Stephen Mulhern

Stephen Mulhern
Mulhern in 2008
Born	Stephen Daniel Mulhern (1977-04-04) 4 April 1977 (age 44) London, England[1]
Occupation	Television presenter magician comedian
Years active	1995–present
Employer	ITV

Stephen Daniel Mulhern (born 4 April 1977) is an English television presenter, magician, comedian and entrepreneur. He began his television career on CITV, appearing in the children's shows Finger Tips (2001–2008) and Tricky TV (2005–2010). Mulhern has presented various television shows for ITV, including Britain's Got More Talent (2007–2019), Animals Do the Funniest Things (2007–2011), This Morning's Hub (2011–2014), Catchphrase (2013–present), Big Star's Little Star (2013–present), In for a Penny (2019–present) and Rolling In It (2020–present). He also co-hosted the Sunday breakfast show on Heart Radio, alongside Emma Willis, and Saturday Night Takeaway.^{[citation needed]}

Early life and education[]

Mulhern's parents were market traders.^[2] He attended St Bonaventure's Catholic School at Forest Gate in East London.^[3]

Career[]

Magic[]

Mulhern gained his interest in comedy and magic from his father, who taught him tricks when he was 11 years old.^{[citation needed]} The family spent their holidays at Butlin's Minehead in Somerset, England, where Mulhern began performing in public. He became the youngest member of The Magic Circle, which brought about an appearance on Blue Peter in a piece about Harry Houdini.^{[citation needed]} Mulhern was later suspended from The Magic Circle for revealing a magic trick on Finger Tips, a children's TV show. The suspension was eventually lifted.^[4]

After leaving school, he created a magic show under the title Stephen's Mega Mad Magic Show. Turned down at age 18 by Michael Barrymore for My Kind of People, he won another television talent show called The Big Big Talent Show which was hosted by Jonathan Ross, and as a result, in 1997 while aged 20, was invited to take part in the Royal Variety Performance at the Victoria Palace Theatre.

Mulhern then released a number of children's magic sets and videos, and got jobs on the Disney Channel, and then on CITV alongside Holly Willoughby on Saturday Showdown. His television credits since have included The Quick Trick Show and more recently Tricky TV. In 2005, Mulhern created and presented the Channel 4 magic show Freaky, and was credited as executive producer. In 2006, he performed a magic routine in an episode of The Slammer and came in second place. The dance group Flawless, who went on to perform on Britain's Got Talent (a spin-off show of which Mulhern presents), came first. Mulhern's 2010 entertainment show Magic Numbers featured magic and illusions during the phone-in process.

He has put his name to a number of magic set for retail sale and has worked closely with producer Paul Andrews in creating magic for his television and live shows. Mulhern does not work with a regular assistant for his illusion performances, preferring to work with a range of guest celebrity assistants. Most notable of these is his former Saturday Showdown co-host Holly Willoughby, who has assisted him on many occasions in a variety of illusions including being sawed in half.^[5] Other celebrity assistants have included the singers Katherine Jenkins, Rachel Stevens and Louise Redknapp, and the actress Mischa Barton.

Stage[]

• Mulhern starred in the stage version of Grease as Danny Zuko.
• In 2005, Mulhern appeared on Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes as Robbie Williams.^{[6][failed verification]}
• Mulhern has a regular slot at Butlins holiday parks, where he once was a Redcoat, during the summer season with a show of comedy, magic and gunge.
• In 1997, he performed at the Royal Variety Performance, while still working as a Redcoat. He then returned to perform at the Royal Variety Performance in 2014.
• In 2009, Mulhern presented the Britain's Got Talent Live Tour after a successful series of Britain's Got More Talent.

Theatre[]

• In 2002, Mulhern appeared in pantomime at the Fairfield Halls Theatre, Croydon.^[7]
• In 2003, Mulhern starred in a production of Sleeping Beauty with Wendy van der Plank at the Futurist Theatre, Scarborough.
• In 2010, Mulhern starred in Aladdin at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury, playing the lead role of Aladdin.
• In 2011, Mulhern played Buttons in a pantomime production of Cinderella at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury with actor John Partridge as Prince Charming.
• In 2012, Mulhern played Idle Jack in the Woking production of Dick Whittington with Ashleigh and Pudsey.^[8]
• In December 2013, Mulhern played Buttons in Cinderella at the Hawth in Crawley. In 2014–15, he was in Sleeping Beauty at the Hawth Crawley. It was a huge hit with over 27,000 people attending in total. One of the shows had Ant and Dec pranking him for their show in the early spring.^[9] In 2015, he returned to Cinderella at the Ashcroft Theatre.
• In 2016, Mulhern starred in "Dick Whittington" at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury, alongside Vladimir Georgievsky from Britain's Got Talent.
• In December 2017, Mulhern played Muddles in "Snow White" at the Hawth Theatre in Crawley.

