Donal Skehan (born 3 June 1986) is an
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
television personality, presenter (specialising in food programmes), food writer, cook, photographer and former singer. He is known for his television series, cookbooks, popular
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
channel and use of toast.
Skehan was also a member of the boy band Streetwize. As vocalist with
Industry
Industry may refer to:
Economics
* Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity
* Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery
* The wider industrial sector ...
he had two No. 1 singles with them on the
Irish Singles Chart
The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and compiled on their behalf by the Official Charts Company. Chart rankings are bas ...
in 2009.
Early life
His parents, Dermot and Liz, are in the food industry; running their own food distribution company.
Having grown up in
Howth
Howth ( ; ; non, Hǫfuð) is an affluent peninsular village and outer suburb of Dublin, Ireland. The district as a whole occupies the greater part of the peninsula of Howth Head, which forms the northern boundary of Dublin Bay, and includes ...
, Skehan attended
Sutton Park School
Sutton Park School is an independent co-educational multi-denominational day school located just off Saint Fintan's Road in Sutton at the city side of Howth Head on the Northside of Dublin, Ireland.
History
Sutton Park School was founded in 1 ...
and went on to study media at
Dublin Business School
Dublin Business School (DBS), incorporating Portobello College, is a private college in Ireland. With over 9,000 students, DBS provides full-time and part-time undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in business, law, accounting, event mana ...
.
Television and cooking career
Television personality
Skehan worked as an announcer on the Irish entertainment specialty channel
Bubble Hits
Bubble Hits was an Irish-owned digital television music channel owned by Creative Sounds. It broadcast two channels, one for Ireland, and a Pan-European feed which covered the United Kingdom, Hungary, Romania, Poland and Germany. On 13 February ...
, broadcasting music and entertainment news and celebrity gossip segments.
Food author and presenter
An avid food enthusiast, Skehan started a blog in 2007 called ''Good Mood Food'' that evolved into a cookbook.
After many appearances on television, and giving of live demonstrations at social events and shows, he was featured in his own weekly food programme, ''Kitchen Hero'', on
RTÉ One
RTÉ One ( ga, RTÉ a hAon) is an Irish free-to-air flagship television channel owned and operated by Raidió TeilifÃs Éireann (RTÉ). It is the most-popular and most-watched television channel in the country and was launched as ''TelefÃs à ...
that was launched on 16 May 2011. In 2011, he published a cookbook based on the television series, ''Home Kitchen Hero – Bringing Cooking Back Home''.
A second series and a Christmas special were aired in 2012. UKTV network
Good Food
Good Food was a cookery channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland, latterly as part of the Discovery, Inc. network of channels. The channel originally launched on 5 November 2001 and relaunched in its final format on 22 June 2009. ...
began airing the show in April 2012. The show is now in its sixth year of production.
Skehan became a co-presenter and judge on ''
Junior MasterChef
''Junior MasterChef'' is a British TV cookery competition, broadcast by the BBC, in which nine to twelve-year-olds compete to be crowned "Junior MasterChef". It is a spin-off from the main UK series of ''MasterChef''.
''Junior MasterChef'' firs ...
'' on the BBC in 2012, appearing alongside
John Torode
John Douglas Torode (born 23 July 1965) is an Australian-British celebrity chef and TV presenter. He moved to the UK in the 1990s and began working at Conran Group's restaurants. After first appearing on television on ITV's ''This Morning' ...
. In 2013, after appearing on
Jamie Oliver
James Trevor Oliver MBE OSI (born 27 May 1975) is an English chef, restaurateur and cookbook author. He is known for his casual approach to cuisine, which has led him to front numerous television shows and open many restaurants.
Oliver reache ...
's YouTube channel, Foodtube, Skehan launched his own dedicated YouTube channel which has since grown to over 1M subscribers.
Skehan presented a new series for
Food Network UK, ''Follow Donal'', which saw him explore Vietnam in a four-part series and then went on to visit ten European cities in the second installment of the series which aired in the autumn of 2015. Skehan is also appearing in the Swedish food programme ''Mitt kök'' on
TV4 TV4 or TV 4 may refer to:
*TV4 (Poland), a private Polish television station
*TV4 (Sweden), a Swedish television network
**TV4 Group, owners of the Swedish television station
*South African Broadcasting Corporation TV4, a channel operated by the st ...
where he speaks Swedish. Skehan is currently one of a number of rotating guest presenters for ''
Saturday Kitchen
''Saturday Kitchen Live'' is a British cookery programme, that is broadcast live on BBC One every Saturday between 10.00am and 11.30am produced by Cactus TV.
