Leigh-Anne Pinnock

It received a nomination for Best Authored Documentary at the 26th National Television Awards, and also won Documentary of the Year at the Visionary Honours Awards, Media Progress Moment at the Ethnicity Awards, and Best Documentary at the I Talk Telly Awards.

In December 2021, the group announced they would be going on a hiatus to allow its members to pursue solo projects.

That same month, she made her acting debut in the film Boxing Day, which she also recorded original music for.

Both of her grandfathers immigrated to the United Kingdom in the 1960s and entered interracial relationships.

She lived in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

with her two older sisters Sian-Louise and Sairah.

Sairah became her manager following Little Mix's hiatus in 2022.

She has Barbadian and Jamaican ancestry and counts Jamaica as her second home.

Before joining Little Mix, she worked as a waitress at Pizza Hut and used to post her music on MySpace and Facebook.

Her early experience of organised singing came when she joined a youth club and choir then run by Jay Blades, who later became a trustee of her charity The Black Fund that she founded in 2021.

Leigh-Anne Pinnock (born 4 October 1991), known mononymously as Leigh-Anne, is an English singer, songwriter and actress.

Leigh-Anne Pinnock was born on 4 October 1991, to black mixed-race parents Deborah Thornhill, a history teacher, and John Pinnock, a champion boxer and was raised in a Caribbean household.

She rose to prominence as a member of the girl group Little Mix that were formed and won the eighth series of The X Factor UK in 2011.

As part of the group she won three Brit Awards, and achieved nineteen top-ten singles and five number-ones on the UK Singles Chart, before going on hiatus in 2022.

In 2021, she made her acting debut in the film Boxing Day.

As part of her solo career, Leigh-Anne has released the singles "Don't Say Love" and "My Love" featuring Ayra Starr.

In 2023, she won Musician of the Year and Breakthrough Artist at the Glamour Awards and is set to release her debut studio album in 2024.

Leigh-Anne is noted for advocating for various racial issues and for racial equality, which earned her a National Diversity and Visionary Honour Award.

Her documentary, Leigh-Anne: Race, Pop & Power (2021), received critical acclaim and was nominated for Best Authored Documentary at the 26th National Television Awards.

She is also renowned for her fashion image.

On 28 October 2011, it was announced that the group name had changed to Little Mix.

On 11 December 2011, Little Mix became the group to win the series.

They became the first girl group to make it past week seven of the live shows, the first girl group to reach The X Factor final and the first and only girl group to win the show.

As of 2022, Pinnock has released six studio albums and a compilation album with the group: DNA (2012), Salute (2013), Get Weird (2015), Glory Days (2016), LM5 (2018) Confetti (2020), and Between Us (2021).

Pinnock shares songwriting credits for more than 50 songs, across Little Mix's six studio albums.

She has co-written two UK number one singles with "Wings" in 2012 and "Shout Out to My Ex" in 2016.

In 2019, she signed with Sony/ATV as a published songwriter.

With the group, Pinnock achieved nineteen top-ten singles, five number-ones, and six consecutive top-five albums on the UK Albums Chart, becoming the first girl group to achieve this and the first girl group to spend a total of 100 weeks within the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart.

Since Little Mix's debut, they have become one of the best-selling girl groups and one of Britain's biggest selling acts.

In May 2021, her documentary, Leigh-Anne: Race, Pop & Power, was released on BBC iPlayer and BBC One to critical acclaim.

It was centred around racial issues and colourism in the music industry and detailed her own personal experiences.

In 2020, Pinnock spoke out about the first time she experienced racism at the age of nine, for a documentary that was later aired on Channel 4.

Pinnock's first audition on The X Factor was "Only Girl (In the World)" by Rihanna.

After she failed the first bootcamp challenge, she was placed in a three-piece group named "Orion" alongside Jade Thirlwall.

Orion performed a rendition of "Yeah" by Chris Brown.

Perrie Edwards and Jesy Nelson both were in another group called "Faux Pas".

Faux Pas performed a rendition of "Survivor" by Destiny's Child.

Both groups, however, were eliminated.

Later, the four were called back by the judges and formed into the four-piece group Rhythmix, and they progressed to judges' houses.

They reached the live shows and was mentored by Tulisa Contostavlos.