Meet The Judges

The Festival 4 Stars judging panel is made up of some of Northern Ireland’s biggest experts in music, dance, theatre and showbiz.  This year the judging panel consisted of Robin Elliott, Tina Calder, Micky Modelle, Brenda McCusker, Pauline Carville, Donna Fleming and Emma Rosa Dias.
Robin Elliott
Robin Elliott has been well-known Ulster radio presenter on City Beat 96.7FM for ten years now, has presented every show on the schedule since joining the station.
Away from radio, he has also appeared at Belfast’s Odyssey Arena providing entertainment during the Belfast Giants ice hockey games and is a celebrity judge on City Beat’s hugely successful Young Star Search. Since the success of Young Star Search, Robin has been in constant demand to appear as a judge on talent shows including a recent 16 week run with the T Factor.
Robin presents his own entertainment based TV chat show on Belfast station NVTV and has appeared in the movie Blind Fight and in a number of TV commercials.
Robin is one of Northern Ireland’s busiest comperes, working on events such as the World Snooker Tournament at Belfast’s Waterfront Hall which was broadcast on Eurosport and TG4.
Robin has also played every major theatre in the province playing the part of the narrator in The Rat Pack Revisited.
As a journalist Robin has also worked on various publications such as Big Buzz Magazine and the Ulster Star. He also works as a guest lecturer in Performing Arts and Media Studies at Belfast Metropolitan College.

Tina Calder
A showbiz & entertainment reporter, columnist with the Sunday Word and co-founder of media agency FAME Inc Media, Tina Calder is a multi-award winning journalist.
As a well known showbiz reporter and broadcaster 31-year-old Tina has interviewed some of the top names in music, film and entertainment.
Everyone from Bono, Angelina Jolie, Justin Timberlake, Myleene Klass and Carmen Electra to Spice Girl Emma Bunton, Colin Farrell, Westlife, Girls Aloud and Avril Lavigne have been given the showbiz treatment by her.
Tina has been a judge on numerous talent shows and competitions including the Northern Ireland Young Star Search, School Stars, CU Factor and many others as well as acting as a mentor in many competitions such as The T Factor.
Tina is also a publicity & artist management agent for a number of Northern Ireland stars, with nearly 15 years spotting talent, celebrity and looking for the x-factor she certainly knows what she’s expecting to find at Festival 4 Stars this year.

Micky Modelle
Micky is Ireland’s leading Pop/Dance music producer having a string of hits in the UK and around the world with various Artists.
Throughout his career Micky has also done production work with many major artists over the years such as Pink, Atomic Kitten, Cascada, Flo-Rida to name a few.
The multi-award winning music mogul has won best Irish DJ on four occasions in the last nine years and has played to crowds around the globe over the last 15 years.

Micky is an expert talent scout and is the leading judge and mentor on the Citybeat Young Star Search as well as being tasked to find new talent all over the UK and Ireland for the various record companies he works with.

Brenda McCusker
Dancer and choreographer Brenda McCusker has been dancing since she was 8 years old and competed in thousands of competitions around the UK on a weekly basis until she retired from competing ten years ago at
the age of 21.
Today Brenda continues to tour as a dancer with some of the biggest arena tours in the country including Clubland Tours UK, Dance Nation and Ministry of Sound.
As a qualified choreographer and someone who has specialised in all forms of dance including everything from classic to modern Brenda teaches at the Colin Maxwell School of Dancing in Belfast.

Pauline Carville
Pauline trained at the Royal Academy of Music (PGDip,RAM) London and gained a Post Graduate Diploma in Musical Theatre.
She also trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama (B.A.RSAMD) as well as working for 10 Years as an Actor/Singer in Londons West End and returned to Belfast to train would be actors and singers and guide those who wish to take their love of singing and acting further.
In London’s West End Pauline  was directed by the RSC’s Trevor Nunnand musical theatre legend Julia McKenzie in shows ranging from The Merchant of Venice and  The Beggar’s Opera to Sweeny Todd before appearing in the movie Post Mortem with Charlie Sheen.

Donna Fleming
Donna has been acting since childhood. During that time she has played principle roles in both Northern & Southern Ireland.
As a child she appeared in the Lyric theatre Belfast in musicals such as Annie & Peter Pan.
In later years she played roles such as Rizzo from Grease, Sandy from Grease and Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors. She has also played tribute to Judy Garland at the Ulster Hall & Liza Minnelli as Sally Boles from Cabaret.
With Opera Northern Ireland she was cast in West Side Story with the Ulster Orchestra. She took part in Ulster Theatre productions including Godspell at the Ulster Hall Belfast playing a principal role& Oklahoma at the Grand Opera house- where she played Ado Annie. She has also was cast in an 80’s tribute production on the ‘Independence of the Seas’ Cruise liner.
After Studying for a National Diploma in performance art, she took some time off to have her two sons Scott & Jack. Missing the smell of the greasepaint she enlisted the help of Emmanuel McStravick and they set up ‘Premier Musical Company.’
She has produced sell out productions of ‘High School Musical’ & ‘Back to the 80’s’. She has Co. Directed Shows such as ‘Annie & Oliver’ She is an experienced vocal coach. During her time performing she has worked with people such as Gerard McCarthy (Hollyoaks) Glenn Wallace (Hollyoaks) Tara Lynn O’Neill (Eastenders) Stephen Mackey (The Bill/Casualty) Conleth Kane (Casualty) Maurice Jay (UTV) Rachel Tucker)(Host with  Eammon Holmes)

Emma Rosa Dias
Emma-Rosa Dias trained in classical ballet from the tender age of 4. She trained with the Royal Academy of Dance, one of the world’s most influential dance education and training organisations.
The RAD have an internationally recognised portfolio of examinations and assessments and from Primary to Grade 5 Emma-Rosa received “Distinction” in every exam.
It was much to her teacher’s despair that at 14 Emma-Rosa decided to stop ballet and pay more attention to contemporary dance and drama.  She went on to win the Youth Drama Award at the Lyric Theatre two years running and continued to perform Contemporary Dance and Musical Theatre.
Before starting her career as a TV presenter in 2005 for years ER worked as an event assistant manager for a company in Cologne, Germany. This involved working with bands including Spice Girls, Take That and Arrested Development.