Tom De Cock (born 23 September 1983 in

Schoten Schoten () is a municipality located in Antwerp Province, Belgium. The municipality only comprises the town of Schoten proper. As of 1 January 2020 Schoten has a total population of 34,311. The total area is which gives a population density of ...

) is a

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

radio DJ, television host and writer. At the age of 16 he published his first novel "De Openbaring" ("The Revelation").

Radio

In 2008 he started as a radio DJ at the public radio station Donna, where he covered the Saturday afternoon slot from 3 to 8 pm. One year later, the station was shut down and replaced by MNM, where De Cock had a late night talkshow called ''

De Cock Late Night De Cock Late Night, also called DCLN, was a Belgian talk radio show on the Flemish radio MNM presented by Tom De Cock Tom De Cock (born 23 September 1983 in Schoten) is a Flemish radio DJ, television host and writer. At the age of 16 he publis ...

'', and a weekend programma named "Weekend De Cock". Since September 2012 De Cock has his own evening drivetime show "Planeet De Cock" ("Planet De Cock") from 4 to 7 pm on workdays. On MNM, Tom De Cock is also the face of a yearly contest for highschools, "De Strafste School". With his colleague

Peter Van de Veire Peter Van de Veire (born Eeklo, Belgium, 1 December 1971) is a well-known radio personality in Flanders. Early life Van de Veire grew up in the town of Waarschoot. After attaining a degree in communications management, he briefly sold vacuum c ...

he co-hosted "Marathonradio" - a project in which both DJs made back-to-back 24h live broadcasts for 17 days in a row, to support students during their final exams - in 2013 and 2014.

Television

Tom De Cock began his television career behind the scenes, mainly as a pre-show audience warm-up artist, for live shows such as Steracteur Sterartiest, Peter Live, Eurosong and Zo is er maar één. When available, he is still active in that business. De Cock can be heard regularly as the voice of a variety of TV programmes. In 2015 he became the resident voice of the daily show "Iedereen Beroemd" ("Everybody Famous") on

Eén Eén (stylized as één; en, "one") is a public Dutch-language TV station in Belgium, owned by the VRT, which also owns Ketnet, Canvas and several radio stations. Although the channel is commercial-free, short sponsorship messages are broadc ...

. For the youth channel

OP12 OP12 (English: On 12) was the third channel of Belgium's VRT that featured evening broadcasts. The channel was launched on May 14, 2012 and closed on December 31, 2014. The channel's name was derived from the digital channel number that the s ...

, De Cock made a series about how teenagers experienced local elections in 2012. The series ended in a live show on the public TV station

, in which he reflected on the influence local policy has on teenage citizens. Together with journalist

André Vermeulen André Leopold Adiel Vermeulen (born 25 October 1955 in Bruges) is a Belgian-Flemish journalist and television personality for VRT. Between 1991 and 2013, Vermeulen following Luc Appermont had been the Flemish commentator for the Eurovision Son ...

, De Cock provided the offscreen commentary for the

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 ...

in 2013 on

. In 2010, 2011 and 2012 he did the same for the

Junior Eurovision Song Contest The Junior Eurovision Song Contest (often shortened to JESC, Junior Eurovision or Junior EuroSong) is an international song competition which has been organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) annually since 2003. It is held in a diff ...

Personal life

Tom De Cock's parents own a bakery in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

. He was born in

but grew up in

Rotselaar Rotselaar () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Flemish-Brabant, near the convergence of the Demer and the Dijle. Since January 1, 1977 the municipality comprises the towns of Rotselaar proper, Werchter and Wezemaal. On January ...

near

Leuven Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic ...

, where he studied Latin and Modern Languages at the Montfortcollege Rotselaar. After that he obtained a master's degree in Germanic Philology (Dutch and English) at the

Catholic University of Leuven University of Leuven or University of Louvain (french: Université de Louvain, link=no; nl, Universiteit Leuven, link=no) may refer to: * Old University of Leuven (1425–1797) * State University of Leuven (1817–1835) * Catholic University of ...

. On 6 August 2010 Tom De Cock married his husband Maarten. Today, they live in

. De Cock caused quite a commotion on 12 September 2011 when he declared that the prohibition of blood donation by homosexual men was "foolish and homophobic". Since 2014, De Cock is an ambassador for the LGBT youth organisation

Wel Jong Niet Hetero The Wel () is a river in Poland. It flows out of the Great Dąbrowa and Little Dąbrowa lakes near Dąbrówno, following a course of 118 km first that goes southwest and then north. It is a tributary of the Drwęca The Drwęca ('; germ ...

. In 2014, De Cock and his husband adopted a baby girl named Jasmijn.

Bibliography

* Cock, Tom De (2001) ''De Openbaring, een profetie'', Houtekiet, Antwerpen,

References

External links

Tom De Cock official homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:De Cock, Tom 1983 births Living people Belgian radio presenters Belgian television presenters Flemish writers Belgian LGBT writers People from Schoten