Paul John Hollywood (born 1 March 1966) is an English celebrity chef and television presenter, best known for being a judge on The Great British Bake Off since 2010.
He began his career at his father's bakery as a teenager and went on to serve as head baker at a number of hotels around Britain and internationally. After returning from working in Cyprus, Hollywood began appearing in guest spots on a number of British television programmes on both BBC and ITV. Although Hollywood's broadcast career began with food programming he has since branched out into other genres, including motoring.
Paul John Hollywood was born in 1966 in Wallasey, Wirral, Cheshire, the son of bakery proprietor John F. Hollywood and Gillian M. Harman. He was a pupil at The Mosslands School. Hollywood studied sculpture at the Wallasey School of Art but left the school to start work as a baker. He first worked in his father's bakery in York (the headquarters of a chain called Bread Winner which eventually stretched all the way down the east coast from Aberdeen to Lincolnshire) and then in other bakeries on Merseyside. He eventually went on to become head baker at a number of hotels including The Dorchester, Chester Grosvenor and Spa, and the Cliveden Hotel. He then left the UK for Cyprus, where he worked at two resorts.