Paul de Leeuw

Paul De Leeuw (born 26 March 1962), born Paul Henri de Leeuw, is a Dutch television comedian, singer and actor. He gained national fame in the late eighties and early nineties with television shows for the broadcasting company VARA, often coming into publicity with satire about Dutch show business personalities and taboo subject matter. His shows would often feature musical acts, many of which gained national fame after appearing on his programs. In the early nineties, he satirized the new commercial television station RTL 5 by announcing another new station, "RTL 6", which led to a lawsuit by the RTL company.

De Leeuw has had many hit singles in the Netherlands and is most famous for Vlieg met me mee, Ik wil niet dat je liegt / Waarheen, waarvoor, and 'k Heb je lief. Internationally, he is best known for presenting the results of the Dutch televote in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, where instead of simply giving the result he gave his mobile phone number to presenter Sakis Rouvas live on-air and made ad-lib comments. His actions drew negative comments, with the BBC's Terry Wogan calling the act "pathetic". He presented the votes again for the Netherlands at the 2007 contest. He also presented the Dutch national final, Nationaal Songfestival, in several years.

Until mid-2009, De Leeuw hosted the weekly chat and comedy show Mooi! Weer De Leeuw, and on 29 November 2008 he celebrated his 25th television anniversary by staging a 12-hour marathon. He and his husband, Stephan Nugter, have adopted two children, sons Kas and Tobey. On Koninginnedag 2007 he was made a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion, and in 1995 he received the Geuzenprijs with Geert van Istendael.