Curtis Pritchard (born 8 February 1996) is an English dancer and

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

, known for his role as a professional dancer on the Irish version of ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Dancing with the Stars'' is the name of various international television series based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing'', which is distributed by BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the forma ...

''. In 2019, Pritchard appeared in the fifth series of the British dating reality series '' Love Island'', finishing in fourth place.

Early life

Pritchard was born on 8 February 1996 in

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...

, England.

Career

''Dancing with the Stars''

In 2017, Pritchard was announced as one of the professional dancers for the first series of Ireland's ''Dancing with the Stars''. He was partnered with model

Thalia Heffernan ''Dancing with the Stars'' is an Irish reality television series, airing on RTÉ One that started on 8 January 2017, and is currently hosted by Jennifer Zamparelli and Doireann Garrihy. The show is based on the original UK version, ''Strictly Com ...

. They were eliminated in week four of the competition, finishing in tenth place. In 2018, Pritchard was partnered with businesswoman

Norah Casey Norah Casey (born 28 May 1960) is an Irish businesswoman, magazine publisher, television personality and broadcaster from Dublin, Ireland. Early life Norah Casey grew up in a lodge in the Phoenix Park, her father and grandfather were park ranger ...

. On 21 January, Casey and Pritchard became the first couple to be eliminated from the competition. For the 2019 series, Pritchard was due to be partnered with model

Holly Carpenter Holly Carpenter (born 9 October 1991) is an Irish model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Ireland 2011 on 13 August 2011. She represented Ireland in the Miss World pageant held on 6 November 2011 in London, England. Since 2015 ...

, but following an attack on 27 December 2018, he was ruled out competing for five weeks. He was replaced by former ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (informally known as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly ballroom and Latin dance. Each couple is scored by a panel of usually 4 ...

'' professional,

Trent Whiddon Trent Whiddon is an Australian people, Australian dancer and choreographer, best known for his professional appearances on the BBC One dance series ''Strictly Come Dancing''. Early life Whiddon started dancing at the age of seven. His mother en ...

. In November 2019, Pritchard confirmed that he would not return for a fourth series.

Series 1 The IBM Series/1 is a 16-bit minicomputer, introduced in 1976, that in many respects competed with other minicomputers of the time, such as the PDP-11 from Digital Equipment Corporation and similar offerings from Data General and HP. The Seri ...
(2017)

; Celebrity partner :

; Average: 19; Place: 10th

Series 2 Series 2 could refer to: * Apple Watch Series 2, a smart watch by Apple * Aston Martin Lagonda Series 2, the automobile model * Aston Martin V8 Series 2, the automobile model * BMW 2 Series, the automobile model line * GeForce 2 series, line of nV ...
(2018)

; Celebrity partner :

; Average: 16; Place: 11th

Other ventures

In June 2019, Pritchard began appearing as a contestant on the fifth series of the

ITV2 ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a ...

dating reality series '' Love Island''. In July 2019, it was announced that Pritchard, along with his brother AJ, would appear as guest choreographers on the

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, curre ...

reality series ''

RuPaul's Drag Race UK ''RuPaul's Drag Race UK'' is a British reality competition television series based on the American television series of the same name. The television series, a collaboration between the BBC and World of Wonder, premiered on 3 October 2019. T ...

''. In 2020, he appeared in

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

's ''

The Greatest Dancer ''The Greatest Dancer'' is a British dance competition television series created by Simon Cowell and produced by Syco Entertainment. The first BBC programme created by Cowell, ''The Greatest Dancer'' sees previously undiscovered dance acts perfo ...

'' as a receptionist. Later that year, it was announced that he would be starring in '' Celebs Go Dating: The Mansion''. In February 2021, it was announced that Pritchard would be making his acting debut in the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

soap opera ''

Hollyoaks ''Hollyoaks'' is a British soap opera which began airing on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was created by Phil Redmond, who had previously conceived the soap opera ''Brookside (TV series), Brookside''. Since 2005, episodes have been aired on ...

'', alongside his brother. He portrayed the role of

Jacob Jacob (; ; ar, يَعْقُوب, Yaʿqūb; gr, Ἰακώβ, Iakṓb), later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. J ...

; their acting abilities were the subject of widespread criticism.

Personal life

From 2016 Pritchard was in a relationship with fellow ''Dancing with the Stars'' professional dancer,

Emily Barker Emily Barker (born 2 December 1980) is an Australian singer-songwriter, musician and composer. Her music has featured as the theme to BBC dramas '' Wallander'' and '' The Shadow Line''. With multi-instrumental trio the Red Clay Halo, she reco ...

. In early 2019 it was reported the couple were no longer an item. On 27 December 2018, he and his brother AJ, along with two others, were attacked in an "unprovoked assault" on a night out in

Nantwich Nantwich ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It has among the highest concentrations of listed buildings in England, with notably good examples of Tudor and Georgian architecture. ...

. He needed an emergency operation to his knee and was unable to appear on ''Dancing with the Stars''. A 20-year-old man was arrested and released. Pritchard began dating Maura Higgins following their appearance together on ''Love Island''. In March 2020, Higgins confirmed that they had split.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pritchard, Curtis 1996 births Living people British ballroom dancers Love Island (2015 TV series) contestants