Dermot O'Leary

Sean Dermot Fintan O'Leary Jr. was born on 24 May 1973 in Colchester, Essex, the son of Irish parents Maria and Seán and he holds both British and Irish citizenship. He attended primary school in nearby Marks Tey and later joined St Benedict's Catholic College in Colchester. His relaxed attitude at school caused him to fail all but two of his GCSEs. Following that, O'Leary re-took his school leaving qualifications, allowing him to later start his A Level courses at Colchester Sixth Form College. He eventually studied for a degree in Media Studies with Politics at Middlesex University. Growing up, he was a member of The Boys' Brigade Christian youth organisation. When he was in his late teens, he played American football for the Colchester Gladiators and the Ipswich Cardinals, where he wore the number 32.

O'Leary started as a disc jockey at BBC Essex, based in Southend-on-Sea, before becoming a runner on the TV show Light Lunch with Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins and then a presenter at Channel 4 as part of the original presenting line-up of the channel's T4 strand, before moving on to present Big Brother's Little Brother (the companion show to Big Brother) on E4 from 2001 onwards. Also in 2001, O'Leary appeared on Lily Savage's Blankety Blank.

O'Leary joined London's indie rock station XFM in 2001, firstly presenting weekday mid-mornings from 10 am to 1 pm, before moving to a Saturday evening show in mid-2002, where he remained until late 2003.

O'Leary is one of nine presidents of the Young People's Trust for the Environment and is a patron of the international children's film festival CineMagic, a registered charity for young people based in Belfast. He has campaigned on behalf of Make Poverty History, and visited Sierra Leone with CAFOD accompanied by his father. He is also a patron of the male cancer awareness campaign Everyman. In 2003, he played in a charity match for the Colchester Gladiators as a punt returner, helping to raise £2,500 for the Barnardo's children's fund.

O'Leary joined BBC Radio 2 in September 2004, presenting a Saturday afternoon show titled Dermot's Saturday Club, which ran from 2 pm to 4 pm. Following a number of changes to the length and timing of O'Leary's programme, due in part to the arrival of Chris Evans to Radio 2 and his role as presenter of The X Factor, his show was broadcast between 3 pm and 6 pm from April 2009 until its end on 21 January 2017. It focused on new music and had featured live sessions from the likes of Oasis, Supergrass, the Raconteurs, Massive Attack, Kasabian, the Guillemots, Beck, Lily Allen, Foo Fighters, Bloc Party, and Kate Nash. O'Leary also hosted Radio 2's coverage of the BRIT Awards and South by Southwest. He won Sony Gold Awards for Music Programme of the Year in 2008, 2010, and 2013.

O'Leary was a presenter for Comic Relief in 2005, 2011 and 2013. He also presented Sport Relief in 2012. In August 2006, O'Leary signed a deal to present the game show 1 vs. 100, which aired on Saturday nights on BBC One in combination with The National Lottery Draws.

In 2005, O'Leary ran the London Marathon for the third time, completing it for his first time under four hours.

On 29 March 2007, it was announced that O'Leary would replace Kate Thornton as the new host of ITV's The X Factor for at least two series. On 27 March 2015, O'Leary confirmed that he had quit The X Factor after eight years to pursue other projects. Via his Twitter account, he said:

On 27 November 2007, it was announced that Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack was to be O'Leary's last series of Big Brother, and that he would not return in summer 2008. After seven years, he made his final Big Brother appearance on 28 January 2008.

In March 2007, O'Leary signed a year-long contract with Channel 4 to appear on Hollyoaks. However, this was shortened after a series of disputes on set. Jim Rowe, a series writer at the time, said, "He couldn't follow even the simplest commands. It goes to show how vastly different presenting is to acting". O'Leary hasn't acted since. In 2009, O'Leary presented an episode of The Paul O'Grady Show, standing in for Paul O'Grady.

In 2007, O'Leary was an usher at the wedding of Holly Willoughby. He is a practising Roman Catholic. In an interview with Peter Stanford of the Daily Telegraph in February 2008, he "cheerfully" admitted using contraception while living with his future wife: "I do get it in the neck from some Catholics who say I am a buffet Catholic, picking and choosing the bits I like or don't like."

In May 2009, O'Leary became the presenter of Matt Lucas and David Walliams's show Rock Profile on BBC.

In March 2009, O'Leary introduced Michael Jackson to an audience of fans at The O2 in what turned out to be Jackson's final public appearance before his death.

From 2010 to 2019, O'Leary presented the National Television Awards for ITV. In 2010, 2012, 2014 2016 and 2020, O'Leary hosted Soccer Aid on ITV, a celebrity football match in aid of the charity Unicef. In 2011, O'Leary hosted the Saturday night entertainment show The Marriage Ref on ITV. In September 2013, O'Leary hosted BRITs Icon: Elton John, a one-off music celebration for ITV.

In March 2010, O'Leary hosted a spin-off edition of the BBC One show Question Time aimed at first time voters, which aired on BBC Three. He also presented Dermot Meets..., a series which saw him interview the likes of David Cameron, Gordon Brown, and Nick Clegg.

O'Leary was replaced by Olly Murs and Caroline Flack, who previously co-hosted The Xtra Factor, the behind-the-scenes companion programme, together in 2011 and 2012.

O'Leary married his long-term girlfriend, Dee Koppang, in Chiddingstone in September 2012. They have one son, who was born in June 2020.

In 2013, O'Leary presented the ITV campaign From the Heart, which encouraged viewers to consider organ donation. In January 2014, O'Leary filled in for Phillip Schofield for a week when he guest presented This Morning opposite Holly Willoughby.

O'Leary co-owned the Fishy Fishy restaurants in Brighton and Poole. The Poole restaurant closed in 2013, and the Brighton restaurant closed in 2016.

In March 2014, O'Leary made a return to Channel 4, where he presented the Live From Space season for three consecutive nights.

On 7 March 2014, along with Jeremy Kyle, Bill Bailey, John Prescott, Richard Osman, Rizzle Kicks, Louis Smith, Levi Roots, and Ricky Wilson, O'Leary "went commando" (wearing no underwear) for charity to raise awareness of testicular cancer. The promo was released on 24 February 2014.

In November 2015, O'Leary replaced Terry Wogan on Children in Need due to Wogan's cancer-related ill health, from which he died a couple months later.

In 2015, he was named one of GQ's 50 Best Dressed Men in Britain.

On 29 March 2016, O'Leary returned to The X Factor as a presenter, replacing Murs and Flack, for the show's 13th series. In a statement, he said:

In 2016, O'Leary presented the BBC One Saturday night game show The Getaway Car. The series was filmed in November 2015 and began airing in January 2016. He has also guest-presented two episodes of The One Show with Alex Jones.

In 2017, O'Leary co-presented the 37th BRIT Awards with Emma Willis. In March 2017, O'Leary guest-presented nine episodes of The Nightly Show on ITV.

Since March 2017, O'Leary has presented the Saturday morning breakfast show on BBC Radio 2 between 8 am and 10 am, taking over the slot from Brian Matthew and Sounds of the 60s, which moved to an earlier time of 6am with Tony Blackburn as presenter.

He has voiced television advertisements for Amazon Prime. In 2017, he released a children's book called Toto the Ninja Cat and the Great Snake Escape.

Dermot O’Leary on Terry Wogan, X Factor and his Irish work-ethic

Dermot O’Leary reveals how walking away from The X Factor made him one of the highest-paid stars on TV – and finally gained Simon Cowell’s respect