C. J. de Mooi

{{Short description|Former professional quizzer and television personality}}

{{Infobox person

| name = C. J. de Mooi

| image = CJ de Mooi 2011 07 31.jpg

| image_size = 200px

| alt =

| caption = De Mooi in 2011

| birth_name = Andrew Paul Booth

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1969|11|5|df=y}}

| birth_place = Barnsley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England

| website ={{URL|demooi.co.uk/}}

| occupation = {{hlist|television personality|actor|writer|quiz contestant}}

}}

Connagh Joseph "C. J." de Mooi ({{IPA|nl|də ˈmoːi|pron}}; born Andrew Paul Booth on 5 November 1969) is a British actor, writer, former professional quizzer and television personality. He first appeared on television quiz show Eggheads in 2003, as one of five original members of the show's eponymous team.

Early life

{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | video1 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkUJ8rB2kf8 CJ de Mooi on homelessness], 15:49, 15 August 2013{{cite news |title='Eggheads' Star CJ De Mooi Reveals Fears He May Have Killed A Man, While Living Homeless In Amsterdam 20 Years Ago |last=Purcival |first=Ashley |work=HuffPost |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/09/07/cj-de-mooi-eggheads-killed-a-man_n_8098246.html |date=7 September 2015 |access-date=18 December 2016}}

| video2 = [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RRLuaYGCE4&t=4m37s 2016], CJ de Mooi, 8:26, 16 December 2016{{cite news |title=CJ de Mooi claims arrest warrant over alleged Amsterdam killing 'was based on fake Wikipedia entry' |last=Bullen |first=Jamie |work=Evening Standard |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-news/tv-egghead-cj-de-mooi-claims-arrest-warrant-over-alleged-amsterdam-killing-was-based-on-fake-a3422736.html |date=17 December 2016 |access-date=17 December 2016}} Material about Wikipedia begins at 4:37 }}

In his autobiography, De Mooi states that he was given the names Andrew Paul at his birth, in Barnsley, Yorkshire. He moved to Rotherham in his childhood, and attended a local comprehensive school.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-3cuCgAAQBAJ|title=CJ - The Autobiography of CJ de Mooi|first=CJ de|last=Mooi|date=3 September 2015|publisher=John Blake Publishing|isbn=978-1-78418-827-6 |via=Google Books}} De Mooi studied English and Performing Arts at Rotherham College of Arts and Technology before embarking upon a modelling career in Germany which lasted for four and a half years.{{cite web|url=http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/celebrity_interviews/CJ+De+Mooi+really+is+an+egghead-60358.html|title=CJ De Mooi really is an egghead|last=Harrison|first=Rute|date=25 November 2008|work=femalefirst.co.uk|access-date=5 August 2009}}

On a self-recorded YouTube video,{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkUJ8rB2kf8|title=CJ de Mooi on homelessness|via=YouTube|access-date=13 May 2014}} De Mooi said he had a highly abusive childhood, causing him to run away from home shortly after his seventeenth birthday and become homeless beginning in Rotherham and Sheffield. While he was homeless, he turned to prostitution.{{Cite news |title=Eggheads' CJ de Mooi fires back at outfit backlash 'I slept on street prostituting myself' {{!}} Celebrity News {{!}} Showbiz & TV {{!}} Express.co.uk |url=https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/1438237/eggheads-CJ-de-Mooi-Twitter-backlash-prostitution-homeless-news-latest-updates/amp |access-date=11 February 2025 |newspaper=Daily Express}} Later in the video, De Mooi talked about how he travelled to London, jumped on a ferry to Amsterdam and later moved on to Cologne, where a chance encounter outside a gay bar led to the beginnings of his modelling career. De Mooi states that his parents took him to see a psychiatrist as a child. This psychiatrist diagnosed De Mooi as a fantasist and accused him of lying and being an attention seeker.

