Brendan Cole

Brendan Cole

Brendan Cole (born 23 April 1976) is a New Zealand ballroom dancer, specialising in Latin American dancing. He is most famous for appearing as a professional dancer on the BBC One show, Strictly Come Dancing. From 2005 to 2009, he was a judge on the New Zealand version of the show, Dancing with the Stars.

Early life and career

Cole was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. He has danced since he was six, and moved to the United Kingdom when he was eighteen, where he studied the pasodoble, ballroom and ballet at Donaheys, Clayton, Manchester. Before becoming a professional dancer Cole was a builder and roof layer, having left school at 17.

He danced with Camilla Dallerup, a fellow contestant on the BBC's earlier long-running show Come Dancing, as amateurs from 1996, and from 2002–2004 as professionals. They competed for New Zealand: Dallerup is Danish-born. In 2003 Dallerup and Cole were placed 3rd for Latin American at the UK Closed Championships.

In the winter of 2004 he had his first acting experience featuring in the UK feature film Everything to Dance for alongside Sasha Jackson, Travis Oliver and Sally Reeve.

In October 2009, Cole appeared on the New Zealand travel show Intrepid Journeys. During a hunting lesson filmed in Vanuatu he was shown killing and eating a chicken, prompting international news coverage.[4] In October 2019, he began competing in The X Factor: Celebrity alongside Jeremy Edwards.[5]

Personal life

In 2010, Cole married Zoe Hobbs, a British model, who gave birth to their first child, daughter Aurelia, on Christmas Day 2012. In March 2018, Zoe gave birth to their son Danté while Cole became very close with his backing singer and continues to be.[6] The family now live in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.[7]

Televised competitions

In summer 2006, he joined ITV's Love Island and became the runner-up when the show ended on 28 August 2006. Also in that year, he appeared as a guest judge on the fourth episode of Britain's Next Top Model, where he worked with the remaining 10 contestants to teach ballroom dancing prior to judging.

In January 2007, Cole appeared on the BBC's duet show Just the Two of Us as a celebrity, with Beverley Knight as his professional partner. They came second.

Cole represented the United Kingdom at the first Eurovision Dance Contest in September 2007. His dance partner was Camilla Dallerup. The couple were highly praised by British judges yet only managed to finish fifteenth out of the sixteen entrants.

In 2010, he was a celebrity guest team captain on What Do Kids Know? along with Rufus Hound, Joe Swash and Sara Cox on Watch.

Dancing with the Stars (NZ)

Cole has judged New Zealand's version of Strictly Come Dancing, Dancing with the Stars, 2005–2009. In the years when Craig Revel Horwood was one of the other judges the two men's opinions and scores were frequently markedly different