Amelia Dimoldenberg may be a red carpet regular now, but she’s still a loyal customer at chicken shops — and has no problem continuing her dates at the unlikely spots.
The London-based comedian is best known for her Chicken Shop Date YouTube series, which she originally launched in 2014 as a magazine column for a local youth publication. In each episode, Dimoldenberg invites celebrity guests for casual, sometimes awkward and often flirtatious date-style interviews in local chicken shops. Ten years later, the popular video series has amassed nearly 3 million YouTube subscribers.
In addition to her YouTube following, Dimoldenberg has become a familiar face on the red carpet as a host and social media correspondent for major Hollywood events. She’s gone on over 90 “dates” with celebrities, including with Andrew Garfield.
In October 2024, he made his long-awaited appearance on the show following years of flirty encounters — or as Garfield put it, “meet cutes.” The pair first met at GQ’s Men of the Year Awards in November 2022, where they made a toast “to their future date” while on the red carpet, and again at the 2023 Golden Globe Awards.
“C’mon, we can own that it’s been vibey,” Garfield told Dimoldenberg during the episode. She replied, “Yeah it’s been vibey to the point where you’ve been avoiding me for two years because the vibes were too much for you to handle, so I’m actually surprised you’re here.”
Three minutes into the video, a round of “Snog, Marry, Avoid” led Garfield to point out their playful banter: “This is called flirting, Amelia, this is called flirting!”
So who is Amelia Dimoldenberg? Here’s everything to know about the London-based comedian and how her Chicken Shop Date series led her to have a star-studded roster.
She is from London
Dimoldenberg grew up in Marylebone, a neighborhood in London, with her dad, mom and sister. Her dad worked in public relations and city council, while her mom was a librarian, per Vogue.
“I loved my childhood, sometimes I wish I could go back to it — not a care in the world!” she told Equate magazine in November 2019. “Actually, that’s a lie, I cared about a lot of things, mainly making friends as I wasn’t that popular when I first started secondary school. I had glasses and braces — wasn’t the best combination for a 13-year-old.”
Growing up, she was known for her magazine obsession. In February 2022, she told The New York Times that she used to introduce herself to people by saying, “Hi, I’m Amelia. I’m going to be the editor of Vogue.”
Although Dimoldenberg still resides in London, she told British GQ in April 2023 that she would “love to live somewhere else” at some point.
She studied fashion journalism
Dimoldenberg graduated from London’s Central Saint Martins with a bachelor of arts in fashion communication and fashion journalism in 2017.
“Ever since I can remember I wanted to go to Central Saint Martins — I always had dreamed of working in fashion, reporting at one of the top magazines,” she told the University of the Arts London (UAL) following her graduation.
In April 2023, Dimoldenberg told British GQ that she “loved studying journalism through a creative lens,” and revealed that her time at Central Saint Martins studying art and design helped her find her path.
“In a way, it taught me what I didn’t want to do. It helped me realise that I am a creative person but not in the fine art sense, or design for that matter; I’m much more about ideas,” she told UAL. “I decided, while struggling to paint in the workshops or stressing out at the idea of designing an outfit out of paper, that this wasn’t for me.”
She started Chicken Shop Date when she was 17
Dimoldenberg launched Chicken Shop Date as a magazine column for her local youth club’s publication, which she told UAL was “an incredible platform for young people to interview musicians, plan photoshoots, write and create.”
According to The Cut, the idea came to her because she had always loved magazines and musicians, and at the same time, she had never been on a date. Dimoldenberg thought about interviewing the artists she and her friends liked as a way of setting herself up with them, killing “two birds, one stone.”
As for the ambiance, she thought taking people somewhere they probably hadn’t been on a date before would bring an extra comedic layer.
On Late Night with Seth Meyers in October 2024, Dimoldenberg explained that typically, “You would go to [a chicken shop] for a cheap bite to eat or after a night out, but you would never take someone there seriously on a date, which is why it’s the best place to go on a date.”
She took the idea from print to video during her first year at Central Saint Martins. Her first Chicken Shop Date was with British rapper Ghetts in 2014. Even though it got fewer than 1,000 views, she told Vogue in April 2024 that she had a feeling it would be a success.
“Maybe I’ve always been delusional, but I’ve always thought I could achieve a lot with it. I thought, from the very beginning, we could definitely get Drake, 100 percent,” she said.
Ten years later, she built a roster full of A-list celebrities, including dates with Sabrina Carpenter, Cher, Paul Mescal and Garfield.
She dreams of Drake being her final guest
Although Dimoldenberg has interviewed some of the biggest celebrities in the industry, she hasn’t shied away from revealing her dream guest: Drake.
There were a few moments when it almost happened. According to GQ, Drake messaged her on Instagram in August 2022, asking, “Chicken shop date?” She responded, “I’ll treat you to a portion of chicken nuggets, will be the best date of your life.”
The two went back and forth, trying to coordinate, and eventually, he asked if she could fly to Sweden to film the date.
“I said, ‘It has to be in the UK. You have to do the real deal,’ ” she recalled on CBS Mornings in December 2023. “We need to keep it authentic, so for me it was important that we did it in a local chicken shop, and he agreed.”
While their date has yet to happen, Dimoldenberg revealed it could be her final one. “I think it would be an amazing moment to end on,” she said.
Still, it’s only the beginning for the internet personality. “My ambitions are much larger than [Chicken Shop Date], and I need to ensure that it’s not going to go on forever. The shop must close down at some point,” she told GQ in April 2023.
She added that she sees a future in presenting, drawing inspiration from MTV and Popworld while venturing into linear television.
She has her own digital production company known as Dimz Inc.
Even though Chicken Shop Date began on YouTube, Dimoldenberg told Vogue in April 2024 that she wanted to formalize her work in 2018 because she was tired of people asking YouTubers, “Do you even actually have a job?”
She decided to launch Dimz Inc., a creative studio that would become the home to her many projects, original films and spinoff series: Chicken Shop Date, Celebrity Rebrand and Who Cares?, among others.
On her YouTube series Fake News, she sits across famous soccer players, interrogation-style and investigates whether their statements are true or false.
She has worked as a social media ambassador and red carpet correspondent for big events
Part of her Dimz Inc. ventures includes Amelia Reporting, a series of Dimoldenberg interviewing celebrities on red carpets, which has led to her hosting some of Hollywood’s biggest events.
She served as the 96th Oscars Ambassador in March 2024, in which she brought her talents to the academy’s red carpet.
“For me, this is really a dream come true and a dream scenario, really,” Dimoldenberg told The Academy in January 2024. “I’m also really excited to do something original and put my own stamp on the Oscars, to create some really amazing moments and deliver some amazing interviews — some groundbreaking pop culture journalism is incoming!”
In February 2024, she hosted the U.S. premiere of Dune: Part Two. “Loved hosting the (sand coloured) carpet last night in New York City 🎤 #WBPartner,” Dimoldenberg wrote on Instagram.
