Born in the Australian town of Ballarat, Craig Revel Horwood moved to the bright lights of Melbourne to start his dance career. In addition, Horwood joined the West End, and has played the part of Munkustrap in Cats, Dance Captain in Miss Saigon, and was an original cast member of Crazy for You and has appeared in productions such as West Side Story, La Cage Aux Folles, Me and My Girl.

 Then Horwood joined the Lido Du Paris as a dancer in the show Panache, followed by a principal singer role in Formidable at the Moulin Rouge. Horwood joined the UK tour of Cats in Edinburgh and Dublin, as well as appearing in the original concert version of Jesus Christ Superstar.

As Horwood’s glittering stage career and choreography skills became noticeable and evolved further, he has received prestigious Olivier Award nominations for his work on musicals Spend, Spend, Spend, and My One and Only.

 Craig Revel Horwood has been a member of the judging panel on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing since 2004, he is the longest serving judge for Strictly. His reputation is known for being the harshest of the judges and is often the receiver of scorning and booing from the studio audience.

Horwood has given a score of "1" more times than any other judge.

Horwood is known for harshly applying rules, for example when marking down for an 'illegal lift' in some dances if the lady's foot leaves the floor. He is quite often right in his criticism and to be fair in more recent times has obviously been trying to give more positive feedback too. The harsh critique side of him has become a bit of a character and if he changed entirely people would secretly be disappointed.