Darryn Lyons was born on 19th August 1965. He is a former paparazzo and an Australian politician. He is also an entrepreneur and media personality. In November, 2013, he became the 95th mayor of Geelong. He is famously known in the UK for his media work.
Darryn was the youngest of his siblings and was born in Melbourne Australia. The home they lived in was designed by their father who was an architect. Darryn had a love for photography from a young age. He went to Geelong Tech Secondary School and was often the dux of the school. Following his graduation, he worked at the Geelong News as a professional photographer. When he was 22 years old, he went to London and started working at the News of the World. Two years later, he quit his job and took up a position at the Daily Mail, where he provided news of the Bosnian War.
His company “Big Pictures” was founded in 1993 which supplied paparazzi-style photographs to news organisations. The company was being run by Kevin Anstey and Melanie Lyons for three years while Lyon focused on his work at the Daily Mail. In 1996, he quit again and started working at Big Pictures full time with Melanie Lyons. He garnered huge media attention when he sold a photograph to a news agency supporting the claim that David Beckham was in a relationship with Rebecca Loos who was his personal assistant at that time.
Lyons appears on television and radio programs often and he is also a weekly commentator on Alan Titchmarsh Show, LK Today and Sky News Sunrise Program. He also commentates for Australian radio shows Hughsey and Kate Show and Kyle and Jackie O Show. He has written columns for NW magazine and the Geelong Advertiser newspaper. In 2005, he appeared in reality television show Dragon’s Den as a business expert. In addition, he appeared in Mr Paparazzi Show which was produced by Big Pictures Production with each episode lasting for about 5 minutes. The episodes can be viewed on the Mr Paparazzi website.
In 2007, he made an appearance on the reality TV show “Deadline”. In the same year, he also appeared on the British TV show “Through The Keyhole”, “Tycoon” and “Top Gear”. In 2011, he entered the UK version of “Celebrity Big Brother 8” and finished in 6th place. He also entered another reality show as a contestant in 2012. Other celebrities on the same show “Excess Baggage Australia” included actor Gabby Millgate and singer Christine Anu. The show was although a failure and many people believed that it failed because of its contestants as they were not famous enough.
Today, Lyons lives in Geelong. He divorced his first wife in 2000 and is currently in a relationship with Elissa Friday, who is a student and a former model.