Born Denise Kathleen Outen in Basildon, Essex, England,[2] she has a brother Terry[citation needed] and sister Jackie.

[6] In 1986, she played the young Éponine in Les Misérables[7] (the role paid her school fees[8]), the Anthony Newley-directed production of Stop the World - I Want to Get Off, and A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

[7] In the mid 1990s, she sang with former video game soundtrack singer Cathy Warwick in a 'girl group' called Those2Girls, by which time she had become Denise van Outen.

[12] During her first stint on The Big Breakfast show, she appeared as Jill in ITV1's version of the pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk[13] alongside Julie Walters and Neil Morrissey.

In the anthology film Tube Tales, set on the London Underground, she played the lead character of Alex in the "Horny" segment, directed by Stephen Hopkins.

Unknown in the United States, she reprised her role on Broadway in the spring of 2002, before returning to the show's London version in late April 2002.

[17] Late the same year, Van Outen appeared as one of many special guest stars in a performance of The Play What I Wrote once again in London's West End.

In 2003, she returned to the London stage at the Gielgud Theatre in Andrew Lloyd Webber's one-woman show Tell Me on a Sunday,[18][19] which he reworked for her.

[20] She then joined the cast of the established ITV sentimental drama Where the Heart Is as one of the lead characters, playing single mother Kim Blakeney, continuing for two series.

Van Outen took over the role of Paulette Bonafonté from Jill Halfpenny in the West End production of Legally Blonde on 25 October 2010.

In 2012, Van Outen was cast in the film of the Ray Cooney farce Run for Your Wife alongside Danny Dyer, Sarah Harding and Neil Morrissey.

[30] Van Outen plays intelligent businesswoman Karin Smart who gets involved with Max Branning (Jake Wood), and has business history with Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden).

In September 2018, it was announced that she would be joining the cast of the 2018 London revival of Chicago at the Phoenix Theatre in the West End as Velma Kelly.

Van Outen guest presented This Morning in 2005, The Friday Night Project in 2006, The 5 O'Clock Show in 2010, Lorraine in 2010 and 2012, and Sunday Brunch in 2013.

[40] On 20 December 2012, van Outen and Jordan finished as runners-up alongside Girls Aloud singer Kimberley Walsh & Pasha Kovalev, behind winning couple, Olympic gymnast Louis Smith & Flavia Cacace.

On 16 January 2021, van Outen suffered a partially dislocated shoulder and tendon damage to her left shoulder after falling during rehearsals for the launch show of series 13 of Dancing On Ice; van Outen was able to perform a modified dance routine with her professional skate partner Matt Evers on the launch show.

[citation needed] In 2009, Van Outen climbed Mount Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief, and in 2013 took part in a trek across the Great Wall of China for the Royal Marsden Hospital.