Actors - Davina McCall

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	Actors - Davina McCall

Davina McCall (born October 16, 1967 in London) is a British television presenter. She is probably best known for working as a presenter on MTV and presenting the UK edition of Big Brother.

Background

Although she was originally born in London, at the age of three Davina went to live with her grandparents in their Surrey home after her parents' marriage dissolved. Her French mum Florence – whom Davina has described as something of a "wild child" – returned to Paris, and Davina would see her only on holidays. She continued to see her father Andrew, a graphic designer, at weekends before moving in with him and his new wife Gaby when she was 13.

McCall went to Godolphin and Latymer Girls School in Hammersmith, London, whose alumni also includes celebrity students Nigella Lawson, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Kate Beckinsale among others. During her teens Davina developed the eating disorder Anorexia, which she has atributed to her fractured childhood and a desperate need for attention. At the age of 15, while studying for her nine O levels and later two A levels, Davina sang professionally with a band. However when she was 19 she decided to go solo. During this time she dated old family friend Eric Clapton, who also produced her demo music disc and helped her to try and crack the pop music world. Dissatisfied with her near misses in the record industry, she gave up singing and took a job at Models One on the men's desk as a booker. She also ran a restaurant for two years and later worked as a singing waitress in Paris. However, after a failed attempt at a Moulin Rouge cabaret audition, she returned to London where she quickly became a fixture on the club scene, which eventually led to her becoming a nightclub hostess. It was at this time (during her early 20's) when Davina became addicted to drugs; heavily using cocaine, ecstacy and heroin.

Presenting

Davina's old friend Eric Clapton helped turn things around for her though and with his help she landed a job presenting her own show on the music channel MTV in 1992.

In 1995 she went on to host the ITV gameshow 'God's Gift' and she later went onto present the game show, Streetmate (Channel 4) in 1998. After the show received modest success Davina was put forward as presenter of the Uk version of the gameshow Big Brother in 2000, which she has so far presented for 6 series and 4 Celebrity versions. She is expected to return as presenter for series 7 of the show in summer 2006. Away from Big Brother she has also presented the The Brit Awards in 2000, as well as the BBC charity show Comic Relief on several occassions. She presented the ITV show 'Don't Try This At Home' in 2001, Popstars: The Rivals (ITV1) in 2002, The Vault (ITV1), Oblivious (ITV1), the reality TV show Reborn in the USA in 2003, as well as an entertainment show on the subject of love and dating called 'Love on a Saturday Night' (ITV1) in 2004. In 2004 she also presented the prestigous BAFTA television awards. Her presenting style is marked by a slightly tomboyish gregariousness and an overtly sunny disposition.

Davina has also tried her hand at acting appearing in 'Sam's Game' in 2001, a Friends-style TV sitcom (also starring Irish comedian Ed Byrne), which was slammed by the critics and lasted only one series. She has also appeared in the Leigh Francis comedy sketch shows Bo Selecta and A Bear's Tail. McCall also provided the voice of an android version of herself in a lethal version of Big Brother in the Doctor Who episode Bad Wolf in 2005.

Shortly after presenting Big Brother series 6, Davina attracted some complaints for her hostile interviewing of housemate Makosi Musambasi on the final night, which was much publicised in the British press. It was during this time that Davina started to present the BBC series, 'He's Having A Baby' in 2005, which subsequently received poor ratings and was axed from its prime-time spot on saturday night and delegated to the lesser watched freeview channel BBC3. In December 2005 it was announced that she would be hosting her own BBC1 prime-time chat show called "Davina" in early 2006. Early reviews have not been kind to the show, and viewing figures have flirted around the 3 million mark, compared to over 6 million watching The Bill on ITV1 at the same time.

Although popular with many, McCall's presenting style is not without its critics and she was voted 95th worst Briton in Channel 4's poll of the 100 Worst Britons in 2003.

McCall married the actor Andrew Leggett in 1997, but later divorced. In 2000, she married Matthew Robertson, presenter of Pet Rescue, and they have two children: Holly (not Holly Willow as widely reported), who was born in September 2001, and Tilly in September 2003. In order to get back in shape after the birth of her second child Davina enlisted the help of personal trainers Jackie and Mark Wren and after successful results and a revamped figure she has brought out two keep-fit DVD's"Power of 3" and "My three 30 minute workouts" with them.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Davina McCall ]

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