Rhys Stephenson (born 29 October 1993) is an English television presenter and actor. He has presented on

CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...

since 2016.

Early life

Stephenson was born in

Lewisham Lewisham () is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in the London Plan as one of ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. He began starring in school theatre productions at the age of ten. He attended Oasis Academy Pinewood and later Bower Park Academy and the

University of Westminster The University of Westminster is a public university, public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first Polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic to open in London. The Polyte ...

Career

In 2013, Stephenson joined the National Youth Theatre. He has acted in a number of shows with the Sydenham Arts Festival and has appeared in productions including '' Alice in Wonderland'' and ''At the Feet of Jesus''. In 2013, Stephenson started his presenting career during his time at the

when he began working with his university’s channel, the student television station Smoke TV for which he won a National Student Television Association (NaSTA) award for best on-screen male. In 2016, Stephenson became a presenter on

. He has since presented '' Blue Peter'' and ''

Saturday Mash-Up! ''Saturday Mash-Up!'' is a British Saturday morning children's magazine entertainment programme on CBBC and BBC Two, first broadcast on 30 September 2017. It is currently presented by Joe Tasker and a puppet monster called Stanley performed by ...

'' and appeared on the Dengineers,

Remotely Funny ''Remotely Funny'' is a British children's game show hosted by Sara Forsberg. The show is produced by Twenty Twenty Kids for CBBC. The show features three children from across the United Kingdom connected remotely via webcam competing in variou ...

and '' Newsround''. Stephenson is an ambassador for children's mental health charity, Place2Be. In August 2021, Stephenson was announced on '' Newsround'' as a contestant on the nineteenth series of '' Strictly Come Dancing''. It was then revealed on 18 September that his professional dancing partner would be

Nancy Xu Nancy Xu YouJie (; born 30 July 1991) is a Chinese dancer and choreographer. She is best known for being a professional dancer on '' Strictly Come Dancing'' since 2019. Early and personal life Xu was born on 30 July 1991 in Hunan, China. She beg ...

. He took a subsequent break from his presenting duties to compete. The couple left in the semi-final, coming 4th in the competition. The couple had topped the leader-board twice, once with the Charleston and once with the Argentine tango, but were also in the dance-off four times. On the fourth of these times they were eliminated by

the Great British Bake Off ''The Great British Bake Off'' (often abbreviated to ''Bake Off'' or ''GBBO'') is a British television baking competition, produced by Love Productions, in which a group of amateur bakers compete against each other in a series of rounds, atte ...

winner

John Whaite John Whaite (born 23 May 1989) is an English baker who won the third series of ''The Great British Bake Off'' in 2012. He works as a chef, television presenter, and author. Early life John Whaite was born in Chorley, Lancashire, and grew up ...

and his dance partner

Johannes Radebe Johannes Radebe (born 27 April 1987) is a South African dancer and choreographer. Early life Radebe was born in Zamdela. He is gay, and has spoken out about the homophobic bullying he received as a child. He and his sister attended a dance scho ...

References

Living people 1993 births British television presenters British children's television presenters Television personalities from London {{England-actor-stub Actors from Lewisham