Aisleyne Horgan Wallace

 

Born	28 December 1978 (age 32) London, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Occupation	Glamour model, television personality, fashion designer
Television	Big Brother

 

Early life

Horgan-Wallace’s mother is Sophia Horgan, a fashion designer, and her father is Steve Wallace, a car dealer. They separated when she was three years old. She was raised by her mother in North London and moved schools several times due to clashes with fellow pupils. At the age of 16, Horgan-Wallace stopped living with her mother and stayed with friends before moving to a women’s hostel. She was reunited with her father at the age of 18 after he tracked her down.

It has been reported that Horgan-Wallace won a Prince’s Trust grant to take a beauty therapy course at college, and that she had jobs in shoe shops and as a promotions girl. Her official biography states that she studied at the London College of Fashion, and that she took part-time promotional jobs to help fund her education.

Big Brother

Horgan-Wallace rose to become notable in the United Kingdom when she was selected as a contestant in the seventh series of the Channel 4 TV series, Big Brother, in 2006. She entered the Big Brother house on Day 12, and became known for her clashes with fellow contestants Nikki Grahame and Grace Adams-Short, and for being voted into “the house next door” by the public — a secret house, where she was forced to choose who, out of five new contestants, would become new housemates. Horgan-Wallace reached the final on day 93; she came third with 22% of the public vote. She was the highest placed female housemate of the series. It was reported that Horgan-Wallace’s popularity shocked the show’s producers, with tabloid sources suggesting that they had attempted to “engineer” the series’ finalists, and did not expect the swing in public support for her.

In August 2010, she turned down an offer to appear in Ultimate Big Brother in order to shoot her scenes as ‘Maria’ in the British urban comedy movie, Anuvahoodinstead.

Modelling

Prior to her appearance on the Big Brother TV show, Horgan-Wallace had worked as a glamour model. Since the series ended, she has done photo shoots withNuts, Zoo and the Daily Star.In 2007 she shot a calendar.

Television work

Since 2007, she has appeared in a number of episodes of Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe. She has also presented for shows such as T4. She appeared in BBC One’s Test The Nation, on a team with several other Big Brother contestants.She also made a small appearance on The Charlotte Church Show.

She appeared in several episodes of the Red TV series Celebrity: Stars at Work, which aired in December 2007 and January 2008. Following on from this, Horgan-Wallace signed a one series contract with Red TV to film a self titled, fly-on-the-wall documentary Aisleyne. Four episodes were broadcast, the first being aired on 5 March 2008.

In June 2008, Horgan-Wallace made a guest appearance on a special edition of The Friday Night Project, which aired after the launch of Big Brother’s ninth series. Her contributions to the show included a sketch which mocked her rivalry with former housemate Nikki Grahame.

In August 2008, she made a brief cameo appearance in The Kevin Bishop Show.

In October 2008 Aisleyne appeared in Channel 4 and E4’s horror Dead Set, which was written by Charlie Brooker. She played herself in this show. She featured in two episodes – episode 1.01 and episode 1.05. In episode 1.05 she played a zombie version of herself.

On 2 March 2009 Aisleyne underwent a make-under for the BBC Three programme Snog Marry Avoid?, presented by Jenny Frost. She was persuaded that a more natural look suited her.

In May 2009 she was interviewed for the E4/CH4 programme – Big Brother: A Decade in the Headlines, written and presented by Grace Dent.

In March 2010 she appeared as a guest diner on the Living TV programme, Celebrity Restaurant in Our Living Room.

On 5 May 2011 she starred in an episode of Celebrity Hens and Stags for Wedding TV. She helped organize a stag night in Edinburgh including racing in an off-road buggy.

In June 2011 she appeared as a contestant in the TV3 (Ireland) series, Celebrity Salon. She finished runner-up behind TV presenter, Alan Hughes.

Other work

In 2006, she had a small part in the film Rollin’ with the Nines.

After Big Brother, Aisleyne made numerous personal appearances in nightclubs around the UK. She hosted a show for the online radio station, Invincible, was a guest commentator on BBC’s Asian Network and made several guest appearances on Choice FM’s ‘Morning Vybe’ show.

She worked as an agony aunt for More magazine and wrote a weekly column for Reveal magazine covering Big Brother 8 as well as a daily blog on their website. She reprised this role for the programme’s ninth and tenth series.

In September 2007, it was announced that she had taken control of her own career via her management company, Aisleyne Ltd, along with co-director Richard Skeels.

On 10 February 2008 Aisleyne released a fashion range named “Unique by Aisleyne”. She worked with the “high-end” fashion distributors Unique Collections Ltd, to design and produce the outfits. A complementary swimwear range was launched a few weeks later.

It was announced on 24 April 2008, that Mainstream Publishing had bought the right to publish her autobiography, entitled Aisleyne: Surviving Guns, Gangs and Glamour. This book was published on 7 May 2009. The launch party held on May 6 was attended by various celebrities, including Jodie Marsh, Charlie Brookerand Nate James.

On 24 and 27 March 2009, she co-hosted a radio show on SMUC Radio with Eamonn McCrystal

Horgan-Wallace plays the character ‘Maria’ in the British film comedy Anuvahood, which was released in the UK on 18 March 2011.

On 10 June 2011 she was a judge in the Miss Universe Ireland beauty contest in Dublin.

Philanthropy

Horgan-Wallace is a patron of Brain Tumour UK and acted as an ambassador for Club4Climate, an initiative based around parties in London’s West End and elsewhere that aimed to prevent climate change.
In 2007, Aisleyne completed the London 10 kilometre run to raise money for Brain Tumour UK, and she completed the same event on 6 July 2008.
She has been involved with the NHS Stop Smoking campaign in association with Cancer Research UK,and has given her support to No Smoking Dayeach year since 2008. She also became involved in the “Put the Knives and Guns Down!” campaign encouraging teenagers to get off the streets and stop the rising number of British shootings and stabbings.

Personal life

She was photographed with former World heavyweight champion Mike Tyson in May 2008, amid reports of them visiting a London nightclub. Horgan-Wallace had previously described Tyson, whom she first met at a restaurant opening in November 2005, as a “pussycat” and a “gentleman”. In January 2009 it was reported that Tyson had proposed to her and she was considering her response.

She became friends with Charlie Brooker after appearing in his television series Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe, and the two attended the 2007 Glastonbury Festivaltogether, as documented by Brooker in his Guardian column.

Reports in April, June and July 2008 revealed Horgan-Wallace to be a friend of the singer Amy Winehouse. She was photographed visiting Winehouse’s Camden flat on a couple of occasions and was also spotted out with Winehouse and three of her friends.

On 23rd July 2011, Aisleyne was photographed distraught outside Amy Winehouse’s Camden flat after hearing of her death.

On 27th July 2011, Aisleyne appeared on ITV1’s This Morning show to deny claims made in The Daily Mirror that she had been out drinking with Winehouse just two days before her death.