Francoise Boufhal - Shots in Rio

Francoise Boufhal (born on 18 December 1988) is an English model, actress and presenter.

Born Françoise Boufhal on December 18, 1988, in Hexham, Northumberland, Boufhal grew up and spent most of her childhood in Stocksfield and attended Broomley First school before moving into Newcastle Upon Tyne. She attended Ponteland Middle school where she was continuously bullied through high school. She later says the experience at school boosted her ambition to be successful. In early 2010, Boufhal became an ambassador for charity BeatBullying.

Boufhal's acting career began at the age of 11 when she joined The Live Theatre company, a theatrical youth theatre based in Newcastle made famous by Robson Green. Boufhal's first major role was in the hit children's BBC1 show Byker Grove, where she played 'Ellie Baines', Stumpy's girlfriend. Boufhal auditioned several times for a role in the show but was deemed 'too sexy', until eventually a part was made for the curvaceous actress.

Boufhal was in the pilot for 'GRUBBS', a children's cookery program scheduled to be regularly on the Discovery Kids channel but was cancelled due to the death of the Producer.

As a baby, Boufhal was named 'prettiest baby in the Metro Centre'. At 16 she joined a Newcastle based modelling agency as she continued her studies at Gosforth High School.

At 5'-5" and a 28H chest, Boufhal was always knocked back from fashion houses for being too short and having an 'unusual' figure. She later joined Girl Management glamour agency based in London, then moved to Samantha Bond Management.

Boufhal has appeared in Nuts as 'Nuts next top model', Zoo and was Maxims April 2009 cover girl.

She is currently an up and coming favorite of the national newspapers. The Daily Star has claimed she is their "latest discovery" set to follow in the foot steps of Kelly Brook and Lucy Pinder.

Francoise is featured in the June 2010 issue of Playboy USA, making her the first female UK model to ever appear without being topless.

In April 2009, Rio Ferdinand signed Boufhal up to his digital magazine 5 as his co-presenter. Boufhal has interviewed the likes of Danny Dyer, Alan Carr, Ashley Cole and Tamer Hassan

Boufhal is currently the weekly 'Bloke Counsellor' for Maxim UK, involving a heavy online presence