The following is a list of housemates from the 2008 series of Big Brother UK.
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Alexandra Justine 'Alex' De-Gale (born 4 August 1984) is an accounts clerk[1] from Croydon, South London. Alexandra is a single mother who became pregnant when she was 15 years old; she has a daughter. She was raised as a Christian but converted to Islam. Alexandra describes herself as quirky, outgoing and a go-getter, and hates to be bored.[2] She told Big Brother in an interview aired during the Launch Show that "I am not an It girl, I am 'it'." At Mario and Stephanie's "wedding" in week one, Alexandra was the only housemate to object, having correctly identified the marriage as a sham. She created a large amount of controversy owing to her aggressive nature and was accused of bullying.[3] She very quickly became the least popular housemate among viewers and during the first eviction night many of the crowd were chanting "Get Alex out!" despite not even being up for the public vote. She was ejected on day 14, not as a result of a public vote but because of the producers and Channel 4 deciding her behaviour had been unacceptable.[4] After being nominated, she apparently threatened fellow housemates, saying: "I'm not throwing water at anyone. It's bigger than that... personal offence is never forgotten, do you know what I mean? We are just inside the house. I've got a very, very, very, very, very strong team outside the house. I just can't wait to see my mans and them and see what their plans are, who they got... I'm not talking about those mans, I'm talking about my gangster friends. They got some instructions to follow out."[5] Neither she nor Dennis were allowed to appear on the final night with the rest of the housemates.
Belinda Harris-Reid (born 7 April 1964)[6] is a theatre director from Exeter, Devon. Belinda is married with two sons. She was born in Kampala, Uganda but moved to Malawi before she was one year old, where her father founded the Chancellor College, University of Malawi.[6] She lived in East Africa until the age of 11. Belinda loves jazz singing and being by the sea.[7] Belinda was the fifth housemate to be evicted on Day 44 with 65% of the public vote, after just two weeks of being in the house. During Belinda's eviction, filming took place for the E4 horror series Dead Set. However this leads to a small continuity error, as the Big Brother 9 logo is visible instead of the fictional logo designed for Dead Set.[8]
Dale Howard (born 30 October 1986) is a student from St Helens, Merseyside.[9] Although he is a physical education trainee teacher at Liverpool John Moores University, Dale says that he would rather play football and has unsuccessfully tried out for Manchester United and Wigan Athletic. He says he wouldn't dream of being a PE teacher, and that he hates kids.[10] He is described by his friends and family as mostly arrogant, bigheaded and over-confident.[11] In his audition Dale bragged, "If there's any fanny in there, I'm gonna nail it. Especially if they're fit!"[12] On Sunday 20 July, he succeeded Darnell as the second Head of House after his success in a task that took place to compete for the title. Dale became the eighth housemate to be evicted on Day 65 with 63% of the vote.[13] Dale is now working as a Personal Trainer at Total Fitness in Wilmslow
Darnell Earl Swallow aka "Richard Axon" (born 23 September 1981) is a rapper and an albinistic housemate. He was born in Ipswich but grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. He was deported from America after he got involved in drug dealing. He was elected as the First Ever Head of House on Day 39. His favourite quote in the house was "I couldn't have done much more to be fair ".[14] Darnell finished the series in fifth place with 14.9% of the public vote,[15] and left the house on Day 93.[16] Darnell has made his way back into the papers by appearing in a hardcore pornography series called What Billi Did Next alongside former housemates Billi Bhatti, Rebecca Shiner and Samanda.[17] According to the film's makers Red Hot TV (UK) Darnell gets his "his end away with an 18 year old stripper."[18]
Dennis McHugh (born 1984) is a dance teacher from Edinburgh.[19] Dennis says if he could make any law, it would be that everyone must wear fake tan, and his dream job is to be a dancer and then perhaps a personal shopper. He is obsessed with dancing and describes himself as an "extreme character". In a pre-launch show interview with Big Brother, he said "If someone called me fat, I'd manipulate the little weirdo until they thought they were fat." He would most like to invite Hitler, Mother Theresa and Judy Garland to a dinner party and says that he would never go out with anyone better looking than him. On Day 23, Dennis was ejected from the Big Brother House for spitting in Mohamed's face during a row.[20] Neither he nor Alexandra were allowed to appear on the final night with the rest of the housemates.
