Can you guess who made our top ten Geordie celebs list?

Over the years, Newcastle has produced some truly international stars and whittling the list down to just ten was really hard, but we've managed it.

Firstly, we must apologise to those that didn't quite make it onto our list. We're sure they're devastated. They include Donna Air, Gazza, Ross Noble, Rowan Atkinson, Jimmy Nail, Ridley Scott and Miriam Stoppard, to name just a few.

But who should you keep an eye out for if you're on the celebrity hunt when staying in hostels in Newcastle? Read on for more….


Cheryl Cole, singer and model

Now one of the most famous women on the planet, Cheryl Cole hardly needs an introduction.

Named the Sexiest Woman in the World two years running by FHM, she has won countless other awards and is one part of Girls Aloud, the pop group that won ITV's Popstars: The Rivals in 2002 and has since had 20 consecutive top-ten UK singles.

The fourth of five children, Cheryl grew up on council estates in Newcastle's east-end and her strong Geordie accent is perhaps her most distinguishing characteristic. The face of L'Oreal was reportedly sacked from the US version of X Factor because American audiences struggled to understand her.

Originally called Cheryl Tweedy, she changed her name when she married England and Chelsea footballer Ashley Cole and, perhaps unsurprisingly, did not change her name back after they split.


Sting, musician

Born Gordon Sumner, Sting grew up in the Wallsend area of Newcastle and is one of the most famous musicians of his generation.

The 60-year-old shot to fame as a founding member of new wave band The Police and went on to have an exceptionally successful solo career, picking up 16 Grammys, three Brits, an Emmy, a Golden Globe and a handful of Oscar nominations along the way.

Married to Trudie Styler, Sting is renowned for his human rights activism and he is known to be meticulous when it comes to health and fitness, is devoted to yoga and eats a very strict diet.

The 2011 Sunday Times Rich List estimated him to be worth a whopping £180 million.


Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, television personalities

Though many people would have you believe otherwise, Ant and Dec are in fact two different people, even if during their careers they have appeared to be a single organism.

Having cut their teeth as best mates PJ and Duncan on Byker Grove, a BBC children's series set in Newcastle that helped forge the careers of many young hopefuls, Ant and Dec were initially known by their character names before they managed to get people to call them by their real names instead.

A brief career as popstars saw them release two albums and the Brit Award-nominated Let's Get Ready To Rumble, before they moved into television and never looked back.

Barely off our TV screens, they've been the faces of SMTV Live, Friends Like These, Pop Idol, Saturday Night Takeaway, I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here, Britain's Got Talent and, most recently, Red or Black?.


Sarah Millican, comedian

Growing up on the opposite bank of the Tyne from Newcastle, Sarah Millican hails from South Shields and is currently one of the hottest stand-up comedians on the circuit.

Her hilarious brand of take-no-prisoners, tongue-in-cheek observational comedy saw her recently complete a sell-out national tour, but it all started in 2004 when she got divorced.

She used the experience as material for her Edinburgh Festival Fringe show in 2008, Sarah Millican's Not Nice, for which she won the prestigious Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, and from there her career has headed in only one direction.

Now she's a regular on panel shows such as Mock The Week, Have I Got News For You and 8 Out Of 10 Cats and her own stand-up show, The Sarah Millican Television Programme, started on BBC 2 recently.


Lee Hall, playwright

Born in Newcastle in 1966, Lee Hall is perhaps best known for writing the hugely successful Billy Elliot, which became a cinema hit in 2000 and has since established itself as a regular West End musical.

Having grown up as the son of a painter and decorator, Lee studied English Literature at Cambridge University before becoming involved in local theatre.

In 1997, he got his first break when BBC Radio 4 produced a radio play he had written, Spoonface Steinberg.

More recently, his play The Pitmen Painters, about a group of Northumbrian miners who become artists, has received critical acclaim and won the Evening Standard Award for Best Play in 2008 after premiering at Newcastle's Live Theatre, where Hall still has a heavy involvement.

Maximo Park, band

Having formed in 2000, Maximo Park quickly took the north-east music scene by storm and were snapped up by the alternative record label Warp.

Though it might aggrieve some of the members of the band to say they are from Newcastle (they have members from across the north-east), they are predominantly based on Tyneside and front man Paul Smith can often be found in city-centre watering holes with a pint in hand.
Their debut album A Certain Trigger was released in 2005 and made them international stars, with two more albums following in 2007 and 2009.

The band have since been working on individual projects and Smith has recently released his first solo album, which is accompanied by a book of his Polaroid photographs taken while on tour.


Jonathan Edwards, athlete

Now aged 45, Jonathan Edwards was a British Olympic triple jumper and still holds the world record he set in 1995, when he jumped an incredible 18.29 metres.

He had actually beaten this jump earlier in his first year as a world-class triple jumper with a distance of 18.43, but the jump did not stand as a world record because it was aided by the wind.

His bulging trophy cabinet includes (among many!) gold and silver Olympics medals, a gold and two silvers from the Commonwealth Games, two golds at the World Championships, one at the European Championships and six at the European Cup.

Nowadays, Edwards is a resident of the upmarket Newcastle suburb of Gosforth and is a regular presenter of athletics on the BBC.


Alan Shearer, footballer

Having grown up in Gosforth, local legend has it that Alan Shearer was told by a teacher at Gosforth High School that he'd never make it as a professional footballer and he should pay more attention at school. I guess you could say he proved him wrong.

The son of a sheet-metal worker, he played for the famous Wallsend Boys Club that has helped nurture some of the best footballers of today, before he was scouted by Southampton and joined them in 1986.

Aged 17 years and 240 days, he became the youngest player to score a hat-trick in the top league when he put three past Arsenal on his full debut. Shearer went on to pick up a Premier League winners medal at Blackburn Rovers before joining his home-town club for a then-record £15 million.

Despite never winning anything with the Magpies, he is a legend in Newcastle after captaining the club through its most successful era in recent years, while also leading the English national side.


Jill Halfpenny, actress

Jill Halfpenny grew up in Gateshead across the river from Newcastle and quickly made a name for herself as an actress when she starred in Byker Grove alongside the likes of Ant and Dec, and the actress and model Donna Air.

She has since gone on to become one of the most recognisable faces on television, having had roles in both Coronation Street as Rebecca Hopkins and EastEnders as Kate Mitchell.

In 2007, Jill won a TV Quick Award for Best Actress following her role as Izzie Redpath in Waterloo Road. Most recently, she was one of the celebrity contestants on Strictly Come Dancing.

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