- Personal Appearances
- Presenters & Awards Hosts
Topics:
- Music & Dance
- TV/Radio Presenter
Brendan Cole
Brendan Cole, born and raised in Christchuch, New Zealand, started dancing at the age of 6. He says of his early experience, “My mum dragged me along to classes with my brother and we hated it. My brother even escaped once. But when it started to get competitive then I changed my mind.”
Aged 18, Brendan moved to London, to further his studies and to make a career out of dancing. To support himself and his burgeoning dance ambitions, Brendan worked as a warehouseman, in insurance, and also as a builder! Eventually he went professional, in 1999.
Awards and Accolades
Since becoming a dancer, Brendan has won the honour of being the Asian Pacific Latin American Champion and also New Zealand Latin American Champion. With his former dance partner Camilla, Brendan also reached the semi-finals of what are considered to be the world’s top four dance competitions.
Strictly Come Dancing and other TV appearances
Brendan has now appeared in all five series of BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, winning the first series in the Spring of 2004, and was seen dancing up a storm with partner Kelly Brook in series 5. Brendan has also appeared as a judge in the New Zealand version of the show, TVNZ’s Dancing With The Stars, for the past four years.
We’ve seen Brendan live the island life on Love Island for ITV, sing for his supper with soul sensation Beverly Knight on Just The Two Of Us for the BBC, and more recently try his hand at writing a murder mystery on Murder They Wrote for BBC 2, as part of World Book Day.
Brendan is now based in London, and continues to teach his speciality, Latin American dance.
