Ian Zachary Whittingham (Blog)

Ian Zachary Whittingham was born Ian Brown and born in Manchester in , fostered by Pauline and Terry Whittingham until the age of 12 at which time they adopted him although he also had contact with his birth parents until this age. He was educated at the University of Westminster despite his well known dyslexia.
Ian Zachary Whittingham was brought up with two brothers and two sisters. Sadly his younger sister Edwina died aged 31 in April 2008.
[edit]Career

[edit]Early Days
On a shopping trip in Manchester with his parents, Ian was spotted by child modelling agency Tuesday Child, who quickly took him on their books and much work followed. Ian’s parents then gave up their jobs and home in Manchester and bought a newsagent in the centre of Blackpool. Ian was then aged 14 and looking for a new challenge, got a job as a waiter in The Palm Court Hotel, Blackpool. After only 4 months, his afternoon teas became famous with the over 60s. “It was great fun with the old dears and at the age of 14 I was getting £300 a week in my hand,” and the Blackpool Gazette did their first piece on him. His new school, Highfield High School, noted that Ian, despite his dyslexia, was highly intelligent and put him in the top class. He shined in drama, music and commerce and the school made him the Music Prefect within 3 months. During this time he was also modelling for Blackpool Only model agency and starred at a charity catwalk show, which again brought him to the attention of the Blackpool Gazette.
Due to this publicity and a successful audition, at the age of 16, Ian was offered a full 3-year scholarship to the world famous Italia Conti stage school in London.
After stage school, Ian went on to do numerous jobs and smiled his way into banking, A&E nursing, social services, a travel agency, insurance and also worked at the famous Browns membership club. Here, the likes of George Michael and Janet Jackson would request Zach to be their host. He remained there for 2 years, during which time he became openly bi-sexual and had a short affair with the actor Rupert Everett
[edit]Modelling
On his first outing to the famous Soho House members club in London, Ian was spotted by a model agent from the Models 1 Agency and was duly signed up. Big campaigns followed including Lee Cooper[1]. , Next, Top Man and many others. He became known as Zach; due to the fact Ian was considered “too common” a name for Models 1 Agency. Zach stands at 5 foot and 11 inches and to be a catwalk model the minimum height requirement is 6 foot. Not to be defeated, he put layers of socks in his shoes to build up his height and did a few more shows but a fellow model informed on him. Pop videos followed and Zach appeared in many but has particularly fond memories of the D:Ream pop video shoot. D:Ream’s hit, ‘Things can only get better’, became Labour’s anthem and took the number one singles chart around the world. During this time he shared a flat in London’s Earls Court with Craig Young, from a pop group called Deuce. Craig had consecutive top ten hits including ‘Call it love’ and ‘On the bible’ and then became a presenter on GMTV. “Out of all the famous people I met, Craig was the nicest,” Ian said, “and we’re still in touch today.”
[edit]Music
Zach then went to audition for a new boy band called Cause ‘n’ Effect (other members included Dan Corsi who went on to join the group Northern Line and Paul Danan who went on to Hollyoaks). Despite being a weak vocalist, he was strong in looks, dance and was a very talented songwriter, landing him a place in the group. He penned the 3rd single for the group, ‘Faith on a Lonely Street'[2][3]. The group was signed to A & M Records and released 3 singles including ‘Hold on to Your Dreams’ and ‘Stay.’ Cause ‘n’ Effect were the supporting artists for Backstreet Boys, Eternal and Ant and Dec. Despite extensive national press coverage[4] and a number of tours, all the singles were unsuccessful and the group was quickly dropped from the label, however the group’s management retained Zach and secured a new deal with A & M. Four weeks before the release of his single, ‘Everyone I need is here,’ A & M Records went into in liquidation. ‘Everything I need is here’ was number 76 in pre-release sales. Zach was managed by James Lawrence, whose father, Vernon Lawrence, was the former programme controller of UK broadcaster ITV.
[edit]Bust up with Boy George
In July 2004 during the Gay Pride parade in Clapham Common, London; an argument broke out between pop group 4 Guyz and Boy George. The 4 Guyz Manager John Pickering said, “He told our publicist to f*** off and made a stream of bitchy comments at the guys” when Zach stepped in to defend 4 Guyz, the situation only elevated and abuse was hurled at the young pop stars by the British Idol. , The Mirror, July 9, 2004
[edit]Controversy in the NHS and Journalism
Zach returned to nursing and the name ‘Ian.’ For However, concerned at goings on at the NHS hospital he worked in; he exposed them to The News of the World. The Editor was impressed by Ian’s talents and offered him a job. He was the youngest journalist ever to work at the News of the World. He worked alongside infamous investigative editor Mazher Mahmood, bringing many scoops, including ‘The Bogus Nurse’. He then went on to freelance for the Sunday Mirror and The People, where he excelled under editor Mark Woods as a senior investigative reporter. Zach achieved a record-breaking five front-page leads in eight weeks, including ‘The Hanging Judge’, involving a judge who had co-incidentally improperly sentenced Zach to jail for a minor offence some years previously. Zach’s story led to the judge’s immediate suspension and then dismissal.
Ian also worked as creative director for boys teenage magazine “Private” [5]
[edit]Showbiz
Ambitious still for a showbiz career, Zach constantly applied for jobs and after over 300 letters, became the creative director of IMG, where on his first day he fired his whole department, leading Music Week to mark him out as ruthless in a front page lead. In his first year, the company doubled their income, achieving 3 number one hit singles and 2 number one albums. Zach was sent out to head up co-partner BMG Records in South Africa, which he thoroughly enjoyed and returned to Europe to look after the European groups, securing many more hits for the company. After two years with the company and non-stop travelling, he decided to quit to spend more time in London and develop his acting career.
[edit]Acting
Due to his unique looks he secured top agents ICM and left Fletcher & Boyce. He was quickly rewarded with small parts in television soaps Emmerdale and Casualty.
[edit]Television Production
During Zach’s time acting, he realised that he had very strong ideas and started watching and observing television programmes for 12 hours a day. He developed scripts for television in all formats and to fund this work he took on jobs in hospitality management. TV producer contracts followed, working on such shows as Trisha, GMTV and LWT. Zach then when on to work for ITV productions, where he devised the hit programme ‘Young, Posh and Loaded’ and brought ‘Pop Idol’ to LWT’s attention, he then became the head of development at Streetwise TV in London. Zach continued to develop scripts and worked alongside the world-famous International Production Company in Prague and Los Angeles. Zach also landed a general manager’s job at the famous Elbow Room in Islington, London, where he secured the front cover for himself and the club in the prestigious Angel Magazine)[6] and simultaneously brought in big London party nights(2) to serve it.
[edit]The Manic Media Group
After collecting twelve years of knowledge, Zach decided to set up his own company, The Manic Media Group (www.themanicmediagroup.co.uk), which was formed in October in 2010. It comprises two divisions: Manic Media Management and Manic Television & Film and employs twelve people. Three projects are currently coming out of development. As Ian Zachary Whittingham, he has just finished writing ‘Rules of the Game’, in which he plays the lead role, and has devised a reality show called ‘Wanted’.
In June 2011. Nile Southwood. Ian’s on/off partner of 14 months committed suicide. In his memory Zach set up a weekly Facebook page documenting “A Year of Knowing Nile” Nile’s final year which has now become a worldwide hit.