He adopted the surname De Mooi when he began working as a model.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

Career

=Quizzer=

File:CJ de Mooi, 2008.jpg

In 2000, De Mooi applied to several game and quiz television shows as a contestant and stood out for being outspoken. (His tirade when voted off the Weakest Link has been featured on the show's website, video and led to a "bad losers" show which he eventually won.) He has also appeared on numerous other quiz shows including Fifteen to One, Countdown, Beat the Nation and 100%.

He challenged six former professional snooker players during the 2010 World Snooker Championship to test his snooker knowledge against their knowledge of chosen specialist subjects. He won all but one round, John Parrott being the only player to get the better of him.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}

As part of the Cardiff Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Mardi Gras in March 2007, De Mooi acted as host of a quiz night.[http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-3846.html Cardiff Mardi Gras celebrate Charlotte's baby news] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100302085001/http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-3846.html |date=2 March 2010 }} Pink News, 12 April 2007 He also hosted a quiz at the June 2010 conference of the British Humanist Association.[http://bhaconference.org.uk/ British Humanist Association Conference] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629141939/http://bhaconference.org.uk/ |date=29 June 2011 }}. Retrieved 29 June 2010 In 2013, De Mooi published his first book, entitled How to Win TV Quiz Shows.

In December 2011, De Mooi announced he had left Eggheads permanently to pursue an acting career.{{cite web|url=http://www.demooi.co.uk/biography.html|title=CJ de Mooi|access-date=25 May 2012}} He later stated that he was dismissed from Eggheads and relocated to South Africa.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}} He appeared in broadcast episodes until August 2012 and was replaced on the show by Dave Rainford. However, he returned to a new, short-lived format of Eggheads in 2014 called Revenge of the Egghead.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03x4vsn|title=BBC Two - Revenge of the Egghead|publisher=BBC}} He stated he returned because of his 'love of the show'.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijScN41dkuI|title=Why did I leave Eggheads?|last=CJ de Mooi|date=2 September 2013|via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}{{Dead YouTube link|date=February 2022}} He then returned to the main version of Eggheads replacing Daphne Fowler.

=Chess=

De Mooi was a club chess player from 1990 to 2009, representing Hammersmith Chess Club in West London.{{cite web|url=http://hammerchess.co.uk/2016/03/18/a-brief-history-of-hammersmith-chess-club/|title=A Brief History of Hammersmith Chess Club – Hammersmith Chess Club|date=18 March 2016|access-date=10 March 2017|archive-date=31 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170731031855/http://hammerchess.co.uk/2016/03/18/a-brief-history-of-hammersmith-chess-club/|url-status=live}} At the peak his chess rating was 158 ECF, equivalent to Elo 1885.Based on the conversion formula used by the English Chess Federation [http://www.ecfgrading.org.uk/new/help.php#elo], where Elo = (BCF × 7.5) + 100 In 2010 he was elected President of the English Chess Federation.[http://www.englishchess.org.uk/?page_id=79 ECF Officials] English Chess Federation

In September 2010 he was very outspoken as a delegate to the FIDE (the World Chess Federation)'s presidential elections. De Mooi described the events, which saw Kirsan Ilyumzhinov re-elected over Anatoly Karpov, as "a farce of a vote", going on to declare: "You wouldn't believe the blatant breaking of rules and FIDE's written statutes. It's amazing. There wasn't even a pretence of fairness and free speech." According to De Mooi, Ilyumzhinov, the federation's president for 15 years, had refused to allow Karpov's supporters to address the general assembly meeting, but turned off their microphones and carried on speaking himself and ignored legal points raised from the floor, eventually storming off stage with the federation's ruling board.[https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2010/sep/29/chess-karpov-kirsan-ilyumzhinov Chess world shocked as Karpov fails to capture top job] The Guardian, 29 September 2010

