Michelle de Swarte (born 1980) is an English actress, comedian, presenter, and former model. She starred in the Netflix series '' The Duchess''.

Early life

De Swarte was born in Lewisham, South London to a Jewish mother and a Jamaican father and grew up in

Brixton Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th ce ...

. She left school at 14. De Swarte was diagnosed with

dyslexia Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, r ...

as a child.

Career

De Swarte was scouted by a modeling agency at 19 while working at a bar in Clapham. She landed gigs in New York where she would discover comedy. She has appeared on a number of panel shows for Channel 4, BBC, ITV and Comedy Central. She recorded an Edinburgh Fringe Festival audiobook for Penguin Books. Her other TV credits include presenting Emmy nominated series Woman with Gloria Steinem, The Fashion Show on ITV2, BBC Three current affairs debate show Free Speech and appearances on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here Now! on ITV. She also hosted the celebrity gossip show Dirty Digest on E4, which she co-devised. De Swarte's

beauty product Cosmetics are constituted mixtures of chemical compounds derived from either natural sources, or synthetically created ones. Cosmetics have various purposes. Those designed for personal care and skin care can be used to cleanse or protect ...

campaigns include

Make-up Art Cosmetics MAC Cosmetics, stylized as M·A·C, is a Canadian cosmetics manufacturer founded in Toronto, Canada in 1984 by Frank Toskan and Frank Angelo. The company is headquartered in New York City after becoming a subsidiary of Estée Lauder Companies i ...

Sephora Sephora is a French multinational retailer of personal care and beauty products. Featuring nearly 340 brands, along with its own private label, Sephora Collection, Sephora offers beauty products including cosmetics, skincare, body, fragrance, n ...

and

Neutrogena Neutrogena Corporation, trading as Neutrogena, is an American company that markets skin care, hair care and cosmetics owned by parent company Johnson & Johnson and is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

. She has also been photographed for Burberry, Tommy Hilfiger,

Cartier Cartier may refer to: People * Cartier (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) * Cartier Martin (born 1984), American basketball player Places * Cartier Island, an island north-west of Australia that is part of Australia' ...

, Betsey Johnson, Michael Kors,

Baby Phat Baby Phat by Kimora Lee Simmons is a privately held American apparel brand established in 1999 by fashion model, creative director, and entrepreneur, Kimora Lee Simmons. Initially launched as a womenswear offshoot of the menswear label, Phat F ...

, H&M, Gap and Levis, by photographers such as Mario Testino, Peter Lindbergh, Patrick Demarchelier and

Steven Meisel Steven Meisel (born June 5, 1954) is an American fashion photographer, who obtained popularity and critical acclaim with his work in ''Vogue'' and ''Vogue Italia'' as well as his photographs of friend Madonna in her 1992 book, ''Sex''. He is n ...

, and featured in fashion spreads for ''

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the st ...

'', Italian '' Vanity Fair'' and '' V''. She modeled for

Copperwheat Blundell Copperwheat is a surname of English origin. Notable people with the surname include: * C. M. Copperwheat (active from 2010), astronomer * Ben Copperwheat British print designer/artist living and working in New York City * David Copperwheat (active ...

(Ready-to-Wear Fall/Winter 2000 fashion show), Luella,

Missoni Missoni is an Italian luxury fashion house based in Varese, and known for its colorful knitwear designs. The company was founded by Ottavio ("Tai") and Rosita Missoni in 1953. History Early beginnings The business was founded in 1953, when O ...

(Ready-to-Wear Spring/Summer 2002 fashion shows), and during the Ready-to-Wear Fall/Winter 2002 fashion week she modeled for Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, John Galliano and Versus Versace. But her career as a runway model stopped abruptly after she fell down repeatedly and removed her shoes while walking for the Gucci Fall/Winter 2002 Ready-to-Wear fashion show, where the catwalk was covered in faux sheepskin. Turning to television, her TV credits include presenting celebrity gossip show, '' Dirty Digest, '' for E4, '' The Fashion Show'', a 10-episode mini-series with

George Lamb George Martin Lamb (born 20 December 1979) is an English radio and television presenter, currently presenting ''Football Tonight'' on BT Sport. In 2012, Lamb presented the Channel 4 game show ''The Bank Job''. Lamb is the son of actor Larry Lam ...

and Abbey Clancy which aired on

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 ...

from September to November 2008, hosting the live broadcast of

Arthur's Day Arthur's Day was an annual series of music events worldwide, originally organised by Diageo in 2009 to promote the 250th anniversary of its Guinness brewing company. It was named after the founder of Guinness brewing, Arthur Guinness. The 20 ...

celebrations, and being a talking head on BBC's ''The Noughties.. Was That It?'' in 2009. She also appeared on a number of panel shows for Channel 4, BBC,

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

and Comedy Central. In 2015, she began reporting for Vice America doing a range of documentaries covering issues from

FGM Female genital mutilation (FGM), also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision, is the ritual cutting or removal of some or all of the external female genitalia. The practice is found ...

to female magicians, as well as the Emmy-nominated series ''Woman'', produced by Gloria Steinem for Viceland USA. She has also starred in the 2020 British comedy-drama series, '' The Duchess'', and the 2022 British horror comedy limited series, '' The Baby''. On '' Live at the Apollo'', she tells her Jeffrey Epstein- Jean-Luc Brunel encounter.

Personal life

De Swarte is bisexual. She lives between London and Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

TV productions

*2008 The Fashion Show

Princess Productions Princess Productions was a London-based television production company, formed by Henrietta Conrad and Sebastian Scott, which produced broadcast shows and pilots for all the major British broadcasters across a variety of genres, mainly specialisi ...

for ITV2 with George Lamb and Abigail Clancy *2009 Arthur's Day Celebrations for ITV2 and Sky with Cat Deeley and Ronan Keating *2009 I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here Now ITV2 Filmed in Australia *2011 Dirty Digest for E4

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:De Swarte, Michelle Living people 1980 births Actors from the London Borough of Lewisham Actors with dyslexia Models with dyslexia Actresses from London Bisexual comedians Bisexual women models Black British actresses Black British fashion people Black British women comedians Comedians from the London Borough of Lambeth Comedians from the London Borough of Lewisham English female models English people of Jamaican descent English people with disabilities English television presenters English women comedians Jewish English actresses Jewish English comedians LGBT people from London English bisexual actresses English LGBT models English LGBT comedians Actors from the London Borough of Lambeth People from Brixton People from Lewisham Jewish female comedians