Imogen Thomas

Did You Know?

• Thomas began working as a model at age 13.
• She defeated future Big Brother UK series 9 winner Rachel Rice, who placed third, to win Miss Wales 2003.

Modelling career

Thomas started modelling at 13 and moved to London at 17 to pursue it professionally, but most agencies turned her down because she is 5 foot 6. In 2003, she won Miss Wales, beating future Big Brother winner Rachel Rice, who came third, and then represented Wales at Miss World in China. After that, she returned to London for glamour modelling and appeared on the cover of Maxim in January 2007.

Television career

In 2006 Thomas was a housemate on the seventh series of the then Channel 4 reality television series Big Brother UK. This series of Big Brother was the third most watched in the history of the British version with an average of 4.7 million viewers. Thomas entered day 1 and was evicted on day 86 with 62% of the public vote, placing seventh overall. During her time on the show she was involved in a controversy after fellow contestant Glyn Wise was reprimanded for communicating in his first language, Welsh, with Thomas.

Big Brother deemed this as a form of "code" issuing Wise with a formal warning, who retorted with; "but Welsh is a British language?". Following the incident the Welsh Language Society complained to Channel 4, Ofcom and S4C. After this, Wise and Thomas continued to converse in Welsh and such discussions were broadcast with English-Language subtitles. Thomas has made several other television appearances since Big Brother including; Big Brother's Little Brother, Big Brother's Big Mouth, Richard & Judy, Planed Plant, Pobol y Cwm, Dead Set and Celebrity Ex in the City.