Mark Thomas Rhodes (born 11 September 1981) is an English singer and television presenter, best known as one half of Sam & Mark, the other being Sam Nixon.

Career

Born in

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands of England. Located around 12 miles (20 km) north of Birmingham, it forms the northwestern part of the West Midlands conurbation, with the towns of ...

, England, Rhodes finished in second place in the second series of '' Pop Idol'' in the United Kingdom, as runner-up to Michelle McManus. After ''Pop Idol'', he teamed up with third-place Sam Nixon, releasing two singles under the name Sam & Mark. In February 2004, their cover of the song " With a Little Help from My Friends" reached number 1 in the UK singles chart, remaining there for one week. Their second single 'The Sun Has Come Your Way" reached 19 in the singles chart. The pair were subsequently encouraged by manager Simon Fuller to pursue a career in TV. Rhodes went on to co-present '' Top of the Pops Reloaded'' with Nixon and Fearne Cotton in 2004. From April 2006, Rhodes co-hosted the weekday children's breakfast show '' Level Up'' on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

alongside Nixon and Ayesha Asantewaa. ''Level Up'' finished its first series in September 2006. In September 2006, Rhodes began presenting BBC Two's Saturday morning show '' TMi'' alongside Nixon and

Caroline Flack Caroline Louise Flack (9 November 1979 – 15 February 2020) was an English television presenter and actress. Flack grew up in Norfolk and took an interest in dancing and theatre while at school. She began her professional career as an actress, ...

. He had his own short segment on the show called "Question Mark", a feature where he tried to answer viewers' questions, but Flack and Nixon talked through it. In later series, Flack left and the show moved to Fridays. The show's final episode aired on 17 December 2010. He also co-presented '' Do Something Different'' with Nixon and Ayesha Asantewaa. Nixon and Rhodes produced a children's reality series, ''Who Wants to Be a Superhero?'' and ''Sam and Mark's Guide to Dodging Disaster''. In 2009, Rhodes co-presented the show '' Skate Nation'' on BBC Two. He presented a '' Total Wipeout'' Celebrity Special, which aired on 2 January 2010. Rhodes fell at the quarter-final stage, losing out to eventual winner Danielle Lloyd. They subsequently took part in two episodes of '' Hole in the Wall'', airing on 11 October 2008 and 14 November 2009. Rhodes competed in the 2012 series of '' Dancing on Ice''. He was eliminated by the judges on 22 January after a skate-off with ''

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

'' actress

Charlene Tilton Charlene L. Tilton (born December 1, 1958) is an American actress and singer. She is widely known for playing Lucy Ewing on the CBS prime time soap opera ''Dallas''. Career Tilton had early roles on television series such as ''Happy Days'' ...

. Sam & Mark were the hosts of family

CBBC CBBC 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 brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 to 12. Its sister c ...

family game show '' Copycats''. In 2024 Rhodes began presenting a Saturday morning show on BBC Radio WM.

Awards and nominations

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

Best Children’s Presenter Winner: 2013 (Sam and Mark's Big Friday Wind Up) 2015 (Sam and Mark's Big Friday Wind Up) Nominations: 2007, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019

Best Children's Entertainment Show Winner: 2016 (Sam and Mark's Big Friday Wind Up) Nominations: 2014, 2015 and 2016 RTS North West Awards Best Entertainment Show Winner: 2015 (Sam and Mark’s Big Friday Wind Up) 2021 ( Crackerjack) Nominations: 2013, 2015 and 2021 Arqiva Commercial Radio Awards Best Newcomer: Nomination: 2011

Personal life

Rhodes attended Darlaston Comprehensive High School in Darlaston in the West Midlands. Rhodes splits his time between his house in

St Margarets, London St Margarets is an affluent suburb and neighbourhood in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, about west-southwest of central London. It is bounded by the Thames Tideway to the north-east, and the River Crane, London, River Crane to th ...

, and his family house in

, where he is regularly seen socialising in the village of Wombourne. He got engaged in March 2011 and married his girlfriend Harriet Wilson on 2 June 2012. They now have a daughter, Scarlett and a son, Teddy, born at the end of April 2016. Rhodes is a

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

fan and played on the All Stars side at Matt Murray's testimonial match in 2011. He also played in Jody Craddock's testimonial match as part of a Wolves XI at Molineux in 2014.

''Pop Idol 2'' performances

Filmography

Discography

Singles

;as Sam & Mark *" With a Little Help from My Friends" (February 2004) *" The Sun Has Come Your Way" (May 2004)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rhodes, Mark 1981 births Living people 21st-century English singers 21st-century English male singers People from Darlaston Pop Idol contestants