User:Omrigilan/izh
Personal Life
Ian Zachary Whittingham , was born Ian Brown and born in Manchester in, fostered by Pauline and Terry Whittingham until the age of 12 at which time they adopted him although he also had contact with his birth parents until this age. He was educated at the University of Westminster despite his well known dyslexia.
Ian Zachary Whittingham was brought up with two brothers and two sisters. Sadly his younger sister Edwina died aged 31 in April 2008.
Career
Early Days
On a shopping trip in Manchester with his parents, Ian was spotted by child modelling agency Tuesday Child, who quickly took him on their books and much work followed. Ian's parents then gave up their jobs and home in Manchester and bought a newsagent in the centre of Blackpool. Ian was then aged 14 and looking for a new challenge, got a job as a waiter in The Palm Court Hotel, Blackpool. After only 4 months, his afternoon teas became famous with the over 60s. "It was great fun with the old dears and at the age of 14 I was getting £300 a week in my hand," and the Blackpool Gazette did their first piece on him. His new school, Highfield High School, noted that Ian, despite his dyslexia, was highly intelligent and put him in the top class. He shined in drama, music and commerce and the school made him the Music Prefect within 3 months. During this time he was also modelling for Blackpool Only model agency and starred at a charity catwalk show, which again brought him to the attention of the Blackpool Gazette.
Due to this publicity and a successful audition, at the age of 16, Ian was offered a full 3-year scholarship to the world famous Italia Conti stage school in London.
After stage school, Ian went on to do numerous jobs and smiled his way into banking, A&E nursing, social services, a travel agency, insurance and also worked at the famous Browns membership club. Here, the likes of George Michael and Janet Jackson would request Zach to be their host. He remained there for 2 years, during which time he became openly bi-sexual and had a short affair with the actor Rupert Everett
Modelling
On his first outing to the famous Soho House members club in London, Ian was spotted by a model agent from the Models 1 Agency and was duly signed up. Big campaigns followed including Lee Cooper[1]. , Next, Top Man and many others. He became known as Zach; due to the fact Ian was considered "too common" a name for Models 1 Agency. Zach stands at 5 foot and 11 inches and to be a catwalk model the minimum height requirement is 6 foot. Not to be defeated, he put layers of socks in his shoes to build up his height and did a few more shows but a fellow model informed on him. Pop videos followed and Zach appeared in many but has particularly fond memories of the D:Ream pop video shoot. D:Ream's hit, '
Music
Zach then went to audition for a new boy band called Cause 'n' Effect (other members included Dan Corsi who went on to join the group Northern Line and Paul Danan who went on to Hollyoaks). Despite being a weak vocalist, he was strong in looks, dance and was a very talented songwriter, landing him a place in the group. He penned the 3rd single for the group, 'Faith on a Lonely Street'[2][3]. The group was signed to
Bust up with Boy George
In July 2004 during the
Controversy in the NHS and Journalism
Zach returned to nursing and the name 'Ian.' For However, concerned at goings on at the
Ian also worked as creative director for boys teenage magazine "Private" [5]
Showbiz
Ambitious still for a showbiz career, Zach constantly applied for jobs and after over 300 letters, became the creative director of IMG, where on his first day he fired his whole department, leading Music Week to mark him out as ruthless in a front page lead. In his first year, the company doubled their income, achieving 3 number one hit singles and 2 number one albums. Zach was sent out to head up co-partner BMG Records in South Africa, which he thoroughly enjoyed and returned to Europe to look after the European groups, securing many more hits for the company. After two years with the company and non-stop travelling, he decided to quit to spend more time in London and develop his acting career.
Acting
Due to his unique looks he secured top agents
Television Production
During Zach’s time acting, he realised that he had very strong ideas and started watching and observing television programmes for 12 hours a day. He developed scripts for television in all formats and to fund this work he took on jobs in hospitality management. TV producer contracts followed, working on such shows as Trisha, GMTV and LWT. Zach then when on to work for ITV productions, where he devised the hit programme 'Young, Posh and Loaded' and brought 'Pop Idol' to LWT's attention, he then became the head of development at Streetwise TV in London. Zach continued to develop scripts and worked alongside the world-famous International Production Company in Prague and Los Angeles. Zach also landed a general manager’s job at the famous Elbow Room in Islington, London, where he secured the front cover for himself and the club in the prestigious Angel Magazine)[6] and simultaneously brought in big London party nights(2) to serve it.
The Manic Media Group
After collecting twelve years of knowledge, Zach decided to set up his own company, The Manic Media Group which was formed in October 2010. Icomprises two divisions: Manic Media Management and Manic Television & Film and employs twelve people. Three projects are currently coming out of development. As Ian Zachary Whittingham, he has just finished writing 'Rules of the Game', in which he plays the lead role, and has devised a reality show called 'Wanted' Swedish singer Eric Saade has also been signed to the Manic .
- ^ Tansley, Nick. "Its pure genius".Daily Star, March 23 1994
- ^ "Fancy Pants". Boyz Style August 6 1994
- ^ Kelly, Mick. "Zach's the way to do it". Weekender, November 25, 1993
- ^ Singh, Rav. "This year's models". The Daily Star July 11, 1996.
- ^ Davies, Ashley. "Ex-Pride editor on drive to staff titles for teenage boys and black women". Press Gazette, 6 February 1998
- ^ Kebble, Mark.[1], "Champagne style at the elbow room", greatbritishlife.co.uk, June 18th 2010