At the age of 8 CJ was chosen as the lead in a school musical production called Rooster Rag. His love of entertaining was born at that moment.

He joined and became an active member of the Crucible and National Youth Theatres appearing in several plays over the next few years. Courses at the Rotherham College of Arts and Technology confirmed acting as the path he wanted his life to take and his school and extra curricular studies were all geared towards this.

However, just after his 17th birthday, CJ was suddenly forced to become homeless and 3 years of sleeping rough began. Naturally his career ambitions came to a very abrupt and distressing stop. 

In his last teenage weeks, and as German was the only foreign language he could speak at the time, CJ found himself in Cologne. His very first weekend resulted in a totally unexpected offer of a modelling contract with a local agency and he remained in the city for 5 years. A further 18 months in Amsterdam was sufficient time to become fluent in Dutch too (and fall in love with the city!) before a return to the UK.

In 2000, after feeling a little restless, CJ decided to apply to a few television game and quiz shows as a contestant. His first appearance on Pass the Buck was spectacularly short of mediocrity but his next was a lucky win on Fifteen to One. This was followed by what he thought would be his last show, The Weakest Link. Despite consistently being the strongest player he was the third voted off and launched into his now infamous rant in his post game interview. This immediately attracted national attention and the programme asked him back for a Bad Losers' Special which he won! A further 12 programmes invited him to take part giving him free rein to exercise his general knowledge and, as one executive described it, his refreshing forthrightness of opinion. 

The first week of 2003 brought CJ a phone call about a new concept quiz show called Eggheads. Intrigued by the idea of 5 quiz champions competing against different daily challengers, he went along to the read through and happily agreed to take part. However, realising that only a tiny percentage of shows even reach the pilot stage, never mind the rarified heights of commissioning, he expected nothing further would develop. He was a little more than stunned by a second call in July advising him that not only had the new show been accepted, filming actually started in 3 weeks and he'd better get learning!

Eggheads went on to become a phenomenon with over 1100 shows, 2 spin off series and a sell out book and board game. Despite enjoying himself immensely for 8 years and being so grateful for the opportunities he had undeservedly received, all good things must come to an end and in December 2011, CJ announced he had left the show to pursue his acting career.

Such a long running and highly successful programme gave CJ a popular public profile and he naturally wanted to expand his horizons and explore other fields of interest to him. He was honoured to be elected as the President of the English Chess Federation in 2009 as he'd previously been the most active player in the country, winning the title of Mensa Chess Champion in 2001. CJ also competes regularly in longer distance running events, taking part in several half and full marathons each year. He also publicly supports several charities especially those involved with the HIV sector where CJ has volunteered for many years.

However, his overwhelming desire was always acting and participating in some live events reignited his fire. His lead role performance in the 2011 short film The Renata Road gained good reviews and persuaded CJ to follow his dream and pursue this career path full time. Despite enjoying and appearing in all performing media, musical theatre remains his one true passion.

CJ freely admits to having been incredibly lucky over the last decade and is delighted to enjoy and work for the wonderful opportunities he's been given. Acting has now of course become the major part of his professional life although he'll no doubt be associated with, and in demand for, high level quizzing for quite some time yet. 

He is looking forward to the surprises and challenges of the future and hopes you enjoy looking around his site and learning about him - after all, learning new things got CJ his career!