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Life BEFORE FAME

WOMAN - UK

|

August 07, 2023

From talent competitions to cameos, did you spot these unexpected appearances from the stars before they made it big?

- TIFFANY WALLIS

Life BEFORE FAME

AMANDA HOLDEN

Amanda is one of the country's most recognisable TV and radio personalities, featuring on both Heart FM and Britain's Got Talent. But the presenter, 52, who found fame in early 2000s show Wild At Heart, actually first appeared in the spotlight at 19 years old on a 1991 episode of Blind Date. She applied to be on the game show - where a member of the public chose who to date out of three potential matches - 'for a laugh'. But Amanda, a drama student at the time, wasn't chosen by the suitor and went home solo. It was 15 years before she returned to our screens. Now, 30 years on, she's got a career spanning BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and more! 

RYLAN

He burst on to the showbiz scene in 2012's The X Factor and is now a household name but Rylan, 34, had some small TV cameos before that. He appeared in four episodes of the 2010 BBC1 series John Bishop's Britain before being runner-up on Sky modelling show Signed by Katie Price in 2011. Next, he made his X Factor debut, coming fifth, after a teary breakdown when judge Nicole Scherzinger told him he had made it to the live shows. His singing career never took off, but he went on to win Celebrity Big Brother and has become a presenter on some of Britain's biggest prime time shows, including Strictly spin-off It Takes Two, and has his own BBC Radio 2 show.

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