Journalist Toby Young achieved his greatest success through his biggest failure. After spending five miserable years trying to impress at Vanity Fair magazine in New York, Young wrote a memoir called How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. The book became a best seller and was later adapted into a film starring Simon Pegg and Kirsten Dunst.

Following his success with How to Lose Friends, Young returned to London to become restaurant critic for The Evening Standard. He has appeared as a judge on a variety of food reality programs, including Hell’s Kitchen, Kitchen Criminals and most recently, a 20-part BBC series called Eating With The Enemy.

Young appeared on-stage in the West End musical adaptation of his book, as well as in a political sex farce called Who’s the Daddy? - which he co-wrote with Lloyd Evans. The production won the Best New Comedy Award at the 2006 Theatregoers’ Choice Awards. His other roles include acting as Associate Editor of The Spectator and as Special Correspondent for GQ magazine.

Toby’s latest venture sees him acting as co-founder for the West London Free School, the first
free school in Britain to sign a Funding Agreement with the Secretary of State for Education.