Leona Lewis

Leona Louise Lewis was born in the London Borough of Islington on 3 April 1985, to her father Aural Josiah "Joe" Lewis, a youth offending officer and DJ of Afro-Guyanese descent, and her mother Maria Lewis, a social worker and former ballet teacher of Welsh, Irish, and Italian descent.

As her parents began to realise Lewis's passion for singing, they enrolled her at the Sylvia Young Theatre School, and later to the Italia Conti Academy, the Ravenscourt Theatre School and the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology until they could no longer afford to do so, making cutbacks when necessary in order to help their daughter achieve her dream of being a singer. Lewis wrote her first song at the age of 12; she initially trained in opera, before moving into jazz and blues, and eventually into popular and contemporary music.

At the age of 17, Lewis decided to leave BRIT School in order to "get out there" and pursue a career in music. By this point, she had already begun to write and record her own material, and worked as a receptionist at a solicitors office and as a Pizza Hut waitress in order to fund the studio sessions. At age 18, Lewis secured a lead role in The Lion King theatre show in Paris; however, she decided to turn the part down after she hurt her back while ice-skating.

Lewis auditioned for the third series of The X Factor in 2006, singing "Over the Rainbow" for judges Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh, Sharon Osbourne and guest judge Paula Abdul. She was placed in the 16-24's category, with Cowell as her mentor. Throughout the course of the show, Lewis was compared to Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Celine Dion (as well as other artists), performing songs by all three of them.

Lewis was declared the winner of the competition in December 2006, beating runner up Ray Quinn, garnering 60% of the public vote; more than eight million votes were cast.

Lewis lives in Hackney, north-east London. She lived with her boyfriend, who became an A&R scout for Sony records, until they split in June 2010. They had known each other since she was approximately ten years old. Lewis has been a vegetarian since she was 12; and has been vegan since September 2012. She won PETA's Sexiest Vegetarian along with Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis in 2008, and Europe's Sexiest Vegetarian in 2009 with actor Scott Maslen. She also was named PETA's Person of the Year for 2008. Lewis is a supporter of World Animal Protection and is a patron of the Hopefield Animal Sanctuary in Brentwood, Essex. Lewis is a supporter of Premier League football club Arsenal.