A former children’s TV star has undergone a major career change (Picture: ITV/ Shutterstock)
A former CBBC and CITV star who once presented alongside Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern gave up his entertainment career after offers stopped coming through.
After graduating with a teaching degree, Michael Underwood was working as a researcher at BBC Radio Northampton when he spotted an advert looking for a new children’s TV presenter.
Deciding to try his luck, he was successful, going on to appear on the show Whatever You Want, staying with CBBC for the next three years.
Michael then jumped ship to CITV, where he presented four seasons of other hit shows Jungle Run, Eliminator and The Big Bang before joining ITV’s flagship Saturday morning show Ministry of Mayhem.
Starting in 2004, he worked on that series alongside Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern.
In subsequent years he also appeared on The One Show, Good Morning Britain and This Morning, competing on Dancing on Ice, Celebrity MasterChef and Celebrity Mastermind too.
Michael Underwood presented Ministry Of Mayhem with Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern (Picture: ITV)
He also met his now-wife Angellica Bell during that time, when she was also a presenter on CBBC.
The pair, who married in 2010, now share two children.
However, after presenting opportunities started to dry up, Michael decided to turn his attention back to his original career path.
For the past six years he’s been teaching Year 4 at Surbiton High Boy’s Prep School in south-west London.
The show first hit screens in 2004 and featured guests including McFly’s Tom Fletcher (Picture: Shutterstock)
This week Angellica, who has most recently been seen presenting on The One Show, spoke about her husband’s career change.
‘It’s funny. He couldn’t get any work. He had a teaching degree. He was like, “I can’t sit around” so he started teaching,’ she told The Sun.
‘It’s been amazing. It was hard at first because he really wanted to do TV and had no control over that.
‘But he loves it now. His students are like his extended children. They are blessed to have him. He thinks of creative ways to teach, to keep them engaged.’
Michael also hosted Jungle Run (Picture: Granada Television)
She went on to explain how some parents of his students were also fans and told him they used to love watching him on shows like Jungle Run.
‘He’s now teaching their children. He’s like, “oh my gosh, this is great”,’ she added.
However, she did reveal he might be seen on screens again soon as he’d had ‘a few offers’ and they’d ‘been approached to do some bits’ together.
The couple previously worked together on All Star Mr & Mrs and The Zone.
Michael started working as a teacher in 2018 (Picture: David Fisher/ Shutterstock)
In 2021 Michael told The Mirror his mum had encouraged him to initially study drama as a teaching degree to have ‘something to fall back on if the acting doesn’t work out’.
He also explained how his family ‘could …read more
Source:: Metro