Adam Thomas

Why organisations work with Adam Thomas

• Two decades of broadcast presence on ITV and BBC primetime, including Emmerdale, Waterloo Road, I’m a Celebrity and Strictly Come Dancing, which translates directly into stage warmth in front of corporate audiences.
• A working founder’s perspective on consumer brand building, drawn from operating Oh My Glaze through retail at the Trafford Centre and surviving the public liquidation of a sister hospitality venture.
• Public, named experience of leading and performing while managing rheumatoid arthritis, a credible point of view for audiences interested in chronic illness and high-output careers.
• Comfort across awards hosting, panel moderation, fireside Q&A and after-dinner formats, with the broadcast pacing that those formats need.

Biography highlights

• Played Adam Barton in ITV’s Emmerdale from 2009 to 2018, one of the longest single-character runs of his generation on the soap.
• Played Donte Charles in BBC’s Waterloo Road from 2006 to 2009, returning for the 2023 BBC reboot.
• Third-place finalist on I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here in 2016, later co-host of the companion show I’m a Celebrity: Extra Camp.
• Strictly Come Dancing 2023 contestant, finishing in eighth place while publicly managing a recent rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis.
• Co-host of ITV’s 99 To Beat in 2025 with his brother Ryan Thomas.
• Founder of consumer hot sauce brand Oh My Glaze, with a flagship retail unit at the Trafford Centre in Manchester.
• Won Best Soap Newcomer at the 2010 TV Choice Awards.

Biography

Most consumer founders pitch their story after the win. Oh My Glaze sits in a less tidy place. The hot sauce brand is trading through a Trafford Centre flagship and grocery channels, while a sister hospitality business, the Manchester restaurant The Spinn, ended in voluntary liquidation. Running both at once, in public, is the substance of what Adam Thomas brings to a corporate stage on entrepreneurship.

The platform underneath that is two decades of British primetime. Emmerdale carried him through almost a decade as Adam Barton from 2009. Waterloo Road framed his early career as Donte Charles and brought him back for the BBC reboot in 2023. I’m a Celebrity put him in front of a peak ITV audience and earned him a third-place finish in 2016, followed by co-hosting on Extra Camp. Strictly Come Dancing in 2023 added a live-broadcast performance credit while he was managing a recent diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, a condition he now discusses publicly on Good Morning Britain and This Morning.

For corporate buyers, that record translates into a specific kind of stage product. He hosts awards, opens conferences, runs fireside panels and closes evenings. The broadcast training shows. Where the brief calls for it, he can speak to the founder track and to the experience of leading visible work through chronic illness.

Key speaking topics

• Consumer brand building and founder operations
• Retail and hospitality entrepreneurship
• Television and broadcast careers
• Resilience while managing chronic illness
• Reality television and live performance
• Awards and event hosting

Ideal for

• Corporate awards nights, gala dinners and team celebrations seeking a recognisable broadcast host
• Founder communities and SME audiences interested in consumer brand operations
• Retail, hospitality and FMCG events looking for a working-founder voice
• Workplace wellbeing audiences exploring chronic illness and high-output careers

Audience outcomes

• A grounded view of what running a consumer hot sauce brand actually involves through retail and grocery stores
• An honest reading of what happened around the closure of The Spinn and what a founder takes from a public liquidation
• A first-person account of competing on Strictly Come Dancing with a recent rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis
• A warmer, looser room than a standard keynote slot, with broadcast-paced Q&A