Radio[]

On 5 August 2012, Mulhern began co-presenter of Sunday breakfast from 9am to 12pm with Emma Willis across the Heart Network. The duo occasionally present the Heart London Breakfast show when regular hosts, Jamie Theakston and Emma Bunton are away.^[10]

Television[]

Mulhern at Chessington World of Adventures in 2015, performing a magic trick in front of a child for CITV show Tricky TV

Mulhern began presenting on CITV in 1998. He co-hosted four series of Finger Tips with Fearne Cotton from 2001 until 2003 and with Naomi Wilkinson in 2004. He presented children's show Tricky TV from 2005 to 2010. He also co-hosted Holly & Stephen's Saturday Showdown (originally called Ministry of Mayhem) with Holly Willoughby from 2004 to 2006.

From 2006 to 2007, Mulhern hosted the ITV2 spin-off Dancing on Ice: Defrosted, while Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby hosted the main show.

From 2007 to 2019, Mulhern hosted ITV2 spin-off Britain's Got More Talent, which aired immediately after the main ITV show, which is hosted by Ant & Dec. Since 2013, Mulhern has become associated with the word 'unbelievable' which slowly became his catchphrase, usually used on Britain's Got More Talent as he walks offscreen at the end of a section, with Ant & Dec often mimicking him^[11] and is also known for saying "doosh!".

From 2009 to 2011, Mulhern narrated the ITV entertainment show Animals Do the Funniest Things.

Mulhern regularly presented inside 'The Hub', a small segment on the ITV daytime show This Morning. He most recently hosted the segment on Thursday and Friday mornings although had previously hosted on Wednesdays and Thursdays until the departure of Matt Johnson in the summer of 2013. Mulhern has occasionally presented the main show, standing in for the regular presenters.

In 2010, he hosted primetime game show Magic Numbers on ITV. Mulhern has hosted numerous episodes of The Big Quiz.

Since April 2013, Mulhern has presented a revived version of ITV game show Catchphrase.^[12] In September 2013, Mulhern began presenting ITV's Big Star's Little Star, a show which sees celebrities and their children compete to win up to £15,000 for charity.^[13]

On 27 October 2013, Mulhern began hosting a live Sunday morning show called Sunday Side Up on ITV.^[14] On 21 December 2013, Mulhern hosted entertainment special The Illusionists on ITV.^[15] On 14 September 2014, Mulhern guest hosted an episode of Sunday Night at the Palladium.^[16]

In early 2015, Mulhern presented the primetime ITV reality series Get Your Act Together.^[17] On 5 February 2015, he began presenting ITV2 panel show Reality Bites .^[18] In 2015, he presented The Magic Show Story a one-off special for ITV^[19] and The Saturday Night Story, a two-part series focusing on Saturday night television.^[20] In 2015, Mulhern presented Pick Me!, a daytime game show for ITV as well as ITV's annual charity telethon Text Santa. In March 2015, Mulhern became a victim of the Ant & Dec Undercover segment on Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. This involved Ant & Dec turning up at Mulhern's pantomime whilst he was in a production of Sleeping Beauty and landing him in all sorts of trouble, such as wetting his costumes, ruining his magic tricks and mixing his music records up.

In February 2016, Stephen became the presenter of the 'Ant vs Dec' segment on Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway after replacing Ashley Roberts.^[21] In 2016, Mulhern presented Go for It, and co-hosted The Next Great Magician alongside Rochelle Humes for ITV. On 12 April 2018, it was announced that Mulhern would host The National Lottery Draws on ITV.^[22]

In 2019, Mulhern presented In For A Penny, which is based on a segment he presents on Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway of the same name. He could be seen in different parts of the UK filming the show.^[23]

In August 2020, Mulhern began presenting a new game show on ITV, Rolling In It, featuring both contestants and celebrities.^[24]

Filmography[]

Television

Radio

References[]

External links[]

• Stephen Mulhern at IMDb
• Official website
• www.stephenmulhern.com