How Amelia Dimoldenberg constructed her multi-million pound empire from a hen store: Inside comic’s stunning rise to fame forward of Oscar’s crimson carpet gig – as she strikes onto Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘poisonous ex’

Trying to get an A-list celebrity and their entourage to agree to a sit down interview these days is harder than you might think.

But for Amelia Dimoldenberg it seems anything but difficult as her sarcastic charm has won over the biggest names in showbiz, making her one of the most in demand voices in the industry right now.

And her expressionless, comedic ‘dates’ hosted on a set of plastic chairs in one of London’s fried chicken shops have worked wonders for the once budding journalist.

Building her empire from the ground up, Amelia has always had her sights set on stardom.

Born in Westminster, London, Amelia, now 31, attended St Marylebone School for girls – a state school specialising in performing arts and drama.

Her mum Linda worked as a librarian and her dad Paul was a public relations executive and council member at Westminster.

She then went on to study Art and Design and a BA in Fashion Communication at Central Saint Martins, where she graduated in 2017.

Amelia started her now extremely successful Chicken Shop Date as a column in a magazine called The Cut which ran out of a youth club in Northwest London.

With once hopes of becoming the editor of Vogue, she realised other writers and readers of the magazine had an interest in grime music and leant into the subject more.

‘It was great to meet all these different people who were interested in mainly music, and fashion, but the music side of it was really what caught my attention as they were all listening to grime,’ she told Mix Mag.

‘I was super interested and wanted to know more about the music. I have this thing in me where no matter what the topic is, I don’t want to be left out of the conversation – I want to have something to say.’

The idea of posing the interviews as first dates came from wanting to do something different, and the idea of setting them in a chicken shop was because she wanted to go somewhere ‘no one goes on dates’.

Amelia began interviewing friends of friends in the music scene alongside her studies and the links to her online articles started getting traction.

She took her idea to people in ‘big places’ but said they struggled to ever know what to do with it which led her to begin video recording her chats and posting them on YouTube.

Posting her first video in March 2014, the videos see her interviewing the guests in a comical, awkward way, asking them questions about their love life.

And to this day she says her unusual interview style is authentic.

‘I wanted to be the antithesis of a bubbly presenter because I was bored of seeing that,’ she told Complex.

‘The average TV presenter was very good at being non-stop chatty and bubbly; I wanted to be the opposite of that, and make that my thing. It’s an exaggerated version of myself.

‘In fact, when it first started it wasn’t a character, it was never meant to be like that. It’s literally how it happened, people must have just assumed I was so bizarre or so weird it had to be a character.

Taking inspiration from Louis Theroux, who she has since had as a guest on her own show, she said her deadpan character came about from when she began – and from being genuinely nervous when meeting rappers.

‘Whatever was happening was funny, just this little blonde girl in a chicken shop, with, like, Stylo G,’ she said.

‘It was just a weird situation and super awkward and it was just like how the show’s filmed now, but I was so nervous filming it.’

Her first big hit came when she interviews rapper Ghetts, a British artist who has worked with the likes of Stormzy.

She set it up through her contact at The Cut who had recently started working with the upcoming rapper.

And hitting record seemed to be the best thing she ever did.

The 2014 interview now has 1.3m views and the pair, who are now good friends, celebrated the tenth anniversary of Chicken Shop Date last year by going on a second date.

Since then, she has gone on to interview some of the biggest names the industry has to offer including Cher, Paul Mescal, Sabrina Carpenter and Billie Eilish.

And boy has it worked a treat for her.

Now with 2.9million subscribers on YouTube and her videos getting no less than a million views per episode, it’s thought the creator earns around £6,000 per episode.

The series won a Stremy Award in 2022 and won the Content and Entertainment award at The Drum awards in November 2024.

In 2018 she launched Dimz Inc, a production company founded by herself which is dedicated to ‘being refreshingly awkward’ and ‘allergic to being generic’.

