Stacey Dooley

Background


Stacey Dooley is a famous British television personality who is popular for her social-issue-themed television documentaries.  She is also an established and talented journalist.

Early Years

Stacey Dooley was born on March 9, 1987.  Stacey was brought up in Bedfordshire by her parents; Stacey was an only child. Her family was suffering from poverty and poor living conditions. The financial condition of her family was so poor that they could hardly provide her with everyday meals. Stacey’s family used to live in a suburb area of a town where there were hardly any people which made employment opportunities scarce. Stacey hardly had any friends as most of her time was spent doing household tasks. Her father was a construction worker and her mother worked as a farmer. Her father had an accidental fall from a height while doing construction work and one of his legs was broken. After her father became handicapped, the financial condition of Stacey’s family worsened. Her father was bedridden for five long years and she had to start working with her mother. Stacey had to leave school when she was in seventh grade due to this accident. She started doing several part time jobs which were available in their area. However, the family’s  financial condition recovered with time, and they shifted to New York to try and source better job opportunities.

Schooling

 Stacey was able to go back to school after going to New York. It was here that she first became interested in drama. It was hard for her family to take care of the cost of extra-curricular activities and thus, she could not officially join the drama club but the school, after seeing her acting talents at the annual function, gave Stacey a free entry into the drama club. Stacey became a better drama performer everyday and soon she started doing theatre work. She joined the theatre group at her school and when she graduated from high school, she joined the university to earn a Bachelor's Degree in Film Studies and Arts.

Television Career

After graduating from the university, Stacey started going on auditions. She participated in the television series Blood, Sweat and T-shirts. This was a documentary series where six young fashion addicts from Britain swapped shopping on the UK's high streets for working in India‘s cotton fields and clothes factories to see exactly where clothes came from. Blood, Sweat and T-shirts followed and filmed the six participants to find out whether they could handle a sewing machine and meet the target of two garments a minute, and more importantly, whether their experience would change their throwaway attitude to clothes shopping. The series was well received and helped to increase Stacey’s popularity. Stacey also appeared in other shows produced by the BBC that concentrated on the different social problems of society such as the child labor, sex trafficking, and sex slavery. Due to the success of Blood, Sweat and T-shirts Stacey Dooley was commissioned to do her own series entitled Stacey Dooley Investigates.

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In Stacey’s 2018 season of Stacey Dooley Investigates, Stacey traveled to Russia, Florida, Iraq and Hungary and explored many different social issues including child exploitation, war, domestic violence, pollution in the fashion industry and the lives of sex offenders. Stacey Dooley has won several awards for her contributions to society; most recently she won a One World Media Award for a story that had her come face-to-face with a member of ISIS. Stacey was also listed among the 30 most young and successful actresses of the industry. Stacey was made a Member of the British Empire (MBE) by Her Majesty the Queen earlier this year for her services to broadcasting. In an article written by Stacey, she revealed: “I owe my MBE to my mum and all the women who inspire me”.

Personal Life

There is not much information provided about her personal life as Stacey prefers to keep it private. However, she is currently dating boyfriend Sam Tucknott, a twenty four year old personal trainer. The two have had a personal relationship for nearly three years. In August of this year, Stacey Dooley was announced as the eighth participant to take part in the sixteenth season of Strictly Come Dancing, a popular British dance show. She is a very social person and connects with her followers through her social accounts on Instagram and Twitter.

Current

“On the Front Line with the Women Who Fight Back is Stacey Dooley’s first book and was released in early 2018. In the book, which has become a Sunday Times bestseller, Stacey tells of her experiences with brave and irrepressible woman living and working in “extraordinary and scarily ordinary circumstances, from sex workers in Russia, to victims of domestic violence in Honduras.” In the book, Stacey “weaves…global strands together in an exploration of what it is to be women in the world today.” Readers say that “her writing voice is accessible and absorbing” and that “the women featured in the book I've seen before in Stacey's countless fantastic documentaries and to hear more about their lives and Stacey's feelings towards their situations was super compelling.”

In a year that represents momentous change for women, BBC Radio 5 Live asked Stacey Dooley about the women that inspire her. She brought up her experiences with the Yazidi women who were held captive by the Islamic State group. Stacey said, “it’s a complete privilege to be surrounded by women like that and you can’t help but look at yourself and think I must be braver, I must be more vocal, I must stand up for what I truly believe in".

Last Modified: Apr 4, 2020


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