Louis Walsh, born 1952, is a talent manager and media personality – now best known for his long-standing role as a judge on reality competition, X Factor.

Born in Kiltimagh, Ireland, Walsh was the second of eight children, and he moved to Dublin in the 1970s in order to pursue a career in the music industry.

After his success as a manager, including Boyzone and Westlife, Walsh joined the judges panel of Popstars in Ireland in 2001. The following year, he joined the UK team for Popstars: The Rivals, which formed a girl band and a boy band before pitting them against each other in the charts with releases on the same day.

One True Voice, the boy band, reached number two on the UK Charts, while the female group, Girls Aloud, managed by Louis Walsh, topped the charts and proved to have more longevity in both the industry and public eye.

Louis joined X Factor in 2004, and remained on the show throughout its run, which ended in 2019. During this time, he managed a number of contestants after their time on the show came to an end, including G4, Jedward, and Shayne Ward.

Boyzone actually exists because of Louis Walsh. In 1993 he held auditions in Dublin, Ireland, with the intention of creating a band that would be “the Irish Take That”.

Of the more than 300 applicants to be in the group, Walsh was involved in the curation of the band, reshuffling and replacing members of the group until the final line-up of Ronan Keating, Stephen Gately, Mikey Graham, Shane Lynch and Keith Duffy was cemented.

Richard Rock and Mark Walton were originally members of the group but were later replaced with Graham.

While the band was still in its infancy, without having even laid down a record, Walsh got them a performance slot on The Late Late Show, which they were mocked for. However, the band later grew to become one of Ireland’s biggest pop groups of all time.

Walsh was responsible for pushing Keating and Gately to the forefront of the band, which ultimate began to grate on Graham, who was arguably the more musically talented.

He also publicly admits feeding fake news stories to the press to keep the band members in the public eye, including speculation about their dating lives, and incidents on nights out.

In the documentary, Walsh confesses to leaking a story about Boyzone being in a plane crash, and failing to tell their family members it was a minor accident with no injuries.

The band were together for six years, before initially disbanding in 1999, at which point Walsh focused his efforts on Keating’s solo career and a secondary band, Westlife, whom Walsh had set up as a “rival” to Boyzone.

He would later publicly fall out with Keating but would mend this by 2008.

Louis Walsh has had a string of highly successful acts under his management during his career, largely Irish stars and former X Factor contestants.

To date, these are:

• Boyzone (and then Ronan Keating’s solo career)
• Westlife
• Samantha Mumba
• Bellefire
• Girls Aloud
• G4
• Jedward
• Shayne Ward
• Union J

Boyzone: No Matter What is available in full now on Sky Documentaries and to stream on NOW.

It runs for three, hour-long episodes.

Got Sky? Hit the 'Watch now' button below and start watching straightaway on Sky Go.

New to Sky? Buy now and start watching today on compatible devices on Sky Go.