She’s the mother hen of beloved internet show Chicken Shop Date.
Amelia Dimoldenberg, armed with nuggets, endearing awkwardness and a fierce deadpan stare, has brought a fresh take to the celebrity interview, peeling back the PR sheen to show celebrities in a rare and more relatable light.
Now the go-to girl for hosting Hollywood red carpets, with everything from the Oscars to MTV under her belt, she’s built a reputation for asking questions that catch people off guard and don’t fit the usual media mould.
She’s doing something more unorthodox and self-aware… and it works. As actor Andrew Garfield told her in November 2022 during GQ’s Men of the Year red carpet, “It’s weird what you do. Weird as in good. Very specific and unique.”
As he spoke to her, he smiled like someone who couldn’t quite figure out whether he was in on the joke or the punchline…. Read on for everything you need to know about Chicken Shop Date.
Why did Amelia start Chicken Shop Date?
From humble beginnings studying fashion journalism in her hometown of London, the then 17-year-old noticed a gap in the market for comedic-style interviews with artists, actors and musicians.
“Everything felt very serious and … about someone’s musical influences and a deep dive, and I love watching those kinds of interviews but I feel like there was a space for some more comedy,” she explained on Jake Shane’s podcast Therapuss.
That’s where the idea for Chicken Shop Date was hatched.
In 2011, it began as a column for a youth magazine, where Amelia imagined taking local grime music artists to chicken shops in her area for a date.
In an interview with The Cut in September 2024, she revealed she had never actually been on a date herself at that point. “Two birds, one stone,” she told the outlet.
Who was the first person on the Chicken Shop Date?
By 2014, she had brought the concept to the extra-small screen, uploading her first video to YouTube with English grime artist Ghetts.
The early episodes were filmed on a shoestring budget, coordinated mostly by herself and her sister, Zoe, as they reached out to emerging UK rappers in the hopes of landing a chat.
“It took me a while to get people to agree to date me,” she joked to Shane. But slowly, the concept caught on.
What is the concept of Chicken Shop Date?
Her dry delivery, the unusual setting and the fact she treats every single interview like a very real (and often very bad) date makes it different from any other interview format, with Amelia leaning into the awkwardness, flirting shamelessly and delivering sarcastic jabs with perfect timing.
Now 31, Amelia has sat across from some of the UK’s biggest names in entertainment and, increasingly, talent from across the pond, too.
Her guests have now included mega pop stars like Sabrina Carpenter, Cher and Shania Twain, as well as Hollywood royalty like Jennifer Lawrence, Ben Stiller and Ryan Reynolds.
In her podcast interview with Shane, Amelia said things “really catapulted” for the show after she had US rapper Jack Harlow as a guest.
A clip from that episode of her asking him, “Can you read?” went viral. Something about the way Jack responded, charmed, cheeky and a little thrown, showed why the format works so well.
“Jack Harlow was an amazing moment because up until then, I hadn’t had many Americans on, and people didn’t know much about his personality. They didn’t know he was so charming and funny. And he was flirting with me – it was the perfect date,” she said to Cosmopolitan.
Despite fans knowing Amelia’s schtick is an act, that hasn’t stopped the internet running wild with dating rumours.
What happened with Amelia Dimoldenberg and Andrew Garfield?
After her brief encounter with Andrew Garfield on the GQ red carpet and a follow-up encounter months later at the 2023 Golden Globes, fans were left in a flurry over their playful and flirty chemistry.
In October 2024, Amelia dropped an 11-minute sit-down with Andrew that threw the internet into chaos. It’s now one of her most watched videos.
But was there actually anything going on between them?
“We’re friendly. It’s been great to speak to him about how well the episode has done. He’s so lovely. As I said in the episode, I friend-zoned him,” she told Cosmopolitan.
In an April 2024 interview with Vogue, she said, “I’ve been single for four years … Maybe there are loads of stunning men who would love to go on a date with me, but just think, ‘Oh, I can never get Amelia,’ or, ‘She’s got a dating show, so that’s weird,’” she explained.
But at this point, she has more on her plate than chicken nuggets and potential suitors. She’s launched her own content company, Dimz Inc., which describes itself as making “original films that subvert familiar narratives and show subjects in a fresh light”.
And if Chicken Shop Date is anything to go by, it seems like she’ll do exactly that.