Jennifer 'Jen' Clark (born 19 March 1986) is a model from Chester-le-Street, County Durham.[21] She says being the mother of her 22-month-old daughter Maddy has made her the proudest person in the world and has conservative views on abortion, meat-eating, smoking, immigration, gay marriage and naked glamour modelling. Although she feels really old Jennifer says she is opinionated, ruthless and ambitious and claims that she wouldn't enter Big Brother if she didn't think she could win.[22] She was raised a Catholic and states that she hates people who spit.[23] Before coming in to the house Jennifer had claimed to be single although was only separated from her husband. After a large fight with her husband, Jennifer told her husband that she was taking their two year old daughter and staying at her parents' house for a few days. She didn't tell him she was going to appear on the show and she missed a court hearing while there. Jennifer was the third housemate to be evicted on Day 30, with 89.7% of the public vote.[24] When she first entered the house, in her vblog, she said she resembled Cheryl Cole
Since Big Brother, Jennifer has had numerous magazine interviews, including Heat in which she admitted her feelings for Dale.[25] Despite her earlier assertions, she has appeared topless for Nuts magazine.
Kathreya 'Kat' Kasisopa (born 1977) is a Thai massage therapist from Thailand but now lives in Welling, South East London.[26] She relocated from Bangkok to the UK in 2001 and she has an obsession with cookies. Kathreya says she’s addicted to them and she carries a cookie jar with her wherever she goes. Kathreya is a Buddhist, believes strongly in karma, and will do anything to avoid an argument. She loves wearing bright clothing, and wears platform boots at all times to give her extra height as she is only 5 ft (1.5 m) tall. She loves Techno music. She is scared of the dark. She wants to be reincarnated as a Pokémon. She says her best feature is her mouth, as it never stops smiling. She was engaged at the time of the show,[27] and has subsequently married.[28]
On Day 90, Kathreya was the 13th person to be evicted from the house after receiving 4.9% of the public vote to win, and finished in sixth place.[29][30]
Kathreyna appeared in pantomime at Leicester Square Theatre's Basement theatre in 2009.[31]
Lisa Appleton (born 1968) is a tanning sales rep from Warrington, Cheshire.[32] She is also involved in charity fund-raising. Lisa is a former bodybuilder, a fitness and health fanatic and has an 18-year-old daughter. She once appeared on Gladiators as a contestant. She believes in reincarnation, life after death, clairvoyants, ghosts, spirit guides, and universal dynamics. On Day 1, along with Mario, Stephanie, and Luke, Lisa was given a secret mission to hide her relationship with fellow housemate Mario; failure to do so would result in automatic nomination.[33] On Day 4, the housemates discovered her relationship and Mario and Lisa were subsequently nominated for failing the task.[34] On Day 58 Lisa decided to escape from the house after the arrival of Nicole because she was missing Mario. She broke through an emergency exit, but because she had not left the Big Brother compound, she was allowed to return to the house.[35] On Day 81 her partner, Mario, returned to the house and proposed to Lisa. She said yes.[36][37] On Day 84 Sara and Lisa played the prisoner's dilemma and shared £50,000.[38] [39] [40] [41] Lisa was the eleventh housemate to be evicted on Day 86 with 52.6% of the public vote.[42]
In February 2009, Lisa received minor local press attention after she and fiancé Mario found a Pecan Weevil in a bowl of Kellogs' Crunchy Nut Cornflakes[43]
Luke Christian Thomas Marsden (born 16 July 1987) was a student at the University of Salford. Luke loves wrestling and has worked in the North West wrestling scene as a ring announcer, manager and referee. He doesn’t smoke, use drugs or swear, and says a typical weekend night out would be going to the wrestling, Pizza Hut, bowling or the cinema. While in the Big Brother house, Luke celebrated his 21st Birthday. In week 1, as the housemates discovered Mario and Lisa's relationship, Luke was up for eviction for failing the wedding task. Luke became the seventh housemate to be evicted on Day 58 with 37% of the public vote. Since leaving, Luke continued his relationship with fellow housemate Rebecca but have now split up after 18 months together. On January 8, 2010 Luke made his radio broadcasting début on local station Bolton FM, Luke hosts "The Luke Marsden Show" an entertainment show in which he interviews a different celebrity guest each week, the show is on air live every Friday night 7pm-9pm. Luke mentioned on his official website that he intends to run for political office as a Council candidate in his hometown of Wigan,he has yet to announce when he will run and for what party. Luke re-signed his STAR magazine contract on Jan 4th 2011 and now writes a weekly TV column for the magazine.
Shaun Astbury (born 9 June 1965), aka Mario Marconi, is a civil servant from Widnes, Cheshire[44] and was formerly a tagging officer for the Home Office, and a post office manager in Liverpool. He was christened Shaun but changed his name to Mario to suit his image. He has previously appeared on various reality TV shows including Brits Behind Bars,[45] Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway[46] and BBC2's Kitchen Criminals (with current wife Lisa).[47]
Mario entered the house on Day 1 with Lisa; they were the first housemates to enter the House this series.[48] Mario was nominated in Week 1 because he failed his task to hide his relationship with fellow housemate Lisa.[34]
Mario was the fourth housemate to be evicted on Day 37 with 77% of the public vote.[49]
He appeared with the coat of cash on The Sunday Night Project and appeared on Big Brother's Little Brother after the show.
