Cat Deeley

Catherine Elizabeth Deeley (born 23 October 1976) is an English television presenter and actress. She began her career as a co-presenter for the ITV children's show SMTV Live (1998–2002), for which she won a BAFTA Children's Award, and its spin-off chart show CD:UK (1998–2005). In 2003, she presented the talent competition show Fame Academy on BBC One, and became the presenter of the ITV talent show Stars in Their Eyes, presenting until 2005. Since 2006, Deeley has been the host of So You Think You Can Dance in the United States, for which she has been nominated five times for a Primetime Emmy. Since 2003, Deeley has been a patron of London's Great Ormond Street Hospital for sick children. In December 2009, she was made a UNICEF UK ambassador. Early life Deeley was born on 23 October 1976 at Sandwell General Hospital in West Bromwich, West Midlands, and grew up in Birmingham in nearby Sutton Coldfield and Great Barr. She attended Grove Vale Junior School and Dartmouth High School in Great Barr, where she played the clarinet in the Sandwell Youth Concert Band. She then joined Bishop Vesey's Grammar School in Sutton Coldfield. Career At age 14, Deeley entered a regional edition of a BBC competition for The Clothes Show, in which she reached the national finals. She was signed as a model under her nickname of "Cat" to make it easier for clients to re-book her. She left full-time fashion modelling in 1997, following changes in her contract with Storm. She moved on to co-present the MTV chart show, Hitlist UK, with close friend Edith Bowman. From 1998 until 2002, she was co-host with Ant & Dec of the Saturday morning children's programme SM:TV Live and hosted its spin-off programmes CD:UK (1998–2005) and CD:UK Hotshots. On SM:TV Live she often acted as an apparently slightly unwilling assistant whenever the show featured a guest appearance by a magician, participating in a number of different illusions including being sawn in half in a version of the illusion called Clearly Impossible.