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Sean Dermot Finton O'Leary Jr (born 24 May 1973), better known as Dermot O'Leary, is a television and radio presenter.

Born in Colchester, England to Irish Catholic immigrants, he was an altar boy and attended Catholic schools. He studied for a BA degree in Media and Television, with modules in Politics at Middlesex University, gaining a 2:2. Dermot also attended the st Benedict's Roman Catholic School in Colchester,where he studied RE with Mrs C O'Connor, in Colchester, and Colchester Sixth Form College.

He started as a DJ with BBC Radio Essex before becoming a television runner and moving onto presenting at Channel 4, and was part of the original presenting line up of the channel's T4 strand, before moving on to present Big Brother's Little Brother (the companion show to Big Brother) on E4 from 2001 onwards. As of 2006, the show became less popular due to the huge success of fellow Big Brother sister show Big Brother's Big Mouth, hosted by Russell Brand. It should also be noted that Dermot shares the same talent agency as Russell, Davina McCall and Jade Goody - John Noel Management.

During a Big Brother run, O'Leary writes a column on the latest from the house for Heat Magazine

He presented a Radio show for London's indie Rock station XFM firstly presenting weekday mid-mornings before moving to a Saturday evening show. He was axed from the station in 2003 as he was a ratings disaster.

Dermot joined BBC Radio 2 in September 2004, presenting a Saturday afternoon show entitled Dermot's Saturday Club. From September 2005 onwards, he has presented a Saturday evening show for Radio 2.

The show was broadcast from 5-7pm on Saturdays, but from November 18th 2006 goes out from 4.30-6.30pm on BBC Radio 2. The show focuses on new music and live sessions. He was the first UK DJ to play the likes of the Feeling, Orson and Mika^{[citation needed]}. He has featured live sessions from the likes of Oasis, Supergrass, the Raconteurs, Massive Attack, Kasabian, Guillemots, the Zutons, Beck, the Lemonheads, Lily Allen, the Foo Fighters, The Go! Team, Bloc Party, Ben Kweller, the Magic Numbers and Moby. You can hear the best of them on his BBC Radio 2 webpage. He also hosts Radio 2's Brits and South by Southwest coverage.

In interviews (including two with the British newspaper, The Guardian), O'Leary has made it clear that he does not regard himself as English or British, but as Irish, and holds traditional Irish affinities: Guinness and Celtic and regularly travels to Ireland. He has attracted some criticism for refusing to wear a poppy in the run up to Remembrance Sunday. He supports Arsenal F.C.

His favourite magazine is Prospect^{[citation needed]} and he is a dedicated campaigner for Make Poverty History, and visited Sierra Leone with CAFOD accompanied by his own father, Sean O'Leary. Dermot is also a patron of the male cancer awareness campaign, 'Everyman.

He ran the 2005 London Marathon (his third) under four hours for the first time.

Dermot currently presents the UK version of the game show 1 vs 100 - which is also combined with the National Lottery draws every Saturday (as of September 2006). On the 29th of March 2007, it was announced that Dermot would replace Kate Thornton as the new host of ITV1's The X Factor for at least two series. Speaking after the announcement he said: "I was very flattered to be offered the job to host such a hugely successful show. I'm really looking forward to working with Simon [Cowell] and the team on the kind of Saturday night entertainment show I grew up watching."

Contents 1 Shows hosted 1.1 Television 1.2 Radio 2 External links

The following is a list of the main shows O'Leary has presented:

• The Bigger Breakfast
• No Balls Allowed
• T4 (1999-2001)
• The Dogs' Balearics (2000)
• Re:Covered (BBC Choice)
• Big Brother's Little Brother (2001 - present)
• Big Brother's Little Breakfast (2006) (Morning version of BBLB for Celebrity Big Brother UK)
• Teen Big Brother UK (2003)
• SAS: Are you tough enough? (2002)
• Dermot's Sporting Buddies (2002)
• Some Of My Best Friends Are... Catholic (2003)
• SAS Jungle: Are you tough enough? (2003)
• Shattered (2004)
• Morning Glory (2006)
• Big Brother's Big Brain (2006-present)
• 1 vs. 100 (2006-present)

• BBC Essex Dermot O'Leary Show
• XFM Weekday Mid-Mornings - 2001-2002
• XFM The Weekender Saturday Evenings - 2002 - 2003
• BBC Radio 2 Dermot's Saturday Club Saturdays 2-4pm (2004-2005)
• BBC Radio 2 The Dermot O'Leary Show Saturdays 5-7pm(2005-2006) Saturdays 4.30-6.30pm (2006 - present)

• [1] BBC Radio 2 - Dermot O'Leary
• [2] DermotOLeary.net - Unofficial fan site
• [3] Profile/interview in MaleFirst.co.uk
• Ex-SAS Eddie Stone Special Forces Site