Gok Wan - Biography
By Katherine Hall
Ko-Hen Wan was born on October 9th, 1974. Now better known as Gok, the little boy’s name translated as ‘Noisy Big City’ in Cantonese, which is rather appropriate as he was born in the midlands city of Leicester. The youngest of three children born to a British mother and Chinese father, young Gok grew up on one of the city's many council estates.
His parents, who’d met when they were both working in the same takeaway, ran a local restaurant and by the time their kids started to grow up, Gok, or ‘Babe’ as he was known by his family, was the star turn at the tables. He would be sent out to entertain the customers dressed in a tiny tuxedo and later credited this early flirtation with fashion and the public as a seminal experience in developing his considerable ability to charm - a skill which has been used to great effect in his TV shows.
An overweight teenager, Gok was 21 stone when he gained a diploma and moved to London to pursue a career in the performing arts. After dropping out of the Central School of Speech and Drama and disconsolately returning home to lose 11 stone of his bulk in just nine months, he decided to harness his sparkly personality and aforementioned charm. He moved seamlessly into the heady world of fashion, becoming a contributor to magazines including Tatler, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan and The Face.
He also worked as fashion consultant for a myriad of celebrity clients and acted as a small screen garb guru on TV shows including MTV Shakedown, GMTV, LK Today, Big Brother's Little Brother, The Wright Stuff, The Xtra Factor and T4. After all of that groundwork, it was only a matter of time before a TV channel came knocking with an offer asking Gok to front his own programme. In 2006, Channel 4 asked the fashionisto if he’d like to present his own show, How to Look Good Naked.
Following the show’s runaway success, the public demanded more and subsequent Gok-presented series were commissioned by Channel 4. The success of How to Look Good Naked also led to a number of new shows including Gok's Fashion Fix and Miss Naked Beauty, which Gok presented alongside Myleene Klass. He went on to present the documentary Too Fat Too Young, in which he used his own experience of being an obese youth to examine the lives of overweight kids in the UK.
Not content with lighting up the nation’s TV screens, Gok Wan has also written a number of books including How to Look Good Naked: Shop for Your Shape and Look Amazing! and the style guide How to Dress: Your Complete Style Guide for Every Occasion. He’s also involved himself in various projects for charity, working with Children in Need and the anti-bullying charity Kidscape, and capitalised on his status as a famous spec-wearer to help launch a National Glasses Day encouraging people to wear their glasses with pride.