Mario re-entered the Big Brother house to propose to housemate Lisa on Day 81. She accepted the marriage proposal.[36][37]
In February 2009, Mario received minor local press attention after he and fiancé Lisa found a Pecan Weevil in a bowl of Kellogs' Crunchy Nut Cornflakes[43] In October 2010 , Mario and Lisa got married on The Wedding House.
Maysoon Shaladi is an Actress, model and TV presenter from London who lives in Hertfordshire. Her career has moved from strength to strength following her appearence on Big Brother and now currently a Bollywood film actress and Item girl. During her career she has also been voted most popular video vixen and has appeared in music videos for Sean Paul, Melanie C, Jay Sean, Ludacris and Simon Webbe. Other credits in her career include being the face of the Lynx commercials in 2008 and she has featured in campaigns for the Sony PlayStation and Apple iPod. She presented a national talent contest called UK Unsigned. Maysoon is fluent in Arabic and said she went into the Big Brother House to try to change model stereotypes.[50] She walked on Day 56.[51]
Michael 'Mikey' Hughes (born 1974) is a radio producer on Insight Radio from Kilwinning, North Ayrshire and is Big Brother's first ever blind housemate. He has a genetic condition called Stickler syndrome which left him partially sighted and was left completely blind after a cataract operation in 1998 went wrong. He buys and sells Third Reich battle flags, bravery medals and plaques and is a major international dealer.[52] Michael is currently the tallest housemate in the house at 6'2" tall. Michael was appointed Head of House on Day 66.[53] He finished the series in second place with 48.7% of the public vote,[54] and left the house on Day 93.[16]
He has since continued in his role as a producer/presenter with Insight Radio. He ran as an independent in the 2009 Glasgow North East by-election receiving 54 votes.[55]
Mohamed 'Mo' Mohamed (born 14 December 1983) is a student in MMCC. who now lives in London.[56] Mohamed was born in Somalia and then moved to Kenya, Yemen, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Dubai before moving to the UK with his family and 12 brothers and sisters.
Mohamed has two criminal convictions for violence. The first was for beating up a student with a belt, for which he received 280 hours community service. The second was for biting a police officer's finger during the trial of a man accused of murdering his cousin, in which he was reported to have received a similar punishment.[57]
Mohamed became Head of House on Week 12 and was guaranteed a place in the final week. On Day 90 Mohamed was the twelfth person to be evicted from the house, finishing seventh with the lowest percentage of the vote to win, 1.8%, in the final week.[29][30]
Mohamed is currently working in Hamleys toy store in London as a toy demonstrator.
Nicole Cammack (born 28 November 1988), entered the house on Day 58 and is a student from Surrey, as well as Rex's girlfriend.[58] Nicole had previously been in the task room the week before becoming a housemate, as part of the Cops and Robbers shopping task.[59] She was in a line-up of actors with Mohamed's brother. Lisa and Luke had to identify Rex's girlfriend, however they failed to identify Nicole and instead chose suspect number 6.[60] Nicole entered the house as the last of the 57 special prizes housemates ordered on their weekly shopping list.[61] On her first night in the house, Nicole crossed the divide and was subsequently punished by Big Brother who withheld her suitcase until the following week, when it was bought by Head of House Rachel at a cost of £20.[62]
Nicole was the tenth housemate to be evicted on Day 79 with 94.04% of the vote, the highest eviction percentage in Big Brother UK history, and the third highest in the world, behind Aline from Big Brother Brazil 5 and Big Brother Spain 11's Nagore with a joint 95% of votes (to evict).[63]
Rachel Rice (born 7 March 1984)[64] is a trainee teacher from Torfaen in Wales.[65] A former child actress, she was 2nd runner up in the 2003 Miss Wales contest, won by Imogen Thomas who appeared in a previous series of Big Brother.[66] She took part in around 20 television commercials globally - including the Sony Handicam's 'Fairies at the Bottom of the Garden' in 1991 - until she secured her first film role in Night Train to Venice with Hugh Grant in 1992.[67] She is a devout Catholic. She owns five cats. Four weeks prior to appearing in the show Rice had been on a placement teaching English and drama at Caerleon Comprehensive School. The last colleagues heard of her was when she went sick with a mystery virus.[68]
On Day 59 she completed the Alphabet task to become Head of House, making her the only female to hold this title.
