Nicki Chapman

Nicki  was born in Canterbury, Kent living by the sea in Herne Bay with her sister and parents. After leaving school at 16 and spending three years at the local college, wanderlust encouraged Nicki to visit Australia. She fell in love with the place and returned to the UK to get organised for emigrating there. However, whilst waiting for her visa, the lure of London and the music industry beckoned. This changed her career path and life forever.

At 21, Nicki worked her way up in the music industry starting off as a Promotions’ Assistant at MCA Records. She quickly became one of the youngest publicists in the industry. Subsequently, she moved to RCA Records as ‘Head of TV Promotions, where she began a long association with Simon Cowell.

From 1995 until the end of 2000 she was a joint partner in the Brilliant! PR Company which represented many leading music greats. They included the Spice Girls, Annie Lennox, Charlotte Church, Take That, Phil Collins, Billie Piper, David Bowie, Van Morrison and Amy Winehouse.  It was also responsible for the PR for the ‘BRIT Awards’ and the ‘Big Breakfast’.

Popstars

It was during this time Nicki Chapman was approached by ITV to judge a brand new entertainment show called ‘Popstars’ (2000). The resulting band were called Hear’Say and went on to sell over a million copies of their first single ‘Pure and Simple’.

Having met and worked with Simon Fuller in the nineties she joined his management company, ’19 Entertainment’ in January 2001 as Creative Director. Again she was working with acts including Annie Lennox, Will Young and S Club 7. Nicki Chapman continued her role as judge on ITV/19’s ‘Pop Idol’, reuniting with Simon Cowell and alongside Pete Waterman and Dr Fox.

Nicki Chapman has presented numerous factual/entertainment programmes. These include the ‘RHS Chelsea Flower Show’, ‘Wanted Down Under’ and ‘Escape to the Country’.

Other TV Work

Nicki and ‘Nasty’ Nigel danced together as ‘Fred & Ginger’ in 2001 on BBC1’s ‘Children In Need’. Similarly, Nicki was one of twelve celebrities who took part in BBC1’s Sport Relief show jumping programme ‘Only Fools on Horses’. She came second. She also partnered with Christopher Biggins on ‘Let’s Dance’ for Comic Relief.

In 2008, Nicki joined her fellow ex-Pop Idol judges Pete Waterman and Neil Fox on Peter Kay’s ‘Britain’s Got The Pop Factor.  And Possibly A New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly On Ice’.  She also appeared in 2009 as a judge on Disney Channel’s ‘Hannah-Oke’ along with Disney’s Brad Kavanagh and ‘Dancing on Ice’ judge Jason Gardiner.

She sits on the steering committee for ‘Sport Relief’ and has travelled to Uganda and Ghana for charity.

Nicki’s interests are ‘car booties’ (guilty pleasure), the gym, movies, travelling and gardening. She has a passion for Elizabethan history and novels, celebrity gossip.  She is married to the music exec David Shakleton.