He’s the man who arguably turned Donald Trump into a household name and paved his path to the Presidency. And now the incoming US President is repaying the favour, by appointing the British TV producer who created The Apprentice as special envoy to the UK.

In an announcement on Truth Social on Saturday, Trump congratulated Mark Burnett, 64, saying: “With a distinguished career in television production and business, Mark brings a unique blend of diplomatic acumen and international recognition to this important role.”

It’s certainly been an unusual rise to political and diplomatic power for Burnett, a former British Army paratrooper turned “manny” who became a titan of reality TV.

Burnett was raised in what he calls “gray and grimy” Dagenham, Essex to parents who worked at the Ford factory. He attended the local comprehensive school and was just 17 when he enlisted in the British Army. He quickly rose through the ranks to become a Section Commander in the Parachute Regiment and saw action in the Falklands War and Northern Ireland. 

But a fellow soldier recalled that Burnett was nicknamed the Male Model, because he was reluctant to “get any dirt under his fingernails”. Burnett has said that the biggest things he’s taken from the Army are learning how to “do everything you need to do with way less” and “a sense of adventure”.

Aged 22, he left the Army and intended to go to Central America to work as a “weapons and tactics advisor”. On a whim, he moved to LA, where his friend was working as a nanny and chauffeur. Burnett also began working as a live-in “manny” for affluent families in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He was given a job by the father of the children he looked after in an insurance office, but on the weekends he sold t-shirts for $18 on Venice Beach.