Lee Mead and Denise Van Outen Expecting a Child

Published reports are saying actor Lee Mead and Denise Van Outen are expecting a child. After meeting on the hit reality show "Any Dream Will Do," a contest Mead won, Mead and Van Outen began a relationship and married in April of 2009. Reportedly, the pair is thrilled about the news, with Van Outen quoted as saying "I look at him and know he'd make a great father. Our kids will have so much curly hair!"

Mead made his professional stage debut in 2004 playing Levi (and later Pharaoh) in the touring production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Following Joseph, Mead appeared as an ensemble player and understudy for the title role in Tommy. He also appeared in the touring production of Miss Saigon before joining the West End production of The Phantom of the Opera as an ensemble player and understudy for the role of Viscount Raoul de Chagny. While performing in The Phantom of the Opera, Mead auditioned for the BBC series Any Dream Will Do, hoping to win a six-month contract playing Joseph in the 2007 West End revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Mead was selected as one of the top 20 finalists, and eventually won the role nine weeks later for which he is most well known.

Van Outen has appeared on both stage and screen, initially as Maureen in the crime comedy Love, Honour and Obey. She also had a cameo tease as red head Alex, in the low-key Tube Tales in one of the four separate short films, based on the London Underground. Other directors included Ewan McGregor, Jude Law and Jarvis Cocker; while her part in "Horny" was directed by Lost In Space director Stephen Hopkins. Most recently, Van Outen has played a small role in the Romantic Comedy Are You Ready For Love? She first played Roxie Hart on the stage in the hit musical Chicago at the Adelphi Theatre in the West End in April 2001. Her run proved a hit with theatre-goers, selling out for the entire 20 weeks. Unknown in the United States, she reprised her role on Broadway in the spring of 2002, before returning to the show's London version in late April 2002. Late the same year, Van Outen appeared as one of many special guest stars in a performance of The Play What I Wrote once again in London's West End. In 2003, she returned to the London stage at the Gielgud Theatre in Andrew Lloyd Webber's one-woman show Tell Me On A Sunday, which he reworked for her. She was a huge success and the show ran for nearly a year. She then joined the cast of the established ITV sentimental drama Where the Heart Is as one of the lead characters, playing single mother Kim Blakeney, continuing for two series.

Van Outen was asked to be a panelist on the reality show How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? in 2006 for the BBC, a programme searching for a girl to play the role of Maria in The Sound of Music, but was unable to accept the offer due to commitments in the USA co-hosting NBC's Grease: You're the One that I Want! In 2007, she joined the panel for BBC One's follow up to How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, Any Dream Will Do! which was casting Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. After viewers on 9 June 2007 voted Lee Mead as the winner of Any Dream Will Do! - to play the role of Joseph in a revival at London's Adelphi Theatre of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat van Outen said: "From the very beginning right through to the very end, Lee has been the most consistent out of all the contestants. He has the ability to make even really popular songs his own and he has his own unique style of performing. The next time he lands a role as a leading man, can he put me forward to be the leading lady?" In August 2009 Van Outen made her Edinburgh Festival Fringe debut in Blondes.