Craig Revel Horwood

Craig Revel Horwood (born 4 January 1965) is an Australian-British professional ballroom dancer, choreographer, conductor, singer, author, theatre director and television personality in the United Kingdom. He is a patron of the Royal Osteoporosis Society.

He is best known as a judge on popular BBC dancing show Strictly Come Dancing

He is often seen performing Ballroom and Latin routines on Strictly Come Dancing including, in 2019 during a performance themed on Hello, Dolly! (musical).

Horwood has a waxwork in Madame Tussauds Blackpool which has been on display since July 2018.

Theatre

West End and UK

Horwood's West End credits include Spend Spend Spend and My One and Only, both of which gained Laurence Olivier Award nominations for Best Choreography. He was associate director and choreographer of West Side Story, assisted Bob Avian with Martin Guerre and was resident director of Miss Saigon. He choreographed Hard Times – The Musical, Calamity Jane, Tommy Cooper – Jus' Like That and the play Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, starring Claire Bloom and Billy Zane at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He also directed and choreographed Beautiful and Damned. He directed the Welsh Première Concert Production of My Land's Shore for the Gate Theatre in Cardiff. During the summer of 2008, he directed a new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Sunset Boulevard at the Watermill Theatre, which transferred to London's West End at the Comedy Theatre.

Horwood directed and choreographed the 2010–11 UK and Canadian tour of Chess, a revival of the 1986 musical conceived and written by Tim Rice, with music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus (of ABBA). He has directed the UK Tour of Strictly Come Dancing since 2012. He starred as Miss Hannigan in the UK touring production of Annie in 2015and 2018 and also the West End in 2017 at Piccadilly Theatre.

Regional theatre choreography credits include Pal Joey, Arcadia, On the Razzle and My One and Only at the Chichester Festival Theatre, Guys and Dolls in Sheffield, Anything Goes and South Pacific for Grange Park Opera and Hot Mikado at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury.

Horwood directed and choreographed UK tour of musical Sister Act in 2016-17. In 2017 he directed and choreographedUK tour of Son of a Preacher Man, a new musical featuring the music of Dusty Springfield.

In 2020 Horwood will direct Strictly Ballroom the Musical which will tour the UK from September 2020.

Special Events

Horwood directed the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester and staged Once Upon a Time – The Life of Hans Christian Andersen, a live concert in Copenhagen to mark the author's bicentenary.

Pantomime

In December 2009, Horwood played the part of the Queen in Snow White and the 7 Dwarves at Theatr Cymru in Llandudno, North Wales, a role he reprised in December 2010 at the Hawth in Crawley, and at the Orchard Theatre in Dartford, Kent, alongside Ann Widdecombe in 2011. In December 2012, he played the same role in the Swan Theatre in High Wycombe, again alongside Widdecombe and also in December 2013 at the Cliffs Pavilion, Southend. In 2014, 2015 and 2016 he played Captain Hook in Peter Pan at The Orchard Theatre, Dartford, Wycombe Swan, High Wycombeand Churchill Theatre, Bromley. In December 2017 he played the Wicked Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves at Mayflower Theatre, Southampton. In December 2018 he played the Wicked Stepmother in Cinderella at New Victoria Theatre, Woking. In December 2019 he played the Wicked Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves at Manchester Opera House, Manchester. In December 2020 he will play the Wicked Stepmother at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton alongside Debbie McGee.

Solo Tour

In Spring 2020, Horwood will embark on his first solo tour around England, All Balls and Glitter, talking about his life and performing some of the music that has been the soundtrack to his career.

Television

Strictly Come Dancing

Horwood has been a member of the judging panel on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing since its inception in 2004. He has a reputation for being the harshest of the Strictly Come Dancing judges and is often the recipient of booing from the studio audience. He received criticism for his apparent bias towards Emma Bunton in the fourth series of the competition. He is known for stringently applying rules, as for example when marking down for an "illegal lift" in the Viennese Waltz if the lady's foot leaves the floor.

Horwood has become known and imitated for his locutions, which often include exaggeratedly lengthened vowels, including: "It was a complete dahnce di-sah-ster, dahling" and "Chah-Chah-Chah". These are available as ringtones through Horwood's website, with profits going to the National Osteoporosis Society. Another common utterance is "Three words: Fab-u-lous!", with the syllables of the word articulated as three separate words. Horwood similarly breaks up the syllables and throws the stress forward to the final syllable for "A-ma-zing!". To appreciate erotically-charged routines, Horwood will declaim, "absolute filth," often immediately followed by "...and I loved it!" Passing judgment on Kimberley Walsh in 2012, Horwood said the dance was 'indecent, improper, absolute filth,' and added: ‘I loved it.’" Of Claire King's rhumba with Brendan Cole in 2006, Horwood declared, "That was absolute filth. I loved it." Similarly, he lauded Harry Judd's performance in 2011 with "'It had authority, dominance, command, control. It was filth and I loved it!'

Dancing with the Stars

He was a judge on Dancing with the Stars in New Zealand, along with Brendan Cole.

