How Strictly star Angela Scanlon has quick-stepped her way from Irish dancing competitions to Glitterball hopeful, with a waltz into a hugely successful TV career along the way
- READ MORE: Strictly Come Dancing 2023 pairings REVEALED
Angela Scanlon is about to shimmy her way onto the Strictly Come Dancing dancefloor with the first live show this weekend.
And the primetime BBC show has bought the TV star full circle in her career.
Before embarking on her media career Angela, 39, competed professionally in Irish Dancing, turning her childhood classes, which as she told Strictly hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman form a core part of any Irish upbringing alongside Mass, into a globe-trotting career.
Originally from Co Meath in Ireland, Angela trained with the O’Shea Irish company.
The group appeared on Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast in the early 2000s where she was photographed meeting singer Ronan Keating.
Dancing queen: Angela Scanlon is about to shimmy her way onto the Strictly Come Dancing dancefloor with the first live show this weekend
Dance steps: Angela competed professionally in Irish Dancing, starting with childhood classes, which as she told Strictly hosts Tess and Claudia form a core part of Irish upbringing
She was later hired to perform in the Irish Thunder show – a celebration of culture through dance – in Virginia US.
The dance troupe competed internationally and Angela represented them in competitions – qualifying her as a professional dancer – prompting calls from Strictly fans that she had an unfair edge over her fellow contestants,
But as Angela pointed out to the Mail this week her previous routines were solo, while on Strictly she has a partner, Carlos Gu.
She said: ‘Most people, you grow up in Ireland, you do Irish dancing. But I’ve never done ballroom, I’ve certainly never done a rumba or any of this style of dancing.
‘You dance on your own and it’s very stiff.’
‘So the salsa hips, I don’t know how we’re going to achieve that. I have to take into consideration my partner’s limbs and presence – so we’ll see.’
Angela gave up on her Irish dancing when she was around 18 and instead embarked on a career in the media.
She started out as a stylist and fashion journalist, writing for glossy magazines like Tatler, Grazer and Sunday Times Style alongside her first TV stints with Irish broadcaster RTÉ.
Fix? The dance troupe competed internationally and Angela represented them in competitions – qualifying her as a professional dancer – prompting calls from Strictly fans that she had an unfair edge over her fellow contestants
On the box: Originally from Co Meath in Ireland, Angela trained with the O’Shea Irish company. The group appeared on Channel 4 ‘s The Big Breakfast in the early 2000s where she was photographed meeting singer Ronan Keating
TV career: Angela later reunited with Ronan when she embarked on her TV presenting career
She rose through the TV ranks with the likes of Caroline Flack, who became a good friend.
A series of documentaries followed before she landed the role as co-host of Robot Wars with Dara Ó Briain in 2016 and her ‘dream job’ on The One Show, as maternity cover for Alex Jones.
But the fiercely ambitious star admitted that her big break bought her insecurities to the surface.
‘It was alarming to get to this place where you think: ‘This is it. This is the dream gig,’ and to feel worse than you have in a really long time,’ she told Psychologies Magazine earlier this year.
‘On paper, I had all that I had ever wanted, but there was just a complete disconnect, and I felt huge discomfort in my own skin. People would see me on telly having a fun time, because I knew how to present the version of me I was happy to put out there.
‘But I found it impossible to enjoy it, because I didn’t know who the hell I really was.
‘And it was incredibly distressing because there was suddenly this stark realisation that the work stuff I’d been putting everything into, wasn’t going to ‘fix’ me after all.’
Childhood: Angela has also shared a throwback to her time dancing on The Late Late Show with a tribute to Michael Flatley (pictured right)
Fame: Angela gave up on her Irish dancing when she was around 18 and instead embarked on a career in the media, presenting shows such as Robot Wars (pictured with co-host Dara Ó Briain)
Presenting: The popular presenter is four years into fronting BBC series Your Home Made Perfect
Chat show: She’s also found huge success with her Thanks a Million podcast, which is based around her newly found focus on gratitude and her own chat show Ask Me Anything
Angela wrote about her self-doubt which co-existed with a 15 year battle with anorexia and bulimia in her gratitude-based book Joyrider, which was released earlier this year.
