Amanda Holden Bio

Amanda Holden Biography 

Having made bid for stardom for many years and using many methods from a reality show to marriage and eventually as a transatlantic export, it became evident that Amanda Holden would stop at nothing to gain fame.

Born in the beautiful village of Bishop’s Waltham, in Hampshire, England, Holden would later live her early years in the nearby village of Waltham Chase, Hampshire. Amanda was born on February 17th 1971, the daughter of Judith Harrison and step father Leslie Collister and soon developed an interest in acting and the stage. Joining the Bishop’s Waltham Little Theater at the age of nine.

By 16 Holden’s family had moved 30 miles down the road to Bournemouth, Dorset where her parents ran a small guest house. Still nurturing an ambition to be on the stage Amanda studied drama and English literature to A level standard at Bournemouth University which led to her moving to London to continue her career at the independent drama school Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts in the Wood Green area of North London at the age of 18 years.

With not so much as acting position, Amanda made her first appearance on British TV when she became a contestant in 1990, on the game show, Blind Date, hosted by The Beatle’s friend, Cilla Black.

Holden’s career began to make headway after her appearance on Blind Date when she landed a role in the West End production of Thoroughly Modern Millie. Holden's other acting credits include three series of the hit comedy Kiss Me Kate alongside Caroline Quentin, three series of the ITV comedy series The Grimleys, Celeb with Harry Enfield, the critically acclaimed BBC series Hearts and Bones alongside Damian Lewis, the Jonathan Creek episode "The Problem at Gallowes Gate" and a Boxing Day special Marple alongside Geraldine McEwan and John Hannah. She also co-starred with Bill Nighy and Sir Tom Courtenay in Ready When You Are, Mr McGill, Jack Rosenthal's classic comedy drama. She has also appeared on various British comedy and drama series such as Smack the Pony, Eastenders, Hearts and Bones, Cutting It.

Holden attracted a huge amount of unwanted attention when in December 2002 Holden’s seven year marriage to the comedian Les Dennis ended when she embarked on a brief affair with another sitcom comedian, Neil Morrissey and divorced in 2003.

Holden’s next relationship was with record producer, Chris Hughes, with whom she had a son on January 20th 2006 and went on to marry in December of that year.

Holden, always one to maintain a fit and athletic figure ran the London Marathon in 4 hours and 13 minutes on 13 April 2008, in the name of the Born Free Foundation, having collected public and celebrity sponsors online.

In 2008 Holden was selected as a judge on the UK reality TV show Britain’s Got Talent, where she was assigned to judge amateur acts alongside Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan.

Following Holden’s success on UK TV, US television bosses were so impressed with her that they offered her a job. The actress was to present the CBS daytime news talk programme The Early Show in 2009 and reports stated that executives were blown away by Amanda's cut-glass British accent and warm personality.’




     del.icio.us     Stumble It