He has also been a judge of the Australian Dancing with the Stars since the 2019 'revival' of the show, along with Sharna Burgess and Tristan MacManus.

Comic Relief Does Fame Academy

Horwood became a judge on Comic Relief Does Fame Academy in 2005, along with Lesley Garrett and Richard Park. He and Garrett replaced vocal coaches David Grant and Carrie Grant on the panel; however the pair still appeared as voice coaches on the show. He returned as a judge for the third series of the Comic Relief edition in 2007. The show was cancelled by the BBC after the third series had ended.

Other television appearances

Horwood appeared in Episode 5 of Series 2 of Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends, during which Theroux investigates the trials and tribulations of struggling New York City actors. In May and June 2007, he appeared as a contestant on Celebrity MasterChef, reaching the final alongside Nadia Sawalha and Midge Ure.

On 15 April 2010, Horwood was the celebrity guest judge on Daily Cooks Challenge. On 13 August 2010, he appeared on Would I Lie to You?. During 2011, he guested on Celebrity Juice (Episode 6, series 5; 17 March) and on Ask Rhod Gilbert (28 September). In January 2012, he appeared on BBC TV series The Magicians. For the week beginning 3 September 2012, he appeared as a panellist on The Wright Stuff on Channel 5. On 22 October 2012, he appeared on ITV's Loose Women. He also appeared on CBBC's television programme 12 Again in 2012, talking about his life when he was 12. On 22 February 2013, he appeared on Room 101.

Horwood won the reworked version of the 2008 BBC series Maestro, called Maestro at the Opera. He competed against Josie Lawrence, Marcus du Sautoy and Trevor Nelson. Also appearing were Mark Elder, Danielle de Niese, Alfie Boe and Kiri te Kanawa. The series was partly filmed at London's Royal Opera House, where Horwood, as eventual winner, conducted Act II of La Bohème in late 2012.

Horwood lent his vocals to a single released by other celebrities under tutorage of choirmaster Gareth Malone for the Children In Need 2014 charity single.The choir performed a version of Avicii's Wake Me Up.

On 15 January 2016, he appeared as a panellist on a special episode of ITV's Loose Women (titled Loose Women and Men) alongside show regulars Andrea McLean and Nadia Sawalha and fellow special hosts Peter Andre and Chris Kamara. He also starred in an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? on 13 July 2017, in which he learned about his ancestry and family history.

Horwood has voiced a snake called Cornelius in animated series Sadie Sparks which airs on Disney Channel.

Film

Horwood choreographed the final scene in Paddington 2. He made his screen acting debut as Emmanuel Cavendish in Nativity Rocks! in 2018.

Music

Horwood has recorded a duets album with Rietta Austin, which will be released in 2020. The album will include three original songs written by Horwood and Rietta Austin and also some cover versions.

Horwood has published three autobiographies with Michael O'Mara Books. All Balls and Glitter: My Life in 2008Tales from the Dance Floor in 2013and In Strictest Confidence in 2018.

Born in Ballarat, Australia in 1965, Horwood started his career as a dancer in Melbourne, then moved to London to take advantage of the greater opportunities available there and to dance competitively. In 1989, he moved to the UK from Australia, and on 20 August 2011, he became a British citizen.

Revel is Horwood's middle name, it is not double barrelled.

In his autobiography, Horwood reveals that at the age of 17, he made money by appearing as a drag queen in bars and clubs and that his relationship with an unnamed celebrity was akin to prostitution.

He has twice undergone plastic surgery. The first occasion was a "nose job" at the age of 18. In 2011, Horwood revealed that he had undergone a breast reduction during 2010 because his "C"-size cups rendered dancing painful.

In December 2014, Horwood informed a reporter from OK! magazine that "I was bisexual for a long time. I flitted between men and women quite a lot between the ages of 17 and 26. My wife Jane left me for another man. Then I fell in love with a bloke. I have been gay ever since." His former partner Damon Scott had been a runner up on Britain's Got Talent. Since early 2018 he has been in a relationship with horticulturist Jonathan Myring.

Horwood became a patron of the Royal Osteoporosis Society in 2009. In this, he has found common ground with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, the Society's Royal patron (whose mother, like his, had bone disease). The two of them danced the cha-cha-cha together on a school visit to mark National Osteoporosis Day in 2009.

In January 2015, Horwood revealed on ITV's Loose Women that he suffered from anorexia and body dysmorphia as a teenager and young dancer, as a result of trying to make himself look like other young men, and other dancers in particular.

The 14th British series of Who Do You Think You Are? featured Horwood's ancestry in the second episode. In this, his family history research took him home to Australia, where he discovered that his family tree traces to Gloucestershire, Lancashire and Essex in England. Horwood found out that he is not the first dancer in his family and that he is descended from gold prospectors that went bankrupt before becoming rich on finding a 250-ounce gold nugget. He learnt further that his great-great-grandfather, Moses Horwood, who is revealed in the programme to have been a petty criminal from England, was convicted at the Gloucestershire assizes and transported to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) in 1841. Criminal records identified by TheGenealogist include a transportation document for Moses Horwood, showing he departed England on 1 December 1841 on board a ship called the John Brewer.