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| Birth Name(s) : Denise Outen |
Date of Birth: May 27, 1974 |
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| Profession:
Actor/Public Figure |
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Full Denise Van Outen Biography
| British-born Denise Outen added the Van to her name because she thought it made her sound more interesting. She has gained popularity as host of the UK morning show "The Big Breakfast" (1995-99/2000-01). |
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Additional Denise Van Outen Biography
Denise van Outen (born May 27, 1974, Basildon, Essex, England, UK) is a British television host and stage actress. Her most notable roles to date were as a presenter on The Big Breakfast, and as Roxie Hart in Chicago on both the West End and on Broadway.
Born as Denise Outen in Basildon, Essex, her father is a security guard and her mother a child carer. Denise is the youngest of three siblings; her sister is a PA and her brother is a hairdresser.
At the age of seven (7) she began modelling for knitting patterns, and showed an early flair for performing. This resulted in her attending the Sylvia Young Theatre School. As a student, she appeared in the chorus of Les Misérables with fellow Sylvia Young student Melanie Blatt, and then as Eponine - 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.
As a teenager she had brief roles on a number of television dramas including Kappatoo, when her stage name was Denise Douglas. She also sang in a "girl group", by which time she had become Denise van Outen, with the van added reputedly to give her name an interesting twist and to acknowledge her Dutch roots. She also did backing vocals with Melanie Blatt for the band Dreadzone.
Success was not forthcoming, and she turned to being a glamour model (which included one topless shoot for a lads mag). Van Outen has retained her distinct looks, being voted both Rear of the Year in 1999, and top of a poll to find the most desired "bikini body" in a 2007 poll of readers of Gracia magazine.
Van Outen joined The Big Breakfast on Channel4 as a weather and travel reporter in 1996, and landed the main co-presenting role in 1997. It proved to be her big breakthrough, with her cheeky "Essex Girl" personality and sexy clothing playing off well against the quick wit of Johnny Vaughan, and together they recovered audience figures to record levels.
She took a break from presenting the show towards the end of 1998 but returned in 2000 for a further year-long stint in an attempt to boost the ratings, which had tailed off following her departure. When the show closed down, Van Outen gave Vaughan a present of a set of AMG wheels for his Mercedes Benz SLK - commented on as "very Essex Girl" by Jeremy Clarkson when the pair appeared on the BBC's Top Gear program.
Van Outen then returned to television. The revival of her on screen relationship with Vaughan failed in 2004 in the BBC's Saturday night family revival show "Passport to Paradise," but she returned again in mid-2005 to co-presented ITV1's This Morning with Richard Bacon.
Van Outen had been set to present How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? in 2006 for the BBC, a programme searching for a girl to play the role of Maria in The Sound of Music, but pulled out in favour of seeking fame in America and was replaced by Irish comedian Graham Norton.. She subsequently presented NBC's Grease: You're the One that I Want!, a spin-off version of Maria.
In 2007, she joined the panel for BBC One's follow up to How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, Any Dream Will Do! which was casting Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. After viewers on 9 June 2007 voted Lee Mead as the winner of Any Dream Will Do! - to play the role of Joseph in a revival at London's Adelphi Theatre of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat van Outen said: "From the very beginning right through to the very end, Lee has been the most consistent out of all the contestants. He has the ability to make even really popular songs his own and he has his own unique style of performing. The next time he lands a role as a leading man, can he put me forward to be the leading lady?"
In July 2007, she appeared in a commercial advertising the rebranding of Morrisons supermarket, with a backing track from revived boy band Take That.
During her first stint on the Big Breakfast show, she appeared as "Dorothy" in a more adult version of The Wizard of Oz and then as "Jill" in a racy TV version of the children's pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk. However, she wanted to further develop her acting career, so 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 Rockstar, the BBC's Murder in Mind short series of crime dramas, and on Babes in the Wood with Karl Howman and Samantha Janus.
Van Outen can currently be seen in the 2007 London revival of RENT in the role of "Maureen". In 2008, she will appear in the major motion picture Goal! 3 and a comedy-drama called Empress's new clothes for BBC Northern Ireland.
From 2003 she dated lap dance club owner Richard Traviss, but split up with him in May 2005 after three years due to his adultery, moving out of the Marylebone home they shared and back into her own garden flat in Hampstead, 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, he got in touch and they shared a short romance in 2007. |
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Denise Van Outen Quote(s)
| Like a typical Gemini I'm changeable, I can be two different types of people. I can be very outgoing, but sometimes very shy. |
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