Brian Dowling

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Brian Patrick Robert Dowling (born 13 June 1978) was the winner of the second series of the British reality television show Big Brother in 2001, and since went on to become a television presenter. He participated in Irish reality television series, Fáilte Towers, in August 2008.

Early life and Big Brother

Before he entered the public eye, Dowling, from Rathangan, County Kildare, Ireland, trained as a holiday rep and air steward, working as a flight attendant for Ryanair. He came out as homosexual to his parents only two weeks before appearing on the reality television game show, Big Brother, in 2001. He was the eventual winner of the series, beating Helen Adams in the final and polling 4,231,660 votes (58%) out of a total 7,255,094.^[1] He has been voted favourite ever Big Brother housemate in the UK on several occasions.

Media career

Dowling went on to present SMTV Live, becoming the first openly gay children's television presenter. He also presented his own show on ITV, Brian's Boyfriends, as well as narrating the Channel 4 reality show The Salon.

In 2002, Brian co-hosted the Elle Style Awards with BBC Radio 1 presenter Jo Whiley. In 2003 he joined Duncan James and Tara Palmer-Tomkinson in presenting the Now Magazine Style Awards, where he also won the award for Most Stylish UK TV Personality."

Dowling regularly stood in for Liz Bonnin on LivingTV's Celebrity Extra show in 2004. He has also voiced numerous adverts and TV series and has presented the companion show to I'm Famous and Frightened!. In 2005, he had a short role in a new spinoff drama from Footballers' Wives.

In July 2005, Dowling fronted the Party in the Park concert in Leeds with Coronation Street's Nikki Sanderson. He then went on to front the Irish O2 in the Park concert, in Phoenix Park, Dublin, alongside Fran Cosgrave and Caroline Morahan in August 2005.

Dowling hosted a showbiz slot on Vernon Kay's BBC Radio 1 Saturday morning show from 9 October 2004 to September 2006. He was chosen in September 2005 to represent SMTV Live, which he co-hosted from January 2002 to July 2003, in ITV's 50th Anniversary celebrations on a special edition of Saturday morning children's entertainment show, Ministry of Mayhem.

In October 2005, Dowling presented a series of special Christmas features as part of Sky Digital's Interactive platform programming, titled Christmas Wrapped Up, in which he reviewed and helped to promote products that were available for purchase in the shopping areas of Sky Digital's Sky Active service.

Dowling was reintroduced as a presenter on ITV in March 2006 when the network launched its ITV Play subsidiary. Along with six others, Dowling was signed up as a presenter of the network's interactive telephone show, The Mint. The game show ran till 2007.

Dowling was a contestant in the ITV reality series Hell's Kitchen during September 2007, in which he competed against other celebrities to impress celebrity chef Marco Pierre White. Dowling finished in third place. Whilst participating, he had numerous clashes with fellow contestant Jim Davidson because of what Dowling interpreted as Davidson's homophobic slurs. Davidson was subsequently asked to leave the show as a contestant due to what ITV described as "unacceptable remarks" against Dowling. Following on form this, in August 2008, Dowling was a contestant in the Irish reality television show, Fáilte Towers, where he and 12 other celebrities had to take on the roles of hotel staff. He came second to John Creedon.

References

1. ^ "4.2m vote Brian winner of `Big Brother'", The Independent. URL last accessed on 2007-02-20.

External links

• Official Brian Dowling website
• Brian Dowling at the Internet Movie Database
• Brian's Hell's Kitchen profile