Bruce Darnell (born July 19, 1957) is an American

choreographer Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which Motion (physics), motion or Visual appearance, form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A chor ...

, model and television personality based in Germany. He is best known as a jury member for the TV shows '' Germany's Next Topmodel'' and '' Das Supertalent''.

Biography

Darnell was born and grew up in

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. After studying

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served six years as a

paratrooper A paratrooper or military parachutist is a soldier trained to conduct military operations by parachuting directly into an area of operations, usually as part of a large airborne forces unit. Traditionally paratroopers fight only as light infa ...

in the

82nd Airborne Division The 82nd Airborne Division is an Airborne forces, airborne infantry division (military), division of the United States Army specializing in Paratrooper, parachute assault operations into hostile areasSof, Eric"82nd Airborne Division" ''Spec Ops ...

. In 1983, he began his career as a model in Germany. During the following years he modeled for Kenzo, Issey Miyake,

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and

Calvin Klein Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942) is an American fashion designer. In 1968, he launched the company that later became Calvin Klein. In addition to clothing, he has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewellery. ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

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, and New York. Darnell has also worked since 1990 as a choreographer and coached models for the catwalk. Darnell attained public fame in Germany when he took part in 2006 in the

ProSieben ProSieben (, ''sieben'' is German for "seven"; often stylized as Pro7) is a German free-to-air television network owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media. It was launched on 1 January 1989. It is Germany's second-largest privately owned television company ...

show '' Germany's Next Topmodel'' as a juror. In connection with advertisements for this show, he became famous for his typically American accent and his effeminacy. He has also become famous for his mistakes in spoken German, most notably "" (whereas it should be ""; "this is the truth"), which he has since taken as a trademark expression. He has appeared in television advertisements for C&A and O2. From February to March 2008, he hosted his own fashion-themed television show, called ''Bruce'', on

Das Erste Das Erste (; "The First") is the flagship national television channel of the ARD (broadcaster), ARD association of public broadcasting corporations in Germany. ''Das Erste'' is jointly operated by the ARD (broadcaster)#Institutions and member org ...

, but the show received poor ratings and was canceled after the initial run's 20 episodes. After Darnell cancelled his participation as a judge in the first season of Das Supertalent due to scheduling difficulties, music producer

Dieter Bohlen Dieter Bohlen (; born Dieter Günter Bohlen on 7 February 1954) is a German songwriter, producer, singer and television personality. He first achieved fame as a member of the pop duo Modern Talking in the 1980s, and has since produced numerous G ...

expressed the wish to cast Darnell as a judge for the fifth season of the RTL casting show Deutschland sucht den Superstar, but the broadcaster refused. From 2008 to 2010, Darnell was a jury member on Das Supertalent. Darnell also appeared again as a catwalk coach in the 2008 Supermodel show on the Swiss channel 3+ TV. In October 2009, his first perfume Bruce for men was launched, Darnell for women. In September 2011, he was appointed to the jury of Deutschland sucht den Superstar 2012 together with Natalie Horler. From 2013 to 2020, Darnell sat on the jury of Das Supertalent. In 2021, RTL announced that with the departure of head judge

, Darnell would also leave the show. In 2015, Darnell did advertising for the furniture association Einrichtungspartnerring VME. In December 2021, he hosted the program Surprise! The Bruce Darnell Show. This was not continued in view of a 3.2 percent market share among 14- to 49-year-olds.

References

External links

Official website
*
Website of the TV show ''Bruce''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Darnell, Bruce African-American male models American male models African-American United States Army personnel Male models from Colorado American choreographers American expatriates in Germany Models from New York City United States Army soldiers 1957 births Living people American emigrants to West Germany Deutschland sucht den Superstar judges RTL Group people 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people