=Acting=

In 2014, he performed in and produced two plays by Harvey Fierstein in London's West End and was then cast in the Lazarus Theatre productions of Troilus and Cressida and Coriolanus.{{Cite web|url=https://app.spotlight.com/myhome|title=My account|website=app.spotlight.com}} He also completed filming on his movie debut, a nine-minute short entitled The Renata Road,{{cite web|url=http://www.renataroad.com|title=The Renata Road|work=Beyond the Bar}} which was filmed in 2011 and put out on release in 2014{{cite web|title=Lancashire International Film Festival|url=https://www.uclan.ac.uk/news/assets/Life_2014_A4_Program_(2).pdf|website=uclan.ac.uk|access-date=5 December 2016|location=4.30–5.30 Ed Greenberg|page=2|archive-date=20 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220165350/https://www.uclan.ac.uk/news/assets/Life_2014_A4_Program_(2).pdf|url-status=dead}} with a showing at Cannes International Film Festival in 2015.{{cite news|last1=Barnes|first1=Jo|title=Quiz expert set to host quiz at city business club|url=http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/business/12926807.display/|access-date=5 December 2016|work=South Wales Argus|date=1 May 2015}}

=Writing=

De Mooi announced in 2021 that he had started working on a new television sitcom, which he would be writing and producing. In February, the title of the show was announced to be Together. Plot details are not known at present, but De Mooi has described it as "a modern twist on a classic sitcom scenario". The show, which was set to film its pilot in July 2021, was set to star Ewen MacIntosh, John Challis (who died in September 2021), and Sally Thomsett, making her first appearance on screen since 1978.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

Personal life

De Mooi is gay.{{Cite web |date=5 September 2015 |title=Gay star claims Strictly rejected him because he wanted same-sex partner |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-34163458.amp |access-date=11 February 2025 |website=BBC News |language=en-gb}}

According to De Mooi, he adopted his new name while modelling and is quoted as saying "I no longer wanted to be associated with my family".{{Cite web |date=22 September 2016 |title=Eggheads star CJ de Mooi arrested on suspicion of murder |url=https://www.hellomagazine.com/film/2016092233643/cj-de-mooi-eggheads-arrested/?viewas=amp |access-date=11 February 2025 |website=HELLO! |language=en}} De Mooi translates from Dutch to mean "the pretty"; it is not an uncommon Dutch family name. He currently{{When|date=March 2018}} resides in Wales with his civil partner Andrew Doran.Radio Times. BBC Magazines. Retrieved 7 August 2010 De Mooi is teetotal and a vegetarian of over three decades; in April 2018 he announced on Twitter he was going vegan.[http://www.tvlives.com/view.php?id=3921 CJ de Mooi] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101201025105/http://tvlives.com/view.php?id=3921 |date=1 December 2010 }} TV Lives

De Mooi has been living with HIV since the late 1980s.{{Cite web |last=Harries |first=Robert |last2=Updated |date=18 August 2019 |title=At home with CJ De Mooi: Homelessness, HIV, and life since fame ended |url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/home-cj-de-mooi-homelessness-16771145.amp |access-date=11 February 2025 |website=Wales Online |language=en}} April 2019, De Mooi posted on Twitter about his health and about his financial and professional problems and a GoFundMe campaign was launched, saying he is "bankrupt, extremely ill and in imminent danger of losing his house."{{cite news|url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/eggheads-star-cj-de-mooi-16162452|title=Eggheads star CJ de Mooi is 'bankrupt, dying of Aids and about to lose his home'|work=Wales Online|date=22 April 2019}} He also claimed that he was "dying from AIDS" and didn't expect to live long.{{Cite web |last=Morris |first=James |date=22 April 2019 |title=Former Eggheads star reveals he is dying from Aids |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-news/cj-de-mooi-former-eggheads-star-reveals-he-is-dying-of-aids-a4123001.html |access-date=11 February 2025 |website=The Standard |language=en}}

De Mooi is highly-active on Twitter, and regularly updates both his personal and professional accounts, as well as CJ's Happy Place, an alternative profile that aims to spread positivity based on the belief that "we all need a happy place to smile".

