Wesley Dening (born 14 July 1983) is an Australian television producer based in Los Angeles.

Early life Dening grew up in the Queensland capital of Brisbane, in Australia. He attended high school at St. Joseph's Nudgee College, graduating in 2000. During his teen years, Dening was a national-level swimmer and also worked as an actor and model, even winning Young Model of the Year. Dening was founder of 'Seriously Pink', a fashion franchise in central Brisbane.

At the age of 18, Dening lived in London, and on his return to Australia, he decided to audition for reality TV series Big Brother, hoping it would help him break into television.

Career Dening originally appeared as a contestant on Big Brother Australia 2004, at the age of 20. Following this, he had a chance meeting with the executive producer of Network 10 travel adventure show Totally Wild, leading to an unpaid job on the series, where he contributed to stories and writing scripts. He was then offered a six month presenting contract, after which time he became a producer, at the age of 21.

He also appeared in radio advertisements for local Brisbane stations 4BC, B105 and Triple M. and narrated the 2005 documentary Ghosts of the Gulf. In 2005, he also became an ambassador for Tourism Queensland

In 2006, Dening's work as a reporter earned him a Logie Award nomination for Best New Talent on Television. That same year, together with a team from Totally Wild he travelled to Antarctica, where he filmed six special half hour episodes for Totally Wild: Antarctica Special (2007) as well as an episode of Network 10 children’s science series Scope and a documentary. The special was distributed to numerous other countries and was the recipient of the Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship. It was also nominated for a Logie Award in 2008.

Dening became a sports reporter for 10 News First Queensland and reported for children's Auskick series Kick2Kick for Network 10, and the documentary Spirit of the Outback. He was also guest co-host for Toasted TV and the 2008 Australian New Year's Eve telecast.

Dening met with the BBC in London, with hopes of furthering his career overseas, but in 2008, relocated to New York instead, at the age of 25. The following year, he made his U.S. television debut, on cable network truTV's The Smoking Gun Presents: World's Dumbest as one of the co-hosts, alongside Daniel Baldwin and Danny Bonaduce.

In 2010, Dening founded the production company WD Entertainment, which has since been responsible for series that have aired in more than 55 countries. The company's first TV series, the 2011 six-part The Stafford Brothers, following the rise of the titular DJ's, premiered on Fox8 in Australia. A huge success, a 2012 second season was aired and the show was broadcast internationally. That same year, Dening hosted and starred in a hidden camera prank series for Disney Channel called Code: 9.

Dening created and executive-produced wine and travel series The Flying Winemaker on Discovery Channel in 2014, followed by Big Crazy Family Adventure on the Travel Channel in 2015.

Dening joined Eureka Productions in 2016 as senior vice president of programming and development, before being promoted to the role of executive vice president in 2018. Then in July 2022, he was appointed as head of global formats.

In 2018, Dening waa executive producer on classic car restoration and resale reality series Pick, Flip & Drive, for Facebook Watch, winning multiple Telly Awards and landing a nomination for a Cannes Content Innovation Award. From 2018, he was also executive producer for the multi-season Animal Planet series Crikey! It's the Irwins (2018–2022), including the specials Crikey! It's The Irwin's Life in Lockdown and Crikey! It's the Irwins: Bindi's Wedding.

Beginning in 2019, Dening was also executive producer of ABC's Holey Moley, an extreme miniature golf competition series produced by Eureka Productions and Stephen Curry's company Unanimous Media. A breakout success, the series won the Realscreen 2020 Award for Best New Format and was nominated for both a Rose d'Or Award for Entertainment Program of the Year, and a Content Innovation Award in Cannes. As executive producer of 2019 American reality dating series Dating Around on Netflix, Dening won the Critic's Choice Award for Best Relationship Series, and was nominated for another Content Innovation Award.

Further executive producer credits have included celebrity talent series The Real Dirty Dancing (2019) for Fox, floristry competition series Full Bloom (2020–2021) for HBO Max, and dating series Twentysomethings: Austin (2021) for Netflix.

Together with Channing Tatum and Steven Soderbergh, Dening was an executive producer on 2021 reality competition series Finding Magic Mike for HBO Max, which was created during Covid lockdown. He continues to be at the helm of numerous series in both the U.S. and Australia, including CBS reality dating series The Real Love Boat (2022) Netflix competition series The Mole (2022), The Parent Test (2022–2023), dating series The Farmer Wants a Wife (2023), Fox celebrity space series Stars on Mars (2023) featuring William Shatner, singing competition series Australian Idol (2023–2024), game show The Floor (2024) hosted by Rob Lowe, game show The Quiz with Balls (2024–2026) and Apple TV music competition series KPopped (2025).

Personal life Denying is married to wife Michala, with whom he has three kids. She moved with him to New York in 2008, when she was his girlfriend.

Filmography As presenter Year Title Role Notes Ref 2004 Big Brother Australia 2004 Contestant 2004 Totally Wild Presenter 2005 Ghosts of the Gulf Narrator Documentary 2007 Totally Wild: Antarctica Special Presenter 6 episodes 2007 Scope Guest co-host 1 episode Kick2Kick Sports reporter AFL Grand Final Sports reporter 10 News First Queensland Sports reporter Spirit of the Outback Host Documentary Toasted TV Guest co-host 2008 New Year's Eve telecast Co-host TV special 2009–2012 The Smoking Gun Presents: World's Dumbest Co-host 70 episodes 2010 In the Qube Self 13 episodes 2012 Code: 9 Host 6 episodes

As executive producer Year Title Role Notes Ref 2006 Totally Wild Producer 2011–2012 The Stafford Brothers Creator / Writer / Director / Executive producer 16 episodes 2014 The Flying Winemaker Creator / Director / Executive-producer 2015 Big Crazy Family Adventure Executive producer 9 episodes 2018 Pick, Flip & Drive Executive producer 8 episodes 2018–2022 Crikey! It's the Irwins Executive producer 39 episodes 2019 The Real Dirty Dancing Executive producer 3 episodes 2019–2020 Dating Around Executive producer / Consulting producer 12 episodes 2019–2022 Holey Moley Executive producer 45 episodes 2020–2021 Full Bloom Executive producer 14 episodes 2021 Crikey! It's Shark Week Executive producer TV special Finding Magic Mike Executive producer 7 episodes Twentysomethings: Austin Executive producer 12 episodes 2022 The Real Love Boat Executive producer / Producer 14 episodes The Mole Executive producer 10 episodes 2022–2023 The Parent Test Executive producer 10 episodes 2023 The Farmer Wants a Wife Executive producer 11 episodes Stars on Mars Executive producer 8 episodes 2023–2024 Australian Idol Executive producer 46 episodes 2024 The Floor Executive producer 9 episodes 2024–2026 The Quiz with Balls Executive producer 9 episodes 2025 KPopped Executive producer 1 episode

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