Simon Cowell

Simon is Looking for more talent for his new show-Britain's got talent, If you can do anything which the Queen may find amusing, please telephone 09014 884444 to apply-You never know, your life may change totally-Remember "It's Chicco Time"?
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Simon Cowell (born 7 October 1959) is an English artist and repertoire ("A&R") executive for Sony BMG in the United Kingdom, but is known as a judge on the television programs such as Pop Idol, The X Factor, American Idol and Britain's Got Talent. He is notorious for his unsparingly blunt and often controversial criticism of the contestants. He is known for combining activities in the television and music industries, having produced singles and records for various television characters.

Simon Cowell, TV Personality / Music Producer
Simon is Best Known As: The obnoxious judge on TV's American Idol and the X Factor.
Simon Cowell is a music producer and executive of the BMG UK record company whose blunt assessments of the contestants on TV's American Idol made him the most talked about personality on the show's panel of judges. Cowell has been in the pop music business in the United Kingdom since the 1970s, and is credited with "discovering" such pop stars as the boy band Westlife and the pop duo Robson and Jerome. Cowell's specialty is marketing TV and pop music together, and in 2001 he hosted the forerunner to American Idol, England's U.K. Pop Idol. When the U.S. version hit it big, it not only made stars out of performers Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard, it also made stars out of host Ryan Seacrest and talent judges Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson. His direct criticisms of the contestants and general cattiness made him the guy audiences loved to hate, and he was rewarded after the first season of the show with a contract that made him the highest paid judge on the panel.

Cowell's criticism also helped make stars of The Cheeky Girls and introduced the groundbreaking songs Fifty Grand for Christmas and Bonfire Night.

(Photo courtesy of © Colin Bell/Corbis Outline )

Simon was brought up in Elstree, Hertfordshire. His father, Eric Philip Cowell, was a property developer and music industry executive, and his mother, Julie Brett (née Josie Dalglish) is a former dancer and socialite. Cowell's paternal grandparents, Joseph Cowell and Esther Malinsky, were English Jews, and his maternal grandfather was Scottish. He has three half-brothers; Michael, John (millionaire business development and marketing consultant), and Tony (co-author of Cowell's autobiography), and a half-sister, June (who lives with her Spanish daughters in Majorca, Spain), and younger brother Nicholas Cowell who is now a millionaire property magnate.

Cowell attended Dover College as did his brother, but left early before Sixth Form. He took a few menial jobs, but did not get along well with co-workers and bosses, until his father who was executive at the recording giant at EMI Music Publishing, managed to get him a job in the mail room

In 1989, Fanfare's mother company folded, driving Cowell's business into bankruptcy, forcing Cowell, deeply in debt, to move back in with his parents. Later that year, he became an A&R consultant for BMG. Subsequently, Cowell signed up a number of acts to S-Records that made a mark in the pop music world, including Curiosity Killed the Cat, Sonia Evans, Five, Westlife, and Robson & Jerome. He also released several novelty recordings featuring the likes of wrestlers of the World Wrestling Federation, Teletubbies, Zig and Zag and the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, that were huge successes. Cowell set up another label, Syco Records, in 2002 which later became part of Columbia Records and Sony BMG Music Entertainment. Artists such as Il Divo and contestants from The X Factor and America's Got Talent are released on Syco.

In 2006, Cowell signed to two more record-breaking deals. In the US, he agreed to remain as a judge on American Idol, earning £20 million ($36 million) per series for another 5 years. He also has a deal with FOX which allows his production company to broadcast Got Talent and American Inventor on other networks, but he may not appear on them. In the UK, he signed a "golden handcuffs" deal with ITV, worth approximately £6.5 million a year for 3 years, which gave ITV rights to his hit talent show The X Factor, a British singing talent show, and Grease Is The Word, a musical talent show to find the stars of a Grease production in London's West End. In late 2005, he signed a new contract to remain working for Sony BMG.