Her anorexia and bulimia took hold when she was a teenager ‘when it felt like my body was changing and I was becoming a woman, I didn’t feel equipped for that in any way, shape or form. That was the start of it, and then it just escalated and became my coping mechanism,’ she recalls.
She kept her eating disorder ‘mostly hidden’ into her twenties and the start of her career before she admits it was replaced ‘seemingly overnight’ with an addiction to work.
Angela credits becoming a mother with bringing the first major shift in her mental wellbeing and when she get let go of her addictive habits once and for all.
Angela shares her two daughters with her eco-entrepreneur husband Roy Horgan, who she married in 2014.
They welcomed their eldest daughter Ruby Ellen in February 2018, and their youngest Marnie Fae in February 2022.
‘I think the experience of birthing and feeding a baby, and then of watching this little girl revel in,’ Angela explains. ‘The one I had punished, overfed, underfed, and didn’t love at all. The one I had been abusing for years.’
She said taking maternity leave, and the cancellation of work with the global pandemic, also made her reevaluate her ambition.
‘It was a shock to the system in so many ways, and to the way I had constructed my life.’
Back on the floor: And now there’s Strictly, a show which will propel the star to the prime time leagues as well as bringing her back to the roots of her career
‘Having to reach out and ask for help and be dependent on other people. That was a big issue for me,’ she told Deliciously Ella’s Wellness with Ella podcast earlier this year.
I had compassion for myself in a way that was hard to handle,’ she shared. ‘I thought, ‘I’ve actually been quite relentless with myself forever.’
‘Whatever habits I’ve gotten into, whatever behaviours I have built my life around, I’ve gotten to this point, and it’s not right. This is not how I want to be. And I don’t want my daughter to learn that this is the way to be.
Angela says she now only takes on projects she is truly passionate about and she is now four years into presenting her popular BBC series Your Home Made Perfect.
She’s also found huge success with her Thanks a Million podcast, which is based around her newly found focus on gratitude and her own acclaimed chat show Ask Me Anything.
And now there’s Strictly, a show which will propel the star to the prime time leagues as well as bringing her back to the roots of her career.
Marriage: Angela shares her two daughters with her eco-entrepreneur husband Roy Horgan, who she married in 2014. They welcomed their eldest daughter Ruby Ellen in February 2018, and their youngest Marnie Fae in February 2022
Ambitious: Angela credits becoming a mother with bringing the first major shift in her mental wellbeing and when she get let go of her addictive habits toward work
Having fun: I had compassion for myself in a way that was hard to handle,’ she shared. ‘I thought, ‘I’ve actually been quite relentless with myself forever.’
This isn’t the first time Angela had been approached about Strictly, but she says timing is everything and this year there is one huge motivation – her children.
‘I have a five- year-old and an 18-month-old and it still feels a little delicate for me, but I’m really big into timings.’
‘We’ve had the conversation before and it hasn’t been right – I’ve been trying to have a baby or thinking about having a baby or pregnant. When it came in this year, there wasn’t really a question.’
‘[My husband] said go for it. That’s always been his mentality. Hugely supportive, and of the school of thought that you regret the things you don’t do rather than the things that you do.’
Strictly Come Dancing 2023: Who are the couples?
Nigel Harman and Katya Jones
Bobby Brazier and Diane Buswell
Annabel Croft and Johannes Radebe
Zara McDermott and Graziano Di Prima
Amanda Abbington and Giovanni Pernice
Angela Rippon and Kai Widdrington
Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Lauren Oakley
Angela Scanlon and Carlos Gu
Ellie Leach and Vito Coppola
Adam Thomas and Luba Mushtuk
Jody Cundy and Jowita Przystał
Layton Williams and Nikita Kuzmin
Nikita Kanda and Gorka Marquez
Les Dennis and Nancy Xu
Eddie Kadi and Karen Hauer
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