Andrew Hayden-Smith

Andrew Hayden-Smith (born Andrew John Smith, 5 November 1983 in Gateshead, England) is an English actor and voiceover artist and former television presenter.

Andrew Hayden-Smith
Born
Andrew John Smith

(1983-11-05) 5 November 1983
Gateshead, England
NationalityEnglish
OccupationActor, voiceover artist, television presenter
Years active1995–present
TelevisionCBBC, ITV, Disney Channel

Personal life

Early years

Hayden-Smith grew up in Chester-le-Street in County Durham and attended the Pelton Roseberry Sports and Community College. He has an older sister, Kerri Hayden, who also worked on Byker Grove as a 2nd AD. While visiting the set of Byker Grove one day, he was spotted by the series' Executive Producer Matthew Robinson, who cast him in the role of 'Ben Carter', making his first appearance in the eighth series of the show in 1995.

Initially just using the name Andrew Smith, he appeared as a guest on Saturday morning CBBC show Live & Kicking with several other characters from the show. Smith soon became a regular guest on the show. This led to appearances on other shows and also in teen-magazines, as well as two pantomime appearances. In 2001 he applied for Equity membership and was accepted under the name Andrew Hayden-Smith (Hayden being another surname in his family), as the name Andrew Smith was already taken. He announced his change of stage name on Live & Kicking.

Hayden-Smith is openly gay,[1] coming out in Attitude magazine in February 2005, when he was 21.[2]

He is in a long term relationship with his boyfriend,[3][4] Dan Maton.[5]

Career

Hayden-Smith was a regular guest in the CBBC studio for some time, and was invited to guest present the studio links in autumn 2002. He had expressed a wish for some time to have a go at presenting, and was encouraged by existing CBBC presenter Jake Humphrey to ask the bosses if he could stay on. This was agreed and Hayden-Smith moved to London to become half of the main presenting team for the afternoon slot on BBC1, a position he would continue to hold for just under four years. During that period from time to time he also presented the CBBC breakfast shows on BBC1 and BBC2 as well as the digital CBBC channel. In 2003 he also filmed his final scenes of Byker Grove, in which his character was killed off. Hayden-Smith became close friends with several of his fellow presenters, including Angellica Bell and Adrian Dickson.[6]

During his time on CBBC, Hayden-Smith was once gunged in the studio after a phone-in deciding which presenter should get gunged in honour of the gameshow Get Your Own Back. With 63% of the votes, Hayden-Smith had a bucket of pink gunge and a bucket of green gunge poured directly over his head.

By this time he had begun presenting the UK Top 40 on CBBC. The show had begun in early 2002 along with the CBBC digital channel and was originally presented by Adrian Dickson and Konnie Huq. It was aired on Sunday nights concurrently with the Top 40 show on Radio One. After Dickson and Huq left the show in September 2004, Hayden-Smith was approached to become the sole presenter, having stood in for Dickson at the last minute one Sunday night several months previously. At first the show continued its success, but in 2005 the format changed to become more "computerised" and this was not received well. The last show was broadcast in June 2005.

Hayden-Smith appeared in the episodes "Rise of the Cybermen", "The Age of Steel" and "Doomsday" as Jake Simmonds in the 2006 series of Doctor Who. He returned to CBBC having completed the filming, but decided that he wished to concentrate on acting. His final day of presenting was on 7 July 2006, the day before his third and final Doctor Who appearance.[7] On leaving CBBC and after his final Doctor Who appearance, Hayden-Smith played Romeo in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet at the Jermyn Street Theatre, London, 21 April – 17 May 2008. His position as Jake Simmonds on Doctor Who earned him a spot on The Weakest Link. In the first round, he banked the £5,000 target. Eventually, he placed fifth.

Andrew has been a roving reporter for Channel 5's morning programme, Live with Gabby, and was a regular presenter in The Hub on This Morning during the summer of 2013.

In 2014 and 2015, Hayden-Smith joined the cast of the Channel 4 series Cucumber and E4 series Banana,[8][9] both from writer, Russell T Davies[10]

In September 2015 he was on Hacker’s Birthday Bash, screened on CBBC, a children's reunion show also featuring Andi Peters and Philip Schofield.[6]

Hayden-Smith is a regular continuity announcer, mainly on ITV and ITV2 but also does voiceover work for other channels,[11] and is a contributor to Attitude.co.uk.[12]

In July 2016, Hayden-Smith joined the cast of Channel 4 soap opera, Hollyoaks, as new regular police officer, DS Gavin Armstrong, the chief inspector investigating the murder of Patrick Blake (Jeremy Sheffield).[13]

Filmography
YearTitleRoleNotes
1995–2003Byker GroveBen Carter Series 8–15
2000CinderellaDandini
2001Peter PanPeter Pan Main Role
2001The Saturday ShowHimself
2001Live & Kicking CastawayHimself
2002–2006CBBCHimself Main Presenter
2004Company Batchelor of the YearParticipant
2004–2005UK Top 40Himself Main Presenter
2004Blue PeterHimself
2006Doctor WhoJake Simmonds Guest role (3 episodes)
2006Doctor Who ConfidentialHimself
2006Totally Doctor WhoHimself
2007The Weakest LinkHimself
2012Live with GabbyHimself Reporter
2012Big Brother's Bit on the SideHimself
2013Pointless CelebritiesHimself Participant
2013This MorningHimself Presenter of "The Hub"
2013The VaultHimself Presenter of OMG! Pure Cheddar Cheese Pop! Top 20
2013Doctor Who Live: The AfterpartyHimself
2014TV's Nastiest VillainsHimself
2015BananaBilly
2013-PAW PatrolAdditional voices UK and Ireland Version
2015CucumberBilly
2015Hacker's Birthday Bash: 30 Years of Children's BBCHimself [14]
2016–2017HollyoaksDS Armstrong Regular role (64 episodes)

References
  1. "Andrew Hayden-Smith: 'You could literally laugh me into bed'". Attitude.co.uk. 4 August 2015. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  2. "QX meets...Andrew Hayden-Smith". QX Magazine. 3 January 2018. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  3. "Gay Power: The pink list". The Independent. July 2006.
  4. Benjamin Cohen (May 2006). "Doctor Who star claims gay kiss was dropped". Pink News.
  5. "Hollyoaks star Andrew Hayden-Smith shares cute snap of himself kissing boyfriend at Brighton Pride". Attitude.co.uk. 8 August 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  6. Robson, Ian (10 August 2015). "Andrew Hayden-Smith recalls his days as a children's TV presenter in advance of reunion show". chroniclelive. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  7. "Interview: Andrew Hayden-Smith is grown up, single and returning to your TV". Pink News. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
  8. Cannon, Nick (21 January 2015). "Andrew Hayden-Smith: Banana's a long way from Byker Grove! (VIDEO) | News | TV News | What's on TV". What' s on TV. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  9. Duke, Simon (12 March 2015). "Byker Grove's Andrew Hayden-Smith to star in final episode of Cucumber". nechronicle. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
  10. "Andrew Hayden-Smith to star in Russell T Davies's E4 series Banana". Digital Spy Ltd. 6 June 2014. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
  11. Andrew Hayden-Smith
  12. "Attitude Magazine >> Andrew Hayden-Smith". Archived from the original on 2 February 2015. Retrieved 25 January 2015.
  13. Duke, Simon (14 June 2016). "Hollyoaks: Andrew Hayden-Smith to make debut in Channel 4 soap". nechronicle. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  14. "CBBC offers life-line to Gordon The Gopher as stars reunite to celebrate 30 years of live Children's BBC Presentation". www.bbc.co.uk.
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