NEWCASTLE content creator John Nellis has said he is “super excited” following Saturday night’s launch of the new Strictly Come Dancing series.
Millions tuned in to see the return of the BBC show, during which John was paired with professional dancer Katya Jones.
The local man has had a meteoric rise to fame since leaving his job as an air traffic controller and venturing into the world of YouTube, where he has interviewed some of the world’s top footballers.
He marked the ‘big reveal’ in true content creator fashion – by sharing a TikTok of the pair, where Katya mimes to John saying, ‘How long can we stay in Strictly before getting voted out?’.
In the caption of the video, John wrote: ‘Let’s see… but we are super excited for this partnership.’
John rose to fame after he started posting football-related content on social media in 2019.
He is now one of the UK’s biggest sports content creators, with a combined audience of more than 20 million followers.
In addition to his previous job at Cork Airport, which he began in 2014, John has had several different jobs before his social media fame – ranging from kitchen porter to science technician.
But it was whilst working in Cork that his love of Fantasy Premier League grew, eventually inspiring him to launch a YouTube channel in 2019.
Just three years later, he became a full-time content creator.
At the time, he had 7,431 YouTube subscribers.
After broadening his content from fantasy football to the wider football world, his following exploded, and today his videos regularly attract millions of views.
The former Shimna Integrated College student has created content with some of football’s biggest names, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland, and was named Sports Creator of the Year at the 2024 TikTok Awards UK and Ireland.
