John Nellis is best known for meeting some of the world’s biggest footballers on his hugely popular YouTube channel – but the content creator is swapping sports for sequins as he takes part in this year’s Strictly Come Dancing. The 33-year-old social media star is among the famous faces learning their Charlestons from their Rumbas, joining the likes of former Love Islander Dani Dyer, Gavin & Stacey actor Melanie Walters and Australian singer Delta Goodrem. This will be the first series with Emma Willis, Josh Widdicombe and former Strictly professional Johannes Radebe at the helm, following the departure of longtime hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman.
Hailing from Newcastle, County Down, Nellis isn’t just a newbie to the world of dance, but a relative newcomer to all things showbiz too. Until just four years ago, the Irish star worked as an air traffic controller. With most planes grounded amid the pandemic, Nellis threw himself into his content creation hobby, building a modest audience online with his football-centric videos.
In 2022, he took a huge gamble – quitting his job and making content creation his full-time profession even though he had just 7,431 subscribers on YouTube. "When I look back, I label myself as delusional,” he later admitted to BBC Northern Ireland. Nellis has won over millions of fans with fun-filled videos including a popular “100 hours to meet…” series, where he tracks down football stars, and feel-good shorts that see random members of the public given tickets to huge games.
His channel provides an antidote to typical sports interviews, and stars from the world of football love taking part too, with the likes of England superstar Jude Bellingham, Norway’s Erling Haaland and French legend Zinedine Zidane all featuring in videos. New subscribers only. £9.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled.
This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent. Nellis now has a whopping 16 million subscribers on YouTube and 2.6 million followers on TikTok, who named him Sports Creator of the Year at their annual awards bash in 2024. So understandably, his production operation is a lot bigger and slicker than in the early days.
"The ideation and structuring of what we hope to shoot takes day's work for three people and then shooting it takes at least a full day, flying over takes a day, but editing takes weeks. Away from the football, Nellis married his wife Shannon in 2025 and the couple have one son. How does he think he’ll fare in the ballroom?
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