Who is George Clarke? Latest Strictly Come Dancing star's unexpected rise to fame
George Clarke will be competing on the new series of Strictly Come Dancing after being unveiled as part of the line-up this week. He's the sixth celebrity to be named as a contestant for this year's edition of the BBC show.
The content creator, 25, also known as George Clarkey, said in a statement: "Never thought I'd say this … but I'm doing Strictly! Honestly, I've got no idea what I'm doing but I'm excited to get stuck in ... and potentially fall over a fair bit."
George is best known for his work on social media and as the host of the Useless Hotline podcast, which has more than a 100,000 subscribers on YouTube. On his own, he has more than 2 million followers on his TikTok page alone.
George's TikTok account dates back six years but he has spoken about how one particular series on his page in 2021 led to the biggest increase in followers. It showed him trying to figure out the cause of a "beeping noise" in his garage, with the first of those videos now having 2.4 million views.
Speaking about the impact of it, he said in an interview for AwayDays that was released on YouTube earlier this year: "People for some reason just lapped it up." George said that he got 250,000 followers in a week from the first video.
He shared that his parents had been prepared to support him, even before that success, whilst he pursued a career as a content creator after leaving university. He said: "At that point of my life, I don't really know what I was doing."
George, who said that he hadn't shared his TikTok page with family initially, recalled his dad finding his account years ago. He said that they then had a conversation about it, which included him receiving the blessing of his parents over it.
In the interview uploaded earlier this year, George said he was told that his parents had noticed he was "doing quite well" on TikTok and recalled his dad saying to him: "We'll happily support you if you keeps going up. Obviously if it starts to tail off you need to finish yourself a job." George said that he filmed the beep series some time after that.
His content on the platform now ranges from comedy skits to promotional posts for brands. He also collaborates with fellow content creators like Arthur Hill, Isaac Smith, better known as ItalianBach, and ArthurTV's Arthur Frederick.
Since his rise to fame on social media, George has ventured in the podcast industry. He's known for fronting the Useless Hotline with fellow TikTok star Max Balegde, with the pair co-hosting the podcast since it launched in 2022.
George and Max address dilemmas, talk about their lives and interview celebrities on the podcast. Guests in episodes released in recent months having included comedian Katherine Ryan and Celebrity Big Brother 's JoJo Siwa.
Earlier this year, George, who has 600,000 subscribers on his own YouTube channel, appeared on the second series of the competition Inside, launched by the Sidemen. The Netflix show invited content creators to take on a series of challenges.
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