Rachel was the 2008 series winner with 51.3% of the public vote.[69][70]
Rebecca 'Bex' Shiner (born 22 April 1987) is a nursery nurse from Coventry, West Midlands.[71] She is fond of many former boy bands, especially the American group Hanson.[72] An ex-pal said Hanson’s bosses threatened to take out a restraining order after she camped outside their hotels and called their rooms. She was also arrested and taken to the police station for 12 hours when found sleeping on a park bench, following V to Disneyland.[73] Upon entering the house on Day 1, Rebecca screamed and gasped, to the concern of the other housemates.[74] Rebecca was the sixth housemate to be evicted on Day 51 with 65.4% of the public vote.[75] She had a 18 month romance with fellow contestant Luke after being evicted.[76] She is now a regular on Television X's sex channels.[77]
Rex Clayton Diego Newmark (born 6 January 1984) is a chef from Hampstead, London. Rex is the son of Vanessa (nee Barnes) & Robert Kenneth Newmark, and has an Older brother, Brett, and younger brother, Dexter. Rex comes from a rich family of restaurateurs and is a head chef at a family restaurant. He says that as a head chef he loves shouting at people, stating: "My job is to be a professional bully - people always tell me to stop being aggressive."[78] He claims that his proudest moment was winning a culinary challenge in college.[78] He still lives at home, where his meals are cooked by the family housekeeper. His 22 year old girlfriend Nicole Cammack entered the house on Day 58.[79] He received the most nominations this series being voted a total of 29 times by his fellow housemates. This at the time was the highest number of nominations until Marcus in Big Brother 10 gained 46 nominations. Rex finished the series in fourth place with 22.5% of the public vote,[80] and left the house on Day 93.[16]
Rex appeared in Big Brother 2009 (UK) as part of the tenth anniversary celebrations, he competed against contestant Marcus Akin in a task set in Rex's edition of the show. On September 4, 2010, Rex took part Ultimate Big Brother in the "Enjoy the Silence Task", where he had to taunt UBB contestants whilst they completed mini challenges.
Sara Lorraine Folino (born 19 February 1981) is a personal assistant from London. She had a rural upbringing in Melbourne, Australia, but was granted the right to move to London in 2003, because of her Scottish grandmother and her English mother. Sara, a self-described Angelina Jolie look-a-like used to work in a bank, but now works for MTV.[81] Sara says she has a twin brother who is five minutes her junior, but she hasn't seen him since her Italian father kicked her out of the family home when she was 15 years old. She said: "I don't really know what he looks like because I've not been home for five and a half years. I don't really see my family because my dad kicked me out of the house so there's a bit of bad blood there."[82] On Day 84 Sara and Lisa played the prisoner's dilemma and shared £50,000.[38] [39] [40] [41] Sara finished the series in third place with 30.1% of the public vote,[83] and left the house on Day 93.[16]
Stephanie 'Steph' Joan McMichael (born 1989) is a student from Calderstones, Liverpool. In 2002, Stephanie was disqualified from Popstars: The Rivals, the show that created Girls Aloud, for being too young.[84] On Day 1, along with fellow housemates Mario, Lisa, and Luke, Stephanie was given a secret mission to hide the relationship between housemates Mario and Lisa; as part of this task she was required to pretend to be Mario's girlfriend.[33] Failure to complete this mission successfully would result in an automatic nomination of not only her, but also Mario, Lisa, and Luke.[33] In her role, she was required to marry Mario thinking that it was a genuine wedding; unbeknownst to her, the marriage was not actually real.[85] Stephanie did not get on well with Mario, which resulted in several arguments between the two of them, one of which resulted in Mario calling Stephanie a haemorrhoid. Stephanie was nominated during Week 1 because the housemates discovered Mario and Lisa's relationship, failing in her task to hide it.[34] She became the first housemate to be evicted on Day 9 with 48% of the public vote.[86]
Stuart Pilkington (born 1983) is a personal trainer turned property developer from Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester.[87] He has a five-year-old daughter, named Mia.[88] Stuart entered the Big Brother house on Day 16, as a replacement for Alexandra. He says he doesn't support any political parties, thinks the world would be better off without religion, and would like to see the monarchy disbanded.[89] Stuart was the ninth person to be evicted from the house on Day 72 with 59% of the public vote.[90] In August, 2010, Stuart took part in a task set out by Victor and Michelle in Ultimate Big Brother to become Nadia Almada's slave for the day.
Sylvia Barrie (born 31 August 1986) is a student at the University of Derby who fled to the UK from Sierra Leone when she was 11. She prays daily and attends church regularly.[91] Sylvia was the second housemate to be evicted on Day 23 with 90.2% of the vote.[92]
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