Bio
Denise van Outen is an English actress, singer and television presenter best known for her roles as a presenter on The Big Breakfast, and as Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago on both the West End and on Broadway.
She began her stage career as Young Eponine in Les Miserables, landing the role after auditioning for Cameron Mackintosh at the age of eleven. This led to other West End successes including Stop The World I Want To Get Off at the Lyric Theatre and A Midsummer Night's Dream for the RSC at The Barbican.
In 1995 she joined Channel 4's flagship daily live show The Big Breakfast and two years later became its highly successful co-presenter with Johnny Vaughan: they renewed their professional partnership at Capital Radio.
After focusing on her television career, Denise returned to her first love, the theatre, for the first time in 10 years playing Roxie Hart in Chicago in the West End. Her success in the role led her to playing Roxie on Broadway in 2002, garnering ecstatic reviews. She then returned to the West End later the same year to reprise the role.
In 2003 Denise starred in Andrew Lloyd Webber's one-woman show Tell Me On A Sunday, in a role that was specially re-written for her; a nationwide tour followed in 2004.
As well as Any Dream Will Do, numerous other TV credits include co-presenting ITV1's This Morning and hosting Channel 4's The Friday Night Project. Denise starred in Where the Heart Is. She also co-presented the hit show You're The One That I Want for US television on NBC.
She returned to the stage to star in a revival of Rent and appeared in The Empress's New Clothes, part of BBC ONE's Fairy Tales series.
She was also a judge on the reality competition series I'd Do Anything, which searched for an unknown actress to play the role of Nancy in a production of Oliver! on the West End.