Television personality, fashion designer and author, Dannii Minogue’s CV is as long as she is tall (5ft 2in to be exact)!
Having a natural affinity with performing, Danielle Jane Minogue has been an entertainer since the age of seven, performing professionally for over thirty years. It is due to her outstanding international career and major contribution to the entertainment industry that Dannii was recently awarded the honorary degree - Doctorate of Media - at a special ceremony on board the HQS Wellington in London by Southampton Solent University.
Selected as one of Vogue’s Top three most stylish women in the world in 2011, Dannii has more recently cemented her reputation and expertise as a worldwide fashion icon. Dannii’s fashion label PDL (Project D London) was co-founded in 2010 with British handbag designer, Tabitha Somerset-Webb. Their combined mutual friendship and love of fashion has taken the fashion world by storm.
Their range continues to grab world attention and is acclaimed for its attention to detail, quality patterns and fabrics and its unique feminine stylish threads. Dannii and Tabitha’s first fragrance, named Project D, scooped Best Celebrity Fragrance at the Cosmopolitan Fragrance Awards 2011 and is currently stocked on-board all Etihad Airwaysflights. They recently launched a collection of stunning timepieces by PDL, produced and exclusively sold through Ernest Jones. They reflect the inspiration behind their successful fashion label, which is based on enduring elegance, echoing vintage shapes with a modern influence.
Dannii has dedicated much of her time these past couple of years to the fashion industry and was honoured to be the Ambassador for Melbourne Spring Fashion Week 2011.
After an extensive acting and singing career, in 2007 Dannii stepped off the stage and into the judge’s chair, launching Australia’s Got Talent. This year she completed her 6th series in Australia and was the only original judge remaining on the panel. The same year, she was offered a role to judge and mentor on the UK’s highest-rated television show, The X Factor. In 2010, four years later, Dannii completed her final series alongside Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Cheryl Cole. This seventh series of The X Factor remains the most successful with an incredible final audience peak of 19.4 million viewers.
That year the show also won a National TV Award for Most Popular Talent Show and Best Entertainment Show at the Royal Television Awards. Heat Magazine voted Dannii the nations Number 1 Best Judge and Best Dressed Judge while Metro named her Celeb of the Year. Furthermore, Dannii was bestowed with the Best TV Star accolade at the prestigious Elle Style Awards, presented by her sister Kylie.
That same year, following Dannii’s appearance on ITV1’s Piers’ Morgan Life Stories, her debut autobiography My Story was published by Simon & Schuster. Personal, contemplative and passionate, it marked a brave and exciting phase for both artist and audience, with sales exceeding 300,000 copies in the UK alone.
In September 2011, following her best-selling autobiography My Story, Dannii unveiled My Style, a 250-page fashion bible. This beautifully presented book shares Dannii’s insider style secrets and tips that have taken her over 30 years to uncover and discover. Having now refined her style; the book will help the reader find their style. Dannii expanded her writing portfolio as contributing editor for AOL’s mydaily.co.uk in 2011, quickly establishing it as one of the UK's largest female online sites. As well as being a regular columnist for the past two years in UK’s biggest-selling glossy monthly Glamour, she was the first female to grace the cover twice in the same year.
Dannii can also be seen on billboards and in-store displays across the globe as the face of ModelCo Fibre Lash, the latest eyelash-enhancing product on the market. When launched in the UK, Fibre Lash Brush on False Lashes sold at a phenomenal rate of one product every 30 seconds and has continued to be a top seller for leading UK retailer, Boots. Dannii is also face of ModelCo Supertan, already launched in Australia for this summer and soon to launch in UK.
Having been embraced by the UK, Dannii was thrilled to have been a part of the British institution Marks and Spencer campaigns during 2010 and 2011. Dannii joined one of her idols, Twiggy alongside Lisa Snowdon, Ana Beatriz Barros and VV Brown in their nationwide advertising campaigns. Dannii again recently joined Twiggy to appear in the latest Marks and Spencer Spring Summer campaign of 2012.
Very few experience the success and longevity in the entertainment industry that Dannii Minogue has. From appearing in Australia’s top soap series, variety television programs in Australia and UK to musical theatre. She has performed in lead roles such as ‘Rizzo’ in Australia’s production of Grease - The Arena Spectacular, playing to more than 450,000 and the role of ‘Esmeralda’ for five sell-out months in Notre Dame De Paris at London’s West End prestigious Dominion Theatre. It was here that Dannii picked up the award for ‘Best Stage Performance,’ playing to a 2,000 strong audience, seven times a week.
Outside the world of showbiz, Dannii is an ambassador for the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre and patron of the CVQO – an educational charity that provides opportunities for cadet organisations to gain internationally recognised vocational qualifications.
In receiving an honorary Doctorate of Media for her services to the entertainment industry over the last 33 years, variety really is the spice of life for Dannii Minogue.