In 1984, Cowell met up with Pete Waterman for the first time. Waterman was previously known for being one part of the Stock Aitken Waterman song writing trio. Also a DJ-turned-producer and founder of the then-aspiring songwriting and record producing trio. One year after, Cowell and Iain Burton, a fellow clerk again but left E.M.I and formed an independent record label called Fanfare Records. It was Waterman who helped him regain success during the second half of the 1980s. Cowell would later describe in interviews (and in his autobiography I Don't Mean to be Rude, but...) that he learned more from Waterman in a short time than he could have in an entire career with any major label. Fanfare enjoyed success with its artist, (and Cowell's girlfriend at the time) Sinitta Malone.

His father's connections originally got him rehired as the assistant to an A&R man. From there onwards, Simon Cowell worked his way up to record producer, but left during the early 1980s to form E&S Music, an independent music company. The label folded within a year of its launch, forcing him to return to EMI.

Cowell had been the producer and the creative force of many media, most notably Pop Idol, X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and their international offspring. Beginning, particularly, in the 2000s, this has brought him worldwide fame and greatly increased his monetary fortune.

Cowell became a judge on the second season of Pop Idol in 2001, but on the first season for American Idol in 2002 and his acerbic style of judging (see Mickey Most) was a major reason for these shows' popularity. This was especially so for American Idol, where in its first season, word-of-mouth regarding "that nasty guy Simon" garnered media attention, more so than the hosts or contestants. Cowell's fame (or infamy) grew, fed by his signature phrase, "I don't mean to be rude, but %u2026", inevitably followed by an unsparingly blunt appraisal of the contestant's talents, personality, or even physical appearance. Cowell also appeared on the one-off World Idol program in 2003, where it became clear that each country's version of the Idol had attempted to come up with its own "Simon Cowell" type personality. In 2003, Cowell placed #33 on Channel 4's list of the all-time 100 Worst Britons. Cowell's S Records signed the top two finishers of the first season of Pop Idol, Will Young and Gareth Gates, both of whom went on to have #1 UK hits. Efforts began in 2001 materialised in 2004, when Cowell returned to his group manufacturing roots with his latest brainchild, the internationally successful operatic pop group Il Divo, consisting of three opera singers and one pop singer of four different nationalities. Inspired by the success of Il Divo, Simon created a child version, Angelis, beating competition from many similar groups emerging at Christmas 2006.

Finally, in 2004, along with Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh, Cowell was judge on the new British TV talent show The X Factor, which he created using his production company, Syco. The X Factor was an instant success with the viewers and returned for a second and third series in 2005 and 2006 . He will return for a fourth series in 2007, alongside Sharon Osbourne, Dannii Minogue and Louis Walsh, who before, was fired from the panel by Simon, and replaced by Brian Friedman who is a judge on Grease Is The Word. Walsh was brought back after Friedman turned down the job on the panel, and became the creative director.

On March 16, 2006, Simon Cowell's next competition show, American Inventor, debuted on ABC. Fledgling entrepreneurs from across the United States will compete to see who can come up with the best new product concept. The winner, Janusz Liberkowski, received $1 million and the opportunity to develop his idea into a business. The show returns again in 2007.

Cowell is the executive producer of America's Got Talent, along with Fremantle producers of the Idol series. The show was a huge success for NBC, drawing around 12 million viewers a week, and beating So You Think You Can Dance on FOX (produced by rival and Idol creator Simon Fuller).

A British version aired in 2007, and was screened from 9 June 2007 until 17 June 2007, with ITV screening nine episodes. Fellow judges are Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden.

An Australian version is planned.

Cowell also executive-produces Celebrity Duets, which can be described as "an Idol show for Hollywood superstars." The show is hosted by Wayne Brady, and its judges are Marie Osmond, Little Richard and David Foster.

