Rhys Stephenson (born 29 October 1993) is an English television presenter and actor.

Early life

Stephenson was born in

Lewisham Lewisham ( ) is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. He began starring in school theatre productions at the age of ten. He attended Oasis Academy Pinewood and later Bower Park Academy and the

University of Westminster The University of Westminster is a public university, public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first Polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic to open in London. The Po ...

Career

In 2013, Stephenson joined the

National Youth Theatre The National Youth Theatre of Great Britain (NYT) is a youth theatre and charity in London, created with the aim of developing young people's artistic skills via theatrical productions and other creative endeavours. Founded in 1956 as the world ...

. He has acted in a number of shows with the Sydenham Arts Festival and has appeared in productions including ''

Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (also known as ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English Children's literature, children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics university don, don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a ...

'' and ''At the Feet of Jesus''. In 2013, Stephenson started his presenting career during his time at the

when he began working with his university’s channel, the

student television station A student television station is a television station run by university, high or middle school students that primarily airs school/university news and in many cases, student-produced soap operas, entertainment shows, and other programming. At the h ...

Smoke TV for which he won a National Student Television Association (NaSTA) award for best on-screen male. In 2016, Stephenson became a presenter on

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 ...

. He has since presented ''

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC ...

'' and '' Saturday Mash-Up!'' and appeared on

the Dengineers ''The Dengineers'' is a British children's television series which airs on CBBC and sees the production team (styled as 'dengineers') design themed dens or play houses for children. There have been seven series aired to date, with the most rece ...

Remotely Funny ''Remotely Funny'' is a British children's game show hosted by SAARA. The show is produced by Twenty Twenty Kids for CBBC. The show features three children from across the United Kingdom connected remotely via webcam competing in various chal ...

and ''

Newsround ''Newsround'' (stylised as ''newsround'') is a BBC children's news programme, which has run continuously since 4 April 1972. Originally ''John Craven's Newsround'', it was one of the world's first television news magazines aimed specifically ...

''. Stephenson is an ambassador for children's mental health charity, Place2Be. In August 2021, Stephenson was announced on ''

'' as a contestant on the nineteenth series of ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (commonly referred to as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly Ballroom dance, ballroom and Latin dance, Latin dance. Each couple is ...

''. It was then revealed on 18 September that his professional dancing partner would be Nancy Xu. He took a subsequent break from his presenting duties to compete. The couple left in the semi-final, coming 4th in the competition. The couple had topped the leader-board twice, once with the Charleston and once with the

Argentine tango Argentine tango is a musical genre and accompanying social dance originating at the end of the 19th century in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. It typically has a Time signature, or rhythmic time signature, and two or three parts repeating in pat ...

, but were also in the dance-off four times. On the fourth of these times they were eliminated by

The Great British Bake Off ''The Great British Bake Off'' (often abbreviated to ''Bake Off'' or ''GBBO'') is a British television baking competition, produced by Love Productions, in which a group of amateur bakers compete against each other in a series of rounds, atte ...

winner

John Whaite John Robert Whaite (born 23 May 1989) is an English baker who won the The Great British Bake Off (series 3), third series of ''The Great British Bake Off'' in 2012. He works as a chef, television presenter, and author. Early life John Whaite w ...

and his dance partner Johannes Radebe.

Personal life

On 16 June 2024 Stephenson married Bethany Johnson. He has presented on

since 2016. He is currently signed to

MVE Management MVE Management (formerly known as Margravine Management) is a talent management company founded in 2018 by Joe Sugg and Caspar Lee in partnership with IMG. The company was originally headquartered in London, England, and expanded to the United ...

References

Living people 1993 births Alumni of the University of Westminster British television presenters British children's television presenters Television personalities from the London Borough of Lewisham Actors from the London Borough of Lewisham People from Lewisham {{England-actor-stub