Rhys Stephenson, who studied Human and Medical Science at the University of Westminster, made it through 12 weeks of dancing in the 2021 series of Strictly Come Dancing to the semi-finals, narrowly missing out on next week’s Grand Final.
Strictly Come Dancing is a television dance contest where celebrities with little or no dance experience partner with professional dancers to compete in a ballroom dance competition.
Rhys Stephenson graduated from the University of Westminster in 2015 and is an actor and children’s TV presenter, best known for being the face of children’s television channel CBBC. He has also presented notable shows across the CBBC slate, including Blue Peter and Saturday Mash-Up!, as well as appearing on The Dengineers and Newsround.
When he began his studies at Westminster in 2013, Rhys began presenting through his work with Smoke on the student TV channel, where he won an award for Best On-Screen Male at the National Student Television Awards. Upon graduating in 2015, he landed his first job as a presenter at CBBC. He was an active part of the University, including working as a Student Ambassador.
Rhys and his dance partner Nancy Xu made it through 12 weeks of Strictly Come Dancing’s 2021 series and the pair performed two dances, a Samba and a Tango, on Saturday’s show. Despite an exceptional performance, the pair finished at the bottom of the leaderboard and found themselves in the Dance Off against John Whaite and Johannes Radebe. Rhys and Nancy chose to perform their Samba routine in the Dance Off, but narrowly missed their chance at making it to the Grand Final.
Talking about the performances during the Dance Off, Judge Craig Revel Horwood said: “In all the years I have been doing the show since 2004, I really do not want to make this decision tonight. This has been one of the most amazing Dance Offs I have ever witnessed.”
Reflecting on his time performing on Strictly Come Dancing, Rhys added: “I might not have gotten to the Final, but I learnt so much from just being on this show, from everyone here who have just supported us in this new family..Thank you so much Nancy Xu YouJie, for just being there, being my rock and everything I needed to get through this. Thank you.”
The multi-award winning Strictly Come Dancing's Grand Final will take place on Saturday 18 December on BBC One.
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