen would be reunited with Vaughan and become the co-host of Capital Breakfast on Capital Radio, from 4 February 2008.

On 29 July 2008 she decided to quit the show halfway through her contract due to juggling her extensive TV commitments with the early mornings

However, in April 2011 Denise revealed that she left the show because relations between her and Vaughan had soured. She says Vaughan has not spoken to her since.

Strictly Come Dancing

For Strictly's tenth series in September 2012, van Outen was partnered by professional dancer James Jordan. Early favourites, they secured the top position of the leaderboard 7 times with Denise, including 4 consecutive top positions. Criticism of her place in the competition arose as some viewers could not accept her further progressing in the competition with her 'advantage' of stage and dance experience over other celebrities. However, Outen and Jordan did finish as runners-up with singer Kimberley Walsh and her partner Pasha Kovalev, behind the winner gymnast Louis Smith and professional partner Flavia Cacace.

Week #	Dance/Song	Judges' scores					Result
		Craig Revel Horwood	Darcey Bussell	Len Goodman	Bruno Tonioli	Total
1	Waltz / With You I'm Born Again	6	6	6	7	25	Safe
2	Jive / Tutti Frutti	8	8	8	8	32	Safe
3	Foxtrot / You've Got a Friend in Me	8	8	8	8	32	Safe
4	Cha Cha Cha / Super Freak	7	7	7	7	28	Safe
5	Vienesse Waltz / At Last	9	8	9	9	35	Safe
6	Paso Doble / Seven Nation Army	9	9	9	9	36	Safe
7	Charleston / Walk Like an Egyptian	9	10	10	10	39	Safe
8	American Smooth / Imagine	9	9	9	10	37	Safe
9	Salsa / Rhythm of the Night	8	8	8	8	32	Safe
10	Dance Fusion (Jive/Quickstep) / Reet Petite	8	9	9	9	35	Bottom two
11	Tango / Roxanne Rumba / The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face	9 9	10 9	10 10	10 10	39 38	Bottom two
12	Jive / Tutti Frutti Showdance / What a Feeling Charleston / Walk Like an Egyptian	9 10 10	10 10 10	10 10 10	10 10 10	39 40 40	Runner Up

Fashion ranges

Van Outen has designed two collections thus far for the website, Very, part of the Shop Direct Group. The first collection was a maternity range launched in March 2010 and the second an autumn/winter collection.

Charity work

Van Outen has lent her support to design limited edition T-shirts or vests for the 'Little Tee Campaign' for Breast Cancer Care which donates money for breast cancer research. She continues to support Breast Cancer Charities and Great Ormond Street Hospital.

In 2009 van Outen climbed Mt Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief. Joining her on the climb were Girls Aloud members Cheryl Cole and Kimberley Walsh, Fearne Cotton, Ben Shephard, Gary Barlow, Ronan Keating, Alesha Dixon and Chris Moyles.

In 2010, van Outen along with Fearne Cotton and Alexandra Burke did the Inca Trek in Peru for Breast Cancer Care.

Personal life

Van Outen's personal life has been subjected to the sharp glare of the British tabloid media. In 1996, Van Outen dated Dodgy guitarist Andy Miller. From 1998 to 2001, she dated Jamiroquai lead singer Jay Kay. They were engaged and reported to be on the verge of marriage, but split up in 2001; his album A Funk Odyssey is mostly about their break-up, with the song "Little L" expressing his fight against cocaine addiction during their break up.

From 2003, she dated 'Brown's' club owner Richard Traviss, but split up with him in May 2005, moving out of the Marylebone home they shared and back into her own garden flat in North London. After appearing on Channel 4's The Friday Night Project and describing her first real kiss with fellow Sylvia Young student James Lance, subsequently they dated for a few weeks in 2007. In November 2007, she began dating Any Dream Will Do winner, Lee Mead. She married Mead in April 2009 in the Seychelles. They have a daughter, Betsy, who was born on 1 May 2010.

Discography

All singles, unless otherwise stated:

• 1994: "Wanna Make You Go... Uuh!" (with Those 2 Girls) [UK #74]
• 1995: "All I Want" (with Those 2 Girls) [UK #36]
• 1998: "Especially for You" " shown as Denise & Johnny (a cover of the Kylie Minogue & Jason Donovan song of the same name) [UK #3]
• 1999: "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" " from the ABBAMania compilation album
• 2002: "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" (With Andy Williams) [UK #23]
• 2003: "Tell Me On A Sunday" (Original cast recording) [UK Album Charts #34]
• 2007: "Baby It's Cold" " duet with Russell Watson on his 2007 album Outside In