According to recent filings the company has assets worth £1.2million and has since worked with Channel 4, Nike and Kode Media

Since launching Dimz Inc she has released her own branded clothing line where a hoodie is £60 and also embarked on a UK tour called Hot Sauce where she took Chicken Shop Date to live venues around the country.

And keeping it in the family, she currently lives in a £1.2million Marylebone flat with her sister Zoe who she now employs as a writer and producer for Dimz Inc.

Stepping away from her own productions, Amelia has also become well-established as a familiar face on the red carpet.

Now recognised by most celebrities walking down, she has hosted interviews from the Baftas, the Brits, MTV VMAs, GQ Awards and film premieres, including Barbie.

And she impressed so much as a social media correspondent at the Oscars last year, she has landed the gig again at next month’s event.

When she was first picked for the role in 2024, she said: ‘I’m so excited. I really, really cannot believe it and can’t wait to get to Los Angeles and do some amazing interviews. To be doing this for the Oscars itself is really, where do you go? It’s all downhill from here.’

Central Saint Martins rewarded her in the summer of last year with an Honorary Fellowship.

During her acceptance speech she said: ‘At my graduation I received one of the lowest grades in my class.

‘Most of the feedback I received was “I don’t get it”. And even though I was pleased with what I had made, I felt like a failure because I hadn’t received the approval of my tutors.

‘My ideas were misunderstood. But what was important was my belief in the idea.’

Now dressed by the likes of Jimmy Choo and Gucci for her red carpets, she was also announced as the face of Charlotte Tilbury last Christmas alongside Kate Moss and Kylie Minogue.

And just last week she was also revealed as part of the talent to support Red Nose Day, alongside Joanna Lumley.

Aside from much success professionally, Amelia has always been honest about not having much success in her personal life.

A romantic at heart she once said her fondest memory of school was the ‘hottest guy in the year’ asking for her number on the last day of class.

But despite monthly sit-down dates with some of the most successful people on the planet, her real love life has never taken centre stage.

After I revealed last week she is now dating film producer and Olivia Rodrigo’s ex-boyfriend Adam Faze, it appears her new romance is her first official one.

She has long been linked to Spider-Man actor Andrew Garfield after the pair were very flirty during one of her interviews.

So much so it’s got over ten million views.

And before her rumoured romance with Andrew, she once said she was dating rapper Aitch whom she met while also filming Chicken Shop Date.

Though fans have long speculated their relationship was an elaborate PR stunt. The parties have never confirmed, nor denied.

Now going public, at last weeks BAFTA Rising Star party, I saw the new couple mingle around the room as she introduced Adam to her industry friends.

Careful not to pack on too much PDA, the couple posed for photos alongside other guests, smiling and giggling together.

Adam, 27, made The Hollywood Reporters most influential influencers list in October – as did Amelia.

Having met through friends after both working in similar industries, Adam is the founder of Gymnasium, a content studio that produces shortform shows for TikTok and Instagram, like the popular series Boy Room, which investigates the questionable bedrooms of men around the country.

He worked as a contributor for Forbes in 2017, where according to his bio, he described himself as ‘a twenty-year-old storyteller and creative entrepreneur.’

With business partner Jamie Dolan, Adam created the production company Must B Nice.

And in March 2023 he launched his own television company called FazeWorld.

Used to dating women in the limelight, Adam previously dated American Grammy Award winning singer Olivia Rodrigo in 2021 after he was spotted kissing her against a car.

But they later broke up in February 2022 after a year of dating.

Now dating one of the most in demand women in the industry, one must only hope Adam is okay with Amelia continuing to ‘date’ other men as her Chicken Shop Date is showing no signs of slowing down.

Opening up to Elle earlier last month about what she looks for in a partner, she admitted: ‘I’m looking for someone who is emotionally available—number one, someone who likes chicken nuggets, and, I know I keep think talking about sense of humour, but to me, that’s really important.

‘So, I think someone that can make me laugh, and someone that laughs at my jokes as well, is really important. And someone that also understands that I am ambitious and I love my job, and I spend a lot of time dating other celebrities. They need to be okay with that, too.’