History
2002–2003
After a pilot hosted by Ainsley Harriott on 14 April 2001, the ...
'' on
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 ...
and has hosted six editions of the show to date. In 2021, his book ''Everyday Cook'' won Cookbook of the Year at the Irish Book Awards.
Music career
2006: Streetwize
Skehan was interested very early in music. In 2006, he became part of the global/international
boy band
A boy band is loosely defined as a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform Love song, love songs marketed towards girls and young ...
project ''Streetwize'' (alongside Irish
Lee Mulhern
Lee Mulhern (born 12 June 1988), now known as Lee Matthews, is an Irish singer-songwriter.
Starting age 8, Lee Mulhern (his birth name) had performed as a child star prodigy covering pop and country songs on many Irish and UK radio and televisi ...
(later known as Lee Matthews), English
Lee Hutton
Lee Andrew Hutton (born 13 March 1987, Chesterfield, England) is an English singer-songwriter.
Early life
Lee Hutton was interested very early in music and learned to play guitar. In 2006, when he was just 18, he became part of the global/intern ...
and Swedish
Jonathan Fagerlund
Jonathan Fagerlund (born 8 January 1991), sometimes just Jonathan, is a Sweden, Swedish singer. He has released two albums ''Flying (Jonathan Fagerlund album), Flying'' and ''Welcome to My World (Jonathan Fagerlund album), Welcome to My World'' ...
). The original members made a tour in Ireland, UK, Sweden, and appeared on the US television station
CN8
The Comcast Network (TCN) was an American cable television network owned by the Comcast Corporation, through NBCUniversal; it was carried mostly on Comcast cable systems in four states and 20 television markets in the Eastern U.S. from New Jersey ...
, a cable television station where they performed "
Room in Your Heart
"Room in Your Heart" is the third single from the British group Living in a Box's 1989 album, '' Gatecrashing''. It rivalled the band's eponymous 1987 single as their highest-charting song. Both peaked at No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart. This song ...
" in a morning show hosted by Greg Coy. Skehan and Jonathan Fagerlund were disenchanted with the progress of the band and left early to be replaced by Venezuelan Antonio Jones and American Kyle Carpenter. Streetwize eventually folded without any hits.
2008: Irish Eurosong preliminaries for Eurovision Song Contest
On 23 February 2008, Skehan took part in
Eurosong 2008 in a bid to represent Ireland in the 2008
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...
with the song "Double Cross My Heart".
It was a pop song composed by Joel Humlen, Oscar Gorres and
Charlie Mason, and performed by Skehan with two male and two female back-up dancers, as well as a male back-up singer.
[''Eurosong 2008'' (23 February 2008). '' Radio TelefÃs Éireann''. Retrieved on 27 September 2008.] Skehan was one of the Final 6, alongside
Dustin the Turkey
Dustin the Turkey, a character performed by John Morrison is a former star of RTÉ television's ''The Den'' between 1989 and 2010 and from 2020. He has been described as "the most subversive comedy force on Irish television".
A turkey-vulture w ...
, Maja, Leona Daly, Liam Geddes and
Marc Roberts; with Dustin the Turkey winning with the song "
Irelande Douze Pointe
"Irelande Douze Pointe" () is a 2008 novelty song by Irish puppet act Dustin the Turkey, played by John Morrison. The song was chosen to represent Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 after winning ''Eurosong 2008'', Ireland's national ...
".
2009–2010: Industry
In 2009, Skehan joined the Irish band
Industry
Industry may refer to:
Economics
* Industry (economics), a generally categorized branch of economic activity
* Industry (manufacturing), a specific branch of economic activity, typically in factories with machinery
* The wider industrial sector ...
alongside the English
Lee Hutton
Lee Andrew Hutton (born 13 March 1987, Chesterfield, England) is an English singer-songwriter.
Early life
Lee Hutton was interested very early in music and learned to play guitar. In 2006, when he was just 18, he became part of the global/intern ...
(his former bandmate in Streetwize) and Irish girl members Michele McGrath and Morgan Deane.
Industry had success in the Irish charts including two chart-topping singles "
My Baby's Waiting" in June 2009 and "
Burn
A burn is an injury to skin, or other tissues, caused by heat, cold, electricity, chemicals, friction, or ultraviolet radiation (like sunburn). Most burns are due to heat from hot liquids (called scalding), solids, or fire. Burns occur mainl ...
