You are now presenting ITV’s “Dance, Dance, Dance” What’s it like to be taking the helm with big names like Alesha Dixon?
It’s amazing; it’s great working with Alesha! I think the thing with any show is – as soon as you arrive it becomes normal and natural. When I was first presenting with Alesha Dixon, I was super excited! She was as normal and down to Earth as I was expecting her to be. It very quickly felt like a fun job and the pressure just disappeared.

There’s quite a star studded line up, does that get distracting?
No, because all the contestants are so focused on doing their routines, my role is back stage and beside the stage so it very quickly became like a little family back there. All the contestants get on super well, we had a right laugh, and it was quite funny. Lots of banter, it became like hanging out with mates – but with the added pressure that they had to go on and perform dance routines in front of an audience of 600 people and millions of viewers, once the show goes out. Expectation was high and they had to go out there and nail their performance, which they did!

How did your career start? How did you get to where you are now?
I started in TV about 5 years ago, I used to work in advertising – working on Nike, I was the worst! I knew I wanted to work in music and comedy. I knew if I could work on T4 as a presenter, I could work with comedy writers and interview people. Any profile I got could open doors to fun, weird and interesting things instead of going into an office every day. I got really lucky, managed to get an agent and a gig on MTV. I then went from MTV to T4. Since T4 finished, I’ve been doing lots of varied and different things. My rule is if it’s something that’ll be fun to make or if I will learn something – I’ll work on it.

What has the highlight your career been so far?
It’s difficult to say; when you’re a freelancer you do lots of varied stuff. It gets easy to treat mad situations as “just work” and forget how lucky you are. I catch myself sometimes thinking “Ugh, I’ve got to go away again” but then I know I’m so lucky to get those opportunities to travel and do obscure, random stuff. One of the things I enjoyed the most was when I worked on “The Classic Car Show”.  I did race driver training then drove a 1974 MG Midget with a supped up, modern day engine around Crystal Palace Race track, that was just unbelievable. To get the chance to do that was just mad. I’m also working on “The Art Show” which is out this year, for that I got to travel all over the world. I also do festival coverage with Red Bull. I couldn’t pick an individual thing, but “Dance, Dance, Dance” was with a big one.

On that note, would you like to continue working abroad?
I’d like to try my luck in America, I’ve got lots of friends who work in TV in L.A and it’s like a whole different world out there, operating in front of bigger audiences and with bigger budgets. I’d like to check and see what’s out there. I’d be more than happy to split my time between London and the states, but you know – bit of a pipe dream.

Do you have a main career goal?
This is a good question and something I need to work out. I’ll have to see where I end up and see where the jobs take me. I’d like to do more factual stuff, like documentaries. I enjoy prime time stuff but would also like to do specialist music stuff. An ideal would be to do regular prime time stuff and on the side do specialist music stuff on the radio.

Do you have any hidden talents?
Not really, I don’t have any talents hidden or otherwise. Oh! I can walk on my hands!

Is there something about you other people may not expect?
I’m not as cheesy in real life as I am on television, hopefully that’s surprising. If people have only seen me on “Dance, Dance, Dance” or interviewing pop stars on 4 Music, people wouldn’t know how different my music taste is. I like all sorts, House, Disco and I’m really into HipHop. I seriously used to think that I could make it as a rapper, that always gets a good laugh. But no one will ever hear me rap. So many bars, bars for days.

Quick Fire Questions, Leather or Demin?
Oh neither, I don’t own leather so I guess Denim?

Gold or Silver?
Silver! No, Gold actually!

Hot or Cold?
Hot!

Rock or Rap?
Rap

Interview by Ian Casey
Photography by Andrea Vecchiato
Grooming by Zoheib @ The King’s Canary Salon

Clothes: Coat by Prada, polo neck sweater by Ralph Lauren  –  jacket & shirt by Anthony Morato  – jacket & shirt by Anthony Morato – Coat by Prada,  shirt by Anthony Morato