| Connagh-Joseph de Mooi | |
|---|---|
| Born | 6 November 1969 |
| Height | 6'0"[1] |
| Website | |
| http://www.demooi.co.uk/ | |
Connagh-Joseph de Mooi, known as CJ de Mooi or simply CJ (b. 6 November 1969 [2]), is a professional quizzer and a panellist on the BBC television show Eggheads. Born Joseph Connagh, he took up the name De Mooi when he was modelling; he claims it means "the Handsome man" in Dutch, as he stated on Eggheads, although 'mooi' is actually the Dutch word for 'beautiful’ and is pronounced incorrectly when CJ is introduced and presumably therefore by CJ himself.[1] In December 2011 de Mooi announced he had left Eggheads permanently in order to pursue an acting career.
Contents |
De Mooi studied English and Performing Arts at Rotherham College of Arts and Technology[3] before embarking upon a modelling career in Germany which lasted for four and a half years.[4]
In 2000, de Mooi applied to several game and quiz shows as a contestant and stood out for being outspoken (his tirade when voted off The Weakest Link has been featured on the show's website, video and led to a 'bad losers show' which he eventually won). He has also appeared on numerous other quiz shows including Fifteen to One, Countdown, Beat the Nation, 100% and No Win, No Fee. He challenged six former professional snooker players during the 2010 World Snooker Championship to test his snooker knowledge against their knowledge of chosen specialist subjects. He won all but one round, John Parrott being the only player to get the better of him.
As part of the Cardiff Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Mardi Gras in March 2007, CJ acted as host of a quiz night.[5] He also hosted a quiz at the June 2010 conference of the British Humanist Association.[6] CJ has written a book entitled How To Win TV Games Shows.[3][7]
De Mooi was a competitive chess player and in October 2009, he was elected President of the English Chess Federation.[8]
In September 2010 he was very outspoken as a delegate to the FIDE Presidential Elections. De Mooi described the events, which saw Kirsan Ilyumzhinov re-elected over Anatoly Karpov, as "a farce of a vote", going on to declare: "You wouldn't believe the blatant breaking of rules and FIDE's written statutes. It's amazing. There wasn't even a pretence of fairness and free speech." According to De Mooi, Ilyumzhinov, FIDE's president for 15 years, had refused to allow Karpov's supporters to address FIDE's general assembly meeting, but turned off their microphones and carried on speaking himself and ignored legal points raised from the floor, eventually storming off stage with FIDE's ruling board.[9]
'CJ de Mooi' is not de Mooi's birth name: he had it changed by deed poll at age 19 and is quoted as saying 'I no longer wanted to be associated with my family'. [10] De Mooi resides in Wales with his civil partner Andrew.[11] De Mooi competed in the 2009 Flora London Marathon raising money for Amnesty International.[12] He also competed in the 2010 Virgin London Marathon, completing with a time of 3 hours 25 minutes and 44 seconds.[13] De Mooi is a vegetarian[14][15] and claims he can speak German. Like his claim to be able to speak Dutch, despite not knowing how to pronounce his own name, this however seems questionable. On an episode of Eggheads he thought the German words 'Zustand' and 'Vorschrift' were made up and not real words, although in fact they mean situation and regulation respectively. [1]
Correction: The German word 'Zustand' translates as condition or state (not situation, which is Situation or Lage).