" in August of the same year on the
Irish Singles Chart
The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and compiled on their behalf by the Official Charts Company. Chart rankings are bas ...
. In 2009, they were also a supporting act for
The Pussycat Dolls
The Pussycat Dolls were an American girl group and dance ensemble, founded in Los Angeles, California, by choreographer Robin Antin in 1995 as a burlesque troupe. At the suggestion of Jimmy Iovine, Antin decided to take the burlesque troupe ...
at
Fitzgerald Stadium
Fitzgerald Stadium ( ga, Staid a' Ghearaltaigh) is the principal GAA stadium in Killarney, Ireland, and is the home championship venue for the Kerry senior football team.
Named in honour of one of the first great players of the Gaelic Athleti ...
.
Later Industry single releases like "In Your Arms", "My Mistake", "Drown in the Music" and "Kill the DJ" did not chart. The band broke up in 2010.
Personal life
In June 2015 he married Sofie Larsson in
Dublin City Hall
The City Hall, Dublin (), originally the Royal Exchange, is a civic building in Dublin, Ireland. It was built between 1769 and 1779, to the designs of architect Thomas Cooley, and is a notable example of 18th-century architecture in the city. ...
followed by a reception in
Lisnavagh House
Lisnavagh Estate is an estate house which lies outside the village of Rathvilly in County Carlow, Ireland. Lisnavagh is the family seat of the McClintock-Bunbury family, Barons Rathdonnell. A plaque in the present house states that the original ...
in
County Carlow
County Carlow ( ; ga, Contae Cheatharlach) is a county located in the South-East Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. Carlow is the second smallest and the third least populous of Ireland's 32 traditional counties. Carlow Cou ...
and had their honeymoon in
Ravello
Ravello (Campanian: ) is a town and ''comune'' situated above the Amalfi Coast in the province of Salerno, Campania, Southern Italy, with approximately 2,500 inhabitants. Its scenic location makes it a popular tourist destination, and earned it a ...
on Italy's
Amalfi Coast
The Amalfi Coast ( it, Costiera amalfitana) is a stretch of coastline in southern Italy overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Gulf of Salerno. It is located south of the Sorrentine Peninsula and north of the Cilentan Coast.
Celebrated worldwide ...
. In April 2016, Skehan and his wife moved to Los Angeles.
In June 2017, the couple announced that they were expecting their first child. In December 2017, their son was born in Los Angeles. In June 2019, the couple announced they are expecting a second child. On 28 November 2019 their second son was born.
Filmography
Television
Web
Discography
Singles
;Solo
*"Double Cross My Heart" (2008)
;As part of Industry
*"
My Baby's Waiting" (2010) (No. 1 on the
Irish Singles Chart
The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and compiled on their behalf by the Official Charts Company. Chart rankings are bas ...
)
*"
Burn
A burn is an injury to skin, or other tissues, caused by heat, cold, electricity, chemicals, friction, or ultraviolet radiation (like sunburn). Most burns are due to heat from hot liquids (called scalding), solids, or fire. Burns occur mainl ...
" (2009) (No. 1 on the Irish Singles Chart)
*"In Your Arms" (2009)
*"My Mistake" (2009)
*"Drown in the Music" (2010)
*"Kill the DJ" (2010)
Bibliography
*2009: ''Good Mood Food: Simple, Healthy Homecooking!''
*2011: ''Kitchen Hero: Bringing Cooking Back Home''
*2012: ''Kitchen Hero: Great Food For Less''
*2013: ''Home Cooked''
*2013: ''Feast: A Dinner Journal''
*2013: ''Easy Recipes for Summer Cooking''
*2014: ''The Pleasures of the Table: Rediscovering
Theodora FitzGibbon''
*2015: ''Fresh''
*2016: ''Eat. Live. Go – Fresh Food Fast''
*2018: ''Donal's Meal in Minutes: 90 Suppers from Scratch, 15 Minutes Prep''
*2019: ''Super Food in Minutes: Easy Recipes, Fast Food, All Healthy''
*2021: ''Everyday Cook''
References
External links
*
*
RTÉ One web page on ''Kitchen Hero''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Skehan, Donal
1986 births
Living people
Television personalities from Dublin (city)
RTÉ television presenters
Irish television chefs
Irish YouTubers
21st-century Irish male singers
Male YouTubers
Alumni of Dublin Business School
People from Howth