Sharon Osbourne

Sharon Rachel Osbourne (née Levy) is an English and American television personality, businesswoman, and author. She gained widespread public recognition while starring in the MTV reality television series The Osbournes from 2002 to 2005, which documented her family's daily life. She later established a prominent career as a talent competition judge on shows such as The X Factor and America's Got Talent, as well as a television host, author, and participant across various media platforms.

Born on 9 October 1952 in London, United Kingdom, Osbourne is the daughter of music promoter Don Arden and his wife, Hope. Her father was Ashkenazi Jewish and her mother was of Irish descent. Growing up surrounded by the violence associated with her father's music management business, Osbourne experienced a turbulent childhood. Her father managed the rock group Black Sabbath and dismissed Ozzy Osbourne from the group. Sharon began dating Ozzy in 1979, taking over his personal management and coordinating his solo career, which contributed to a prolonged 20-year estrangement from her father.

Osbourne played a central role in managing her husband's solo music career, helping assemble his backing musicians for the recording of the album Blizzard of Ozz. In 1996, she founded the summer Ozzfest tour, an almost annual rock festival held through 2018 that is credited with reviving Ozzy's career. Building on her management success, she established Sharon Osbourne Management, through which she served as sole employee and manager for acts such as Motörhead, Gary Moore, Lita Ford, The Quireboys, and The Smashing Pumpkins.

Osbourne achieved mainstream celebrity status through The Osbournes, which brought MTV its highest ratings in both the United States and the United Kingdom and earned her an estimated £11.5 million. Following this success, she hosted her own syndicated talk show, The Sharon Osbourne Show, from 2003 to 2004, and later hosted a United Kingdom chat show of the same name in 2006. From 2004 to 2007, Osbourne served as a judge and mentor on the British singing competition The X Factor, later returning for additional series in 2013 and from 2016 to 2017.

In 2007, Osbourne joined the judging panel of America's Got Talent, remaining on the show through its seventh season in 2012. She participated as a contestant on The Celebrity Apprentice in 2010 and became a co-host on the CBS daytime panel show The Talk that same year, hosting until 2021. In 2022, she joined TalkTV to host a prime-time program also titled The Talk, and in 2024, she appeared as a celebrity lodger on Celebrity Big Brother. As an author, Osbourne has published three autobiographies and two novels.