Tess Daly

Helen Elizabeth "Tess" Daly is an English television presenter and former model. She is best known for co-presenting the BBC One dancing competition show Strictly Come Dancing from 2004 to 2025. In October 2025, she announced she would be leaving the series after 21 years following the conclusion of that series and its Christmas Special.

Daly was born on 29 March 1969 in Stockport, Cheshire, to textile-factory workers Felix James "Vivian" Daly and Sylvia Daly. She is of English and Irish descent and grew up in Birch Vale, near New Mills, Derbyshire, alongside her younger sister. She attended Hayfield Primary School and New Mills Secondary School, where she earned nine O-levels.

Daly began her career in modelling after being scouted outside a McDonald's restaurant in Manchester. Because her first agency already had a model named Helen Daly, she adopted the professional first name Tess. Six weeks after turning 18, she undertook her first modelling job in Tokyo. She subsequently worked across Asia and Europe while based in London, spent five years based in Paris, and later lived in New York City for five years. During her modelling career, Daly appeared in 1990 music videos for Duran Duran and in the 1993 music video for The Beloved's song "Sweet Harmony". She was also the face of Danone Shape yogurt and lingerie company La Senza.

While living in New York, Daly began conducting red carpet interviews, beginning with author Quentin Crisp. After sending a showreel in 2000 to the producers of Channel 4's The Big Breakfast, she was contracted to host the Find Me a Model competition. She subsequently presented programmes including Get Your Kit Off, Singled Out, Smash Hits TV, SMTV Live, Back To Reality, and Make Me a Supermodel. In 2003, she replaced Ulrika Jonsson as presenter of the ITV makeover show Home On Their Own.

Daly co-presented BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing from 2004 to 2025, co-hosting with Bruce Forsyth until 2013, and later co-hosting with Claudia Winkleman from 2014. Her other television work includes co-presenting Just the Two of Us, hosting This Time Tomorrow and National Lottery broadcasts, co-hosting the BBC telethon Children in Need from 2008 to 2019, and co-hosting the 2008 Royal Variety Performance. She also guest-presented The One Show, co-hosted The People's Strictly for Comic Relief, co-hosted AOL's Being Mum, and appeared in the CBBC drama Almost Never.

Beyond broadcasting, Daly authored two novels published by Coronet: The Camera Never Lies in 2011 and It's Up to You New York in 2013. She has served as a brand ambassador for L'Oréal and Vitabiotics' Wellwoman supplements, and co-founded the swimwear brand Naia Beach with Gayle Lawton. In 2003, she married DJ and television presenter Vernon Kay, with whom she has two daughters, before the couple announced their separation in May 2026. Daly was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2025 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting.