Craig Revel Horwood

**Craig Revel Horwood** is an Australian-British author, dancer, choreographer, conductor, theatre director and former drag queen.

Horwood has been a judge on *Strictly* since the show started in 2004.

## Biography

*Retrieved from bbc.co.uk*

Craig does not hold back when it comes to giving his expert opinion!

Born in the small Australian town of Ballarat, he moved to the bright lights of Melbourne to begin his dance career. He soon appeared in productions such as West Side Story, La Cage Aux Folles, Me and My Girl and many more.

"*That wasn't good at all. It reminded me of a Thunderbird...*"
— himself
Europe then came calling, where he joined the Lido Du Paris as a dancer in show Panache, followed by a principle singer role in Formidable at the Moulin Rouge. A year later, he joined the UK tour of Cats in Edinburgh and Dublin, as well as appearing in the original concert version of Jesus Christ Superstar.

In the West End, Craig has played the part of Munkustrap in Cats, Dance Captain in Miss Saigon, and was an original cast member of Crazy For You.

As a result of his glittering stage career and choreography skills, he has received prestigious Olivier Award nominations for his work on musicals Spend, Spend, Spend, and My One And Only.

Strictly simply wouldn't be the same without the multi-talented Craig, who can always be relied upon to enforce the rules in the Ballroom!

## Career

### Theatre

Horwood has a wide range of experience across theatre before and whilst he was working on Strictly. His theatre credits include *Spend Spend Spend* and *My One and Only*, which both gained Olivier Award nominations for the Best Choreography category.

His directing and choreography credits also include revivals of classic musicals including *West Side Story*, *Miss Saigon*, *Sunset Boulevard*, *Guys and Dolls* and *Anything Goes*, amongst many, and is due to direct a revival of the *Strictly* inspired film turned musical *Strictly Ballroom*.

#### Pantomime

Alongside directing and choreographing theatre, Horwood also acted in theatre as well, particularly in pantomimes. He featured in three different productions of *Snow White and the Seven Dwarves* as the Wicked Queen (2009, 2017, 2019), as Captain Hook in the Orchard Theatre's production of *Peter Pan* between 2014-16 and in two productions of *Cinderella* as the Wicked Stepmother (2018, 2021).

### Television

#### *Strictly*

Horwood has been a member of the judging panel on *Strictly Come Dancing* since its inception in 2004. He has a reputation for being the harshest of the judges and is often the recipient of jeering and booing from the studio audience; he also received criticism for his apparent bias towards Emma Bunton in the fourth series of the competition. Horwood is known for stringently applying rules, as for example when marking down for an 'illegal lift' in some dances if the lady's foot leaves the floor.

Across his time on *Strictly*, Horwood has become known and imitated for his locutions, which often include exaggeratedly lengthened vowels, including: 'It was a complete dahnce di-sah-ster, dahling' and "Chah-Chah-Chah". Another common utterance is 'Three words: Fab-u-lous!', with the syllables of the word articulated as three separate words. Horwood similarly breaks up the syllables and throws the stress forward to the final syllable for 'A-ma-zing'. To appreciate erotically-charged routines, Horwood will declaim 'absolute filth', often immediately followed by '...and I loved it'. Passing judgment on Kimberley Walsh in 2012, Horwood said the dance was 'indecent, improper, absolute filth', and added: 'I loved it.'

#### *Dancing With the Stars*

Horwood was a judge on *Dancing with the Stars* in New Zealand, alongside Strictly professional Brendan Cole. He was also a judge on the Australian version during Series 16 and 17.