Craig Phillips was born in Seaforth, Liverpool in 1971, the younger of two children. His family moved to Shropshire in the late 1980s, and at the age of eighteen, Craig secured a bricklaying apprenticeship whilst working for a local construction company.

Determined to ensure he excelled in his chosen profession, he attended further night-school classes in advanced brickwork and civil engineering, achieving City & Guilds qualifications. Before appearing on Big Brother, Craig had run his own building company for nearly a decade, which had an annual turnover of more than £1 million.

In 2005, he set up the largest independent construction training college in the north-west of England, which has so far seen thousands of young people achieve NVQ apprenticeships. He remains as passionate as ever about construction and maintains an impressive property portfolio.