In 2015, De Mooi accused TV Show Strictly Come Dancing of rejecting him as a contestant in favour of Jeremy Vine, due to De Mooi wanting a same-sex dance partner. BBC released a statement saying that "Strictly is a family show and we have chosen the traditional format of mixed-sex couples." As of 2019, Strictly Come Dancing did begin to use same-sex dance partners.

= Arrest =

De Mooi stated in his autobiography that in 1988 he punched a man who was attempting to mug him and shoved him into a canal in Amsterdam. He said: "I fully suspect I killed him. I've no idea what happened to him."{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11848151/Eggheads-panellist-I-think-I-killed-a-man.html|title=I think I killed a man, says Eggheads panellist|author= Leon Watson|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=7 September 2015|access-date=7 September 2015}}{{cite news|last1=Benedictus|first1=Leo|title=Will Egghead CJ de Mooi regret admitting he might have killed somebody?|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2015/sep/07/egghead-cj-de-mooi-might-have-killed-somebody|access-date=17 December 2016|newspaper=The Guardian|date=7 September 2015}}

On 21 September 2016, De Mooi was arrested at Heathrow Airport in connection with the claims,{{cite web|url=http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2016/09/eggheads-panelist-arrested-on-suspicion-of-murder.html|title=Eggheads panelist arrested on suspicion of murder|date=22 September 2016|work=TV Tonight}} and detained under a European Arrest Warrant issued in the Netherlands.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-37437498|title=Ex-Eggheads star CJ de Mooi in court over alleged killing|date=22 September 2016|work=BBC News}}{{cite news|url=http://news.sky.com/story/cj-de-mooi-ex-eggheads-panellist-arrested-over-alleged-killing-10588239|title=Ex-Eggheads panellist in court over 'killing'|publisher=Sky News|date=22 September 2016}} A judge at Westminster Magistrates' Court declined the extradition request on technical grounds, on 24 October 2016, saying that no UK arrest warrant had been issued.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/24/former-eggheads-star-cj-de-mooi-should-not-be-extradited-court-rules|title=Eggheads star CJ de Mooi will not be extradited, court rules|date=24 October 2016|newspaper=The Guardian|last1=Johnston|first1=Chris}}

In October 2018, De Mooi was declared bankrupt following lengthy legal proceedings in connection with the arrest.{{cite news|url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/eggheads-star-cj-de-mooi-16162452|website=Wales Online|title=Eggheads star CJ de Mooi is 'bankrupt, dying of Aids and about to lose his home'|date=22 April 2019|first=Louise|last=Randell}}

=Charity=

De Mooi ran in the 2009 London Marathon raising money for Amnesty International.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}} He also competed in the 2012 London Marathon, completing with a time of 3 hours 16 minutes and 30 seconds.{{Cite web|url=http://results-2012.virginlondonmarathon.com/2012/index.php?pid=search|title=mika:timing | sorry, not found|website=results-2012.virginlondonmarathon.com|access-date=1 December 2018|archive-date=15 July 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120715081346/http://results-2012.virginlondonmarathon.com/2012/index.php?pid=search|url-status=live}}

In 2015 he ran in the London Marathon for Shooting Star CHASE, a children's hospice, finishing in 2 hours 58 minutes 30 seconds.{{Cite web|url=http://results-2015.virginmoneylondonmarathon.com/2015/?pid=search|title=mika:timing | sorry, not found|website=results-2015.virginmoneylondonmarathon.com|access-date=7 June 2015|archive-date=14 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220114062103/https://results-2015.virginmoneylondonmarathon.com/2015/?pid=search|url-status=live}}

Books

CJ de Mooi: How to Win TV Quiz Shows. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 25 July 2013
CJ de Mooi: CJ: The Autobiography of CJ de Mooi: My Journey From the Streets to the Screens. John Blake Publishing, 3 September 2015.
CJ de Mooi and Mark Labbett: Quiz Like a Pro!. Amazon Kindle, 6 June 2016.
CJ de Mooi: Dispersal. Amazon Kindle, 8 June 2016.