Mark Wright (TV personality)

Before his appearances on The Only Way Is Essex, Wright was a semi-professional footballer, with a youth career at West Ham United,[3] Arsenal,[4] and Tottenham Hotspur.

He started his senior career with Southend United, but moved into nightclub promoting and playing only semi-professionally. In January 2012, it was reported that he rekindled his semi-professional footballing career, by signing for St Neots Town, but this was denied by Wright on his Twitter account.[5]

In October 2010, Wright was one of the original cast members in the ITV reality programme The Only Way is Essex. He announced his departure from the show on 23 October 2011, near the end of the third series. He later returned for a cameo appearance in the sixth series and also, for the 2012 Christmas special. He briefly returned again in 2014 and again in 2016.

In November 2011, Wright took part in the eleventh series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!. He was the runner-up, losing to McFly bassist Dougie Poynter.[6][7]

From January 2012 until 2017, Wright and Laura Jackson co-presented the Take Me Out spin-off programme Take Me Out: The Gossip for ITV2. Zoe Hardman previously hosted with Wright. The series did not air in 2018.[8] He also appeared as a fitness expert on the ITV Breakfast programme Daybreak for two weeks, to front its mini series Downsize in Dubai.[9]

From 20 June to 7 July 2012, Wright presented and starred in a new ITV2 show, titled Mark Wright's Hollywood Nights. It was later dropped after one series.[10] He was due to co-present with Melanie Sykes on a new entertainment series named My Man Can. After filming one series, ITV made the decision not to air the show.[11]

Since 2013, Wright was a reporter on the ITV series Surprise Surprise.

In 2014, Wright fronted his own ITV2 reality show entitled Party Wright Around The World. In 2014, Wright was one of the celebrities competing in the twelfth series of Strictly Come Dancing. He was paired up with professional dancer Karen Hauer.[12] The couple made into the final in which they came fourth.

Wright also presented The Dengineers with Lauren Layfield on CBBC from 2015 until 2017. He left at the end of the second series and was replaced by Joe Tracini.

In December 2016, Wright made an appearance on an episode of E!'s The Royals (season 3, episode 1).

Wright presents series 6 of Channel 5's The Bachelor, based on the US television show of the same name.

On 5 July 2019, Wright guest presented This Morning with Rochelle Humes.[13]

In 2019, Wright guest starred on BBC Programme Who Do You Think You Are [14]

Since 24 December 2012, Wright has presented the "Club Classics" show every Friday and Saturday evening on Heart Radio, between 7 pm and 9 pm.[15] He left in December 2017 to move to America.

In 2019, Wright returned to Heart for a few shows covering Sunday evenings for Emma Bunton. Then, from July 6, he started a brand new show, Saturdays 4pm to 7pm.

At the start of 2020, Wright moved to weekend afternoons from 12pm to 4pm. On Monday 23rd March, it was announced that Wright would take over evenings on heart, Monday to Thursday 7pm to 10pm in addition to presenting his Sunday afternoon show.

In June 2013, Wright was signed by online retail giant, Littlewoods, as its new face of menswear, which sees him style and model a capsule collection each season for Littlewoods' own-brand menswear line, Goodsouls.[16] In September 2018 he was signed by Matalan as the face of their menswear range.[17]

In June 2016, he took part in Soccer Aid for the first time. He played for 'England'. He scored a goal from a direct free kick in the 3-2 victory, and was named Man of the Match. Wright also played in the 2018 and 2019 editions of Soccer Aid.