BBC The Apprentice star Amy Anzel is putting the boardroom behind her as she prepares to take to the stage after landing a lead role performing in a pantomime production of Aladdin this Christmas. The American actress, singer and dancer turned beauty entrepreneur will play The Spirit of the Ring in Aladdin - and she has lived her own real-life fairytale.
Former theatre producer Amy, who appeared in the first series of the US reality dating show The Bachelor in 2003, grew up in the city of Yonkers, New York. She moved to the UK 13 years ago after meeting and falling in love with her husband Oliver.
Amy met Oliver after, while working as a flight attendant for an American business airline, she got chatting to a woman while queueing at a London patisserie during a flight layover. Thanks to her new friend's matchmaking skills they were introduced and made London their home together.
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"I flew in every week to see him," she recalled. "We met in December 2007, got engaged in August 2008 and married in April 2009," recalled Amy about their romance. The couple tied the knot at Scotland's Skibo Castle, which also hosted Madonna and Guy Ritchie's wedding in 2000.
As Oliver is Scottish and Amy is Jewish they joke that the had a ‘Skewish’ wedding. They went on to have a son Jacob, six, who is excited to be seeing his mum on stage during his first panto experience.
Amy, the boss of dermaplaning brand Hollywood Browzer Beauty, was 'fired' by Lord Alan Sugar halfway through the 16th series of the contest screened earlier this year. Her products were already stocked by retail giants including Boots, Argos, ASOS, Look Fantastic, Feel Unique and QVC and she recently landed her biggest business deal to-date with high street fashion retailer River Island.
She is thrilled to be returning to her roots as a performer of stage and screen in Carlisle’s Aladdin alongside performers including X Factor runner-up Marcus Collins and Any Dream Will Do star Keith Jack. Amy’s love for entertainment started at an early age when she started performing in local theatre productions and from the age of 10, she sang jingles for hundreds of commercials including for McDonald’s and Coca-Cola.
She starred in the European tour of Grease and the US national tour of Annie and played Mrs Zane in the Hollywood film Kick Ass 2. I In 2014 she was followed by the Channel Four docuseries The Sound of Musicals as she embarked on producing a UK national tour of Happy Days A New Musical based on the much-loved American sitcom.
Her love of beauty and background in entertainment led her to launching Hollywood Browzer Beauty in 2017. As the new batch of The Apprentice hopefuls gear up for the latest series, Amy advised: "Be yourself and fight for it or be left in the dust."
Amy, a regular visitor to Manchester with pals in the city including Rhian Sugden and former Coronation Street stars Victoria Ekanoye and Katie McGlynn, previously starred in panto alongside pop legend Jimmy Osmond in Cinderella in Hastings in 2010 as the fairy godmother. "I grew up doing children's theatre and I loved it," she said. It was a great experience working with Jimmy Osmond."
She says it was eye-opening experience "to an American coming over seeing tales told this way". She told us: "I never saw anything like a panto when I was growing up but this is such a big deal in the UK." Aladdin runs from Monday December 12 to Saturday December 31 December 2022 at The Sands Centre, Carlisle.
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