Nicki Chapman[2] (born 14 January 1967) is an English television and radio presenter, talent show judge and public relations agent who previously worked in the British pop music industry.
Chapman was born in Herne Bay in Kent on 14 January 1967. Her mother was a housewife and her father worked for Rank Xerox.[3]
Career
Chapman worked her way up in the music industry from being Promotions Assistant at MCA records at the age of 21. She later worked at RCA as Head of Promotions where she first met Simon Cowell. She applied for the promotions job and the next day, called and said: "I need to know if you want me, I've been offered another job, but this is the one I really want."[4] Up until the end of 2000, she was a joint partner in the Brilliant! PR company with Nick Godwyn.[5] They managed Billie Piper and Amy Winehouse as well as representing, among others, the Spice Girls, Kylie Minogue, Charlotte Church, Take That, David Bowie, Van Morrison and Phil Collins as well as the PR for the Brit Awards and The Big Breakfast. Having met and worked with Simon Fuller in the 1990s she joined his management company 19 Entertainment in January 2001 as Creative Director, working with acts including Annie Lennox, Will Young, S Club 7 and the Spice Girls.
Chapman rose to fame as a judge on the ITV television series Popstars and Pop Idol, together with Nigel Lythgoe and Paul Adam (on Popstars), Simon Cowell, Pete Waterman and Dr Fox (on Pop Idol). Pop Idol was the top rated TV show in the UK for 2001 and 2003 making Chapman a household name. Chapman was known in particular for her compassionate nature towards contestants on the shows, in contrast to many talent shows of the present day. She once claimed that "What I think and what I say have to be different because people don't need to hear my honest thoughts, you can let them down a lot more gently and it takes a lot of courage to stand up there and do an audition".[6]
She currently works as a presenter and has fronted a number of lifestyle and current affairs programmes for the BBC and ITV including Holiday, BBC Breakfast News, Holidays at Home, The Morning Show, Sunday Style, RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Castle in the Country, Escape to the Sun, City Hospital, Holiday Ten Best and others. She presented a series for Sky One called Made in LA which investigated behind the scenes of the rich and famous.
In 2006, Chapman was one of twelve celebrities in the BBC's Sport Reliefshowjumping programme Only Fools on Horses. Despite being a novice, and suffering a shoulder injury as a result of falling from her horse during one of the live broadcasts, she came second, voted by the public.
Chapman is married to Dave 'Shacky' Shackleton, a music producer and Sony BMG executive; the couple live in Chiswick, London.[3][9]
In May 2019 she revealed she had surgery to remove a non-cancerous brain tumour and later made a good recovery.[10][11] Subsequently, she was appointed an Ambassador for The Brain Tumour Charity.[12] In 2022, Chapman made this comment during an interview: "It's important for me to work with The Brain Tumour Charity and share my experience to help others know that they're not alone in this".[9]
