Rylan Clark Neal

Early and personal life

Clark-Neal was born Ross Richard Clark on 25 October 1988 in Stepney, East London, and grew up in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex, to mother Linda Clark. He was raised by his mother and his older brother Jamie (b 1974). His early career was working for Optical Express in Lakeside Shopping Centre. He is openly gay. He is also a voice for animals and, in June 2013, posed naked for an anti-fur PETA campaign to speak against the fur industry. He explained, "I just don’t agree with animals getting killed just to be worn."

In 2007, he applied for Big Brother 8, but, "the day I was going in, it got taken away from me because it got leaked to the press. It was devastating."

Clark-Neal has been a part-time model since he was 16. It was during his early modelling career that he adopted the stage name "Rylan" as it was more unusual. He was in several Take That and Westlife tribute bands in Ibiza, and was also part of a Spanish boy band called 4bidden until January 2010.

In 2013 Clark-Neal began dating media personality and ex-police officer Dan Neal. On 18 September 2014 the couple announced their engagement and were married on 7 November 2015 in Essex.

2010: John Bishop's Britain

In 2010, Rylan starred in four episodes of the second series of BBC One show John Bishop's Britain presented by comedian John Bishop.

2011: Signed by Katie Price

In 2011, Clark-Neal was a finalist on the Sky Living modelling competition Signed by Katie Price. He finished as runner-up behind Amy Willerton.

2012: The X Factor

In May 2012, Clark-Neal auditioned for the ninth series of The X Factor at The O2 Arena in London, in front of Louis Walsh, Gary Barlow, Tulisa and guest judge Rita Ora. He amused the judges and the studio audience with his friendly banter and bubbly personality, before singing a dance version of Des'ree's "Kissing You". Barlow said afterwards: "Rylan, love your personality, hate your voice, really strange song choice as well" Walsh also admitted that he was "a bit worried". Barlow gave Clark-Neal a "no", but Ora, Contostavlos and Walsh all decided to say "yes" and put him through to bootcamp.

At bootcamp, Clark-Neal sang The Pussycat Dolls' "Don't Cha" (again with a dance twist), with former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger now a judge. After his performance, Barlow admitted: "[I] think he's going to haunt me throughout this competition." Barlow was reluctant to send Clark-Neal through to judges' houses, but the other three judges were in favour of him advancing. Clark-Neal was eventually put through into the boys category with Scherzinger as his mentor. At judges' houses in Dubai, Clark-Neal performed a stripped-back rendition of Rihanna's "We Found Love" in front of Scherzinger and Ne-Yo. Scherzinger later put Clark-Neal through to live shows as one of her final three, along with James Arthur and Jahméne Douglas. She told him: "Rylan, it's such a big risk... but I have to take it, and you are in my final three.", and then Clark-Neal appeared to have an immense breakdown on the spot.

Clark-Neal sang "Gold" by Spandau Ballet in the first week of the live shows, and was in the bottom two with Carolynne Poole the following night. Scherzinger backed Clark-Neal as he was her own act, while Barlow and Contostavlos opted to save Poole, based on the final showdown performance. This left Walsh with the deciding vote, but he appeared unable to make up his mind. After hesitating for some time, he eventually said "I'm going to go with Carolynne, I want to keep Carolynne.", although he had to say who he wanted to send home, not who he wanted to save. Eventually, after being pressured for an answer by presenter Dermot O'Leary, Walsh exclaimed "I want to take it to deadlock". O'Leary then revealed that Clark-Neal had received more public votes and Poole was sent home, much to the disgust of her mentor, Barlow, who stormed off stage and later called Clark-Neal a "joke act" and "talentless".

In week 2, Clark-Neal persisted to wind Barlow up by first performing part of Barlow's "Back for Good", and then claiming afterwards that he had booked him a cab in advance in case he stormed off stage again, to which Barlow responded "That's funny 'cause I've had yours on hold for two weeks." That week Clark-Neal was put through to week three on the public vote. In week five, he was in the bottom two again with Kye Sones, but was saved by the public vote after the judges' votes were deadlocked. In week 7, Clark revealed on The Xtra Factor that his psychic had told him he would make it to week 7 of the competition before leaving, but the following night he was put through to by the public vote, before being eliminated by the judges in week 8, with only his mentor Scherzinger voting to save him over Union J.

Celebrity Big Brother

After leaving The X Factor, Clark-Neal joined Daybreak as a guest entertainment editor in December 2012 and returned throughout April 2013.

Clark-Neal became a housemate in the eleventh series of Celebrity Big Brother in January 2013. He was the second celebrity to enter the Big Brother House. On launch night, he and Italian jockey Frankie Dettori selected which celebrities would join them in the House and who would be banished to the Basement. It was revealed mid-way through the series that, contrary to the show's rules of staying in the Big Brother House throughout the series, Clark-Neal had been leaving the house each Sunday to rehearse for The X Factor Live Tour, which began a day after the live final on 25 January. He made it to the final five, alongside Neil "Razor" Ruddock, Claire Richards, Ryan Moloney, and Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt (Heidi & Spencer being counted as a single housemate). Clark-Neal was announced as the winner during the live final, after which he broke down into tears like he did during the X Factor judges' houses.

Television presenting

On 14 May 2013, as part of a revamp by Channel 5, Clark-Neal and AJ Odudu were announced as the new co-hosts of Big Brother's Bit on the Side, replacing Jamie East and Alice Levine. Willis herself replaced Brian Dowling as the host of Big Brother. In early 2015 Willis left the show to focus on presenting the main show, leaving Rylan to present the show solo every-night. In the 2015 series of Celebrity Big Brother UK vs USA, Rylan also presented Bit on the Side at the weekends and it was renamed Bit on the State Side and was filmed in an American style studio.

Since the tenth series of The X Factor, Clark-Neal has provided all the gossip from the show on This Morning. He also acted as a Hub presenter until its removal from the show in 2014. Since late 2015 he has also been credited as the main relief presenter. He is most notably relief presented with Ruth Langsford when co-presenter Eammon Holmes was off for 10 weeks. He has also presented with others including Lorraine Kelly and Holly Willoughby. On 8 July 2016, Rylan made ITV history alongside husband Dan Neal when they became the first gay couple to present an episode of ITV's This Morning.

In October 2015, Clark-Neal co-presented a special edition of Most Haunted Live with Jamie East on Really. It became the highest rated show the channel had ever seen, out performing Channel 4 and 5 in its time slot.

Since May 2016, Clark-Neal has presented his own prime time chat show for Channel 5 called Up Late with Rylan.

It was confirmed on 1 July 2016 that Clark-Neal would co-host The Xtra Factor Live alongside Matt Edmondson. This will be the second time a former X Factor contestant has co-hosted the series, the first being Olly Murs, who co-hosted from 2011 to 2012.

In January 2017, it was announced that Clark-Neal would present a new daytime game show for ITV called Babushka. He will also host ITV2 panel show Codswallop.

Other work

In February 2014, Clark-Neal made a guest appearance in the Sky 1 comedy series Stella.

In 2015, Clark-Neal reached the final of BBC One's Celebrity MasterChef competition.

On 21 January 2016, Clark-Neal announced on his Twitter account that he would release an autobiography titled "The Life of Rylan" on 30 June 2016. He appeared as Ryan, an air steward, in the 2016 film Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie.

Awards

In 2015, Clark-Neal won The Telegraph's 'LGBT Celebrity of the Year' award.

In 2016 and 2017, he was nominated for a National Television Award in the Best Presenter category, but lost out to Ant & Dec on both occasions.

In May 2016, Rylan's chat-show Up Late with Rylan was nominated for a TV Choice Award.

Clark-Neal was named Sunday Times best no1 best seller for his debut autobiography 'The Life of Rylan' in June 2016.

Filmography