Cowell also executive produces Grease Is the Word for ITV. Grease is the Word is the show to find the next big stars to play Danny and Sandy on the 2007 UK west end revival of Grease. The is hosted by Zoe Ball and judged by Brits David Ian and Sinitta and Americans David Gest and Brian Friedman. This hasn't turned out to be the success he imagined. Simon himself said, "It has been slaughtered by the critics - and rightly so. It is far too similar to our other formats

Cowell is joining forces with Shed Productions, the company behind hit UK dramas Footballers' Wives and Bad Girls, to produce a new show called Rock Rivals which will be a new ITV1 drama series based on an 'X-Factor' type show.

Cowell has been involved in charity work for many years without getting much attention from the media. He supports children from The Association Of Children's Hospices and invites them backstage to the screenings of The X Factor. When he can, he stops by some of the hospices to visit the children.

Donations gratefully received at : The Association of Children's Hospices, First Floor, Canningford House, 38 Victoria Street, Bristol, BS1 6BY.
Further details about the charity can be found at http://www.childhospice.co.uk/

In December 2003, Cowell published a book, I Don't Mean to Be Rude, But %u2026. In it, he told the whole story of his childhood, his years working in music and experiences on Pop Idol, Pop Stars Rivals, and American Idol, and finally, his tips for being successful as a pop star.

Cowell has appeared as a guest voice in an episode of The Simpsons ("Smart and Smarter"), in which he gets beaten up by Homer Simpson (while criticising Homer's punches), and made an MTV Movie Award-winning cameo appearance as himself in Scary Movie 3, where he sits in judgment during a battle rap (and subsequently gets killed by gunfire for criticising the rappers). He also appears in Shrek 2 as a judge in Far Far Away Idol, and also provided the voice.

He appeared on an episode of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? (the British version) and Saturday Night Live in 2004. Cowell has also guest-starred (filling in for Regis Philbin) in the popular talk show Live with Regis and Kelly during American Idol's finalist week in early 2006. Cowell was once the fastest "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" on BBC's motoring show Top Gear, driving a Suzuki Liana around the show's test track in a time of 1:47.1. When Top Gear retired the Liana along with its rankings after the eighth series, Cowell was the eighth fastest overall and the third fastest non-professional driver. Cowell introduced entertainer Dick Clark at the 2006 Primetime Emmy Awards and also contributed in the 2006 Queens Speech to the Nation (UK) for which he chose the title music. He was seen on Comic Relief Does The Apprentice where he donated £25,000 for a fun fair ticket. Cowell has also appeared on the MTV shows Cribs and Punk'd. On Punk'd Ryan Seacrest and Randy Jackson set him up to believe his $400,000 Rolls Royce was stolen and had caused an accident by using a nearly identical car.

Cowell was chosen as the first 'victim' of the re-launched This Is Your Life in an episode broadcast on 2 June 2007. He was presented with the Red Book by Sir Trevor McDonald while presenting American Idol.

Besides judging unknowns of the music industry, occasionally Cowell comments on already-established pop icons. For example, he opined in Esquire magazine that Beyoncé Knowles was overrated, and that Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" was one of the best pop records ever made. Talking about Christina herself Cowell stated "She is an unbelievable talent."

On July 1, 2007 Cowell appered along side Randy Jackson and Ryan Seacrest as a

In late 2002, Cowell started dating longtime friend Terri Seymour. In 2006, British newspaper News of the World reported that he had cheated on Seymour with model and socialite Jasmine Lennard, and printed photos of her leaving his home. Photos of a visibly irate Seymour (who was in the US when the story broke) being met at the airport by Cowell were later published in Heat Magazine. However, both Cowell and Lennard, who was also in a relationship, denied that anything untoward had occurred, and attributed the meeting to business.

Upon his appearance on Top Gear, it was revealed that Cowell pays more than £21.7m per year in income tax, suggesting that his taxable income is over £54.25m per year with income tax at the time approximately 40%.(NB: UK Income Tax 40% for earnings over £39,825).

He appeared on the gameshow Sale of the Century in 1990, as reported in The Sun Newspaper.

He is the godfather of pop singer Sinitta's baby.