Rustie Lee (born 22 May 1949) is a Jamaican television personality, television chef, actress and singer. She participated on the Channel 5 reality-television show '' Celebrity Super Spa'' in 2013; ITV's '' Who's Doing the Dishes?'', hosted by

Brian McFadden Brian Nicholas McFadden (born 12 April 1980) is an Irish pop singer and television presenter who rose to fame in 1998 as a member of the Irish boy band Westlife. Following his departure from the group in 2004, McFadden released his debut solo ...

, in 2016; and ''

Celebrity Coach Trip ''Coach Trip'' is a British reality game show originally broadcast on Channel 4 from 7 March 2005 to 30 June 2006. The programme returned after a three-year break, from 25 May 2009 to 9 March 2012. In early 2013, the show went into hiatus aga ...

'' in 2020.

Early life

She attended the girls'

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school, ...

King Edward VI Handsworth School King Edward VI Handsworth School is a grammar school for girls aged 11–18 located in Handsworth, Birmingham, England. It is part of the Foundation of the Schools of King Edward VI. The school was founded in 1883 as King Edward's Aston on th ...

Broadcasting career

Lee first came to public attention for her appearances during the 1980s on the morning television station

TV-am TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992. The station was the UK's first national operator of a commercial breakfast television franchise ...

. Following her initial successful period as a chef on TV-am in 1983, Lee took over from

Sarah Kennedy Sarah Mary Kennedy MBE (born 8 July 1950) is a British retired TV and radio broadcaster. She presented her daily early morning radio show, ''The Dawn Patrol'', on BBC Radio 2 from 1993 to 2010. In the 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours, Kennedy ...

on the second incarnation of the ITV gameshow '' Game for a Laugh''. In 2004, Lee appeared on

Livings Livings is a surname of English origin. People with that name include: * Henry Livings (1929–1998), English playwright and screenwriter * Martin Livings (born 1970), Australian author * Nate Livings (born 1982), American football guard See also ...

'' I'm Famous and Frightened! 2'', a

reality show Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

featuring a number of celebrities staying in a castle over a weekend, taking part in various challenges and looking for

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. No ...

activity, guided by a

medium Medium may refer to: Science and technology Aviation *Medium bomber, a class of war plane * Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium of ...

. Viewers voted for their favourite star, and the celebrities were voted off one by one. Lee won the series showing a keen interest in the tasks and occasional emotional involvement, giving detailed and varied accounts of how she felt at certain points. In recent years, she has made occasional appearances on ''

This Morning This Morning may refer to: * ''This Morning'' (TV programme), a British daytime television programme * ''This Morning'' (radio program), a Canadian radio show which aired from 1997 to 2002 * '' CBS This Morning'', an American morning show, succe ...

, The Alan Titchmarsh Show'' and '' Daily Cooks/Saturday Cooks''. She has also made appearances on '' That Antony Cotton Show,

The Wright Stuff ''The Wright Stuff'' is a British television chat show which was hosted by former tabloid journalist Matthew Wright from 2000 until 2018. It aired on Channel 5 on weekday mornings from 9:15 to 11:15am. The series characterised itself as "Bri ...

'', ''

Loose Women ''Loose Women'' (previously known as ''Live Talk'' from 2000 to 2001) is a British talk show that broadcasts on ITV1 weekdays from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm. The show focuses on a panel of four female presenters who interview celebrities, talk about ...

'', and Channel 5's ''

Big Brother's Bit on the Side This is a complete list of shows about and relating to '' Big Brother UK'' and ''Celebrity Big Brother''. The civilian edition ran from 2000 to 2018 and the celebrity edition ran from 2001 to 2018. ''Big Brother'' ''Big Brother'' was a daily sh ...

'', a spin-off chat show for '' Big Brother''. She also appeared on the Channel 5 reality show '' Celebrity Super Spa''.

Politics

In 2004, Lee joined the

United Kingdom Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), member ...

(UKIP), and was adopted as their candidate for the

Wyre Forest __NOTOC__ Wyre Forest is a large, semi-natural (partially unmanaged) woodland and forest measuring which straddles the borders of Worcestershire and Shropshire, England. Knowles Mill, a former corn mill owned by the National Trust, lies w ...

constituency in the 2005 general election. She also appeared in the party's election broadcast that year. On polling day, she came fifth, with 1,074 votes (2.3% of the total). Lee stood for UKIP for the 2009 European Elections in the West Midlands constituency in June 2009, but was not elected.

General election contested

Other activities

Lee claimed in August 2018, on British breakfast television, that she "started Caribbean food". Lee has written several cookbooks, including ''Rustie Lee's Caribbean Cookbook'' (1985) and ''A Taste of the Caribbean'' (2007). In 2008, Lee briefly joined the cast of '' EastEnders'' as

Gus Smith Gus Smith is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera '' EastEnders'', played by Mohammed George. He made his first appearance on 28 May 2002. It was announced in January 2008 that Gus would leave the show later in 2008, and he made his l ...

's aunt

Opal Smith The following is a list of characters that first appeared in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' which aired in 2008 (by order of first appearance). All characters were introduced by executive producer Diederick Santer. Santer introduced four ...

. She also appeared briefly in '' Peter Kay's Britain's Got the Pop Factor... and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice''. She appeared in the last episode of

Benidorm Benidorm is a town and municipality in the province of Alicante, Valencia, on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. Benidorm has been a tourist destination within Spain since 1925, when its port was extended and the first hotels were built, though ...

Series 6 as ''Queenie''. She also narrated children's stories for BBC Radio in Birmingham. Lee has recorded as a singer. In 1985, she released the album ''Invitation to Party'', including her cover versions of "

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate ...

" and " My Toot Toot". In 1994, she released a further single, "You'd Better Phone", paired with a B side cover of Don’t Stop (Wiggle Wiggle) by The Outhere Brothers She also sang on a number of her appearances on ''

''. Lee has appeared in several pantomime productions including ''Jack and the Beanstalk'', ''Aladdin'', ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' and ''Peter Pan'' among others.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Rustie Black British actresses Black British women politicians Black British television personalities British soap opera actresses British television actresses English people of Jamaican descent Living people People educated at King Edward VI Handsworth People from Handsworth, West Midlands Reality show winners UK Independence Party parliamentary candidates 1949 births