Sophie Dahl was born (as Sophie Holloway) in London on September 15th 1977, although numerous articles about her list her year of birth as 1979 by accident. Her father is the actor Julian Holloway, her mother is Tessa Dahl and her grandfather, the childrens author Roald Dahl. The character Sophie, in his book "The BFG" is based on her. She is the granddaughter of actor Stanley Holloway, and her grandmother is Oscar-winning actress Patricia Neal. Having initially settled in London once her modelling career took off, Sophie moved to New York several years ago, before returning to the UK, having always had a soft spot for London - her favourite hotel is Claridges.
If you have read any article on Sophie, you will be well aware of her being "discovered" crying on a London street by fashion designer Isabella Blow. Sophie signed to Storm Models in the UK, and set off on a modelling career. It was not Sophie's first brush with fame - she had appeared on Childrens TV when she was a youngster, along with Roald Dahl, who was being interviewed about his childrens books. Sophie's early catwalk duties were in London, where she was based, but from the very beginning, she was featured in magazines in Germany and Italy, and within a few years, had started to appear in magazine shoots worldwide.
Within a year or two of "becoming famous", Sophie was already beginning to diversify - the picture above right sees Sophie in character as Goldilocks for a stage play in 1997. In 1999, she made her big screen debut in "Mad Cows", having already appeared in several music videos during 1997 and 1998.
Sophie made waves in the modelling world by being one of the few "plus size" models both in fashion mags and on the catwalk, but this led to her being typecast as "Sophie Dahl, the fat model". When she lost weight, this led to cries of "sell out" from the fickle factions of the press, yet it allowed her to continue to diversify in the work she was being offered. Sophie later stated that her weight loss was through simply losing "puppy fat", and a second bout of attacks from the media followed a trip to India where she simply lost weight after catching a virus.
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As her fame stretched worldwide, she relocated to the USA and she appeared in arguably the most famous and controversial ad campaign of all time, for Opium. A famous image of her reclining, nude, on a velvet drape was later voted one of the most "banned" adverts of all time, with reports of cars crashing as the drivers were distracted by the iconic image! Despite being "banned" from public displays, the advert appeared regularly in fashion magazines, making it her most memorable fashion shoot.
With writing quite obviously in her blood, Sophie decided to head down this avenue in 2002, and released her first novella, "The Man With The Dancing Eyes", in 2003. Her second book, a full length novel called "Playing With The Grown Ups", surfaced in 2007. By this point, she had filmed what to date remains her last movie, the rarely seen "Little Fugtive". Sophie later admitted she wasn't suited to being an actress, and decided that writing would now be her forte.
In recent years, Sophie has re-located back to the UK, and "semi retired" from modelling, although her links to fashion remain, with the likes of "Vogue" putting her on the cover when her second book was released. Her third book, in 2009, interestingly, saw her further her career in another direction - "Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights" was a cook book, and saw Sophie starting a new phase in her career as a taller Nigella Lawson! Despite the various attacks on her weight loss throughout the years, Sophie had in fact been a keen cook all her life, and the book listed her favourite recipes.
In 2010, to more or less coincide with the book, Sophie landed her own six part TV show on the BBC - "The Delicious Miss Dahl". It was filmed the previous year, and by the time it was broadcast, Miss Dahl had become Mrs Cullum - having married Jazz musician Jamie Cullum at the end of 2009. The couple had met at a charity event in March 2007, and although their wedding was not announced until January 2010, the couple had married in secret the previous December.
Sophie's novel writing did for a while go on hold, with a second cookbook being the next release in 2011, and another BBC show, this time a one-off about Mrs Beeton. But whilst the modelling days seem to be over, Sophie's book-life continues, and she announced a return to "novel" writing in late 2011. Sophie has continued to contribute non-food related articles to newspapers and magazines, having had a fragrance column in the UK edition of "Vogue" in recent times.
