He was John Rocha's "medium" model for two years. He's walked the ramp at fashion shows in every-coloured cloth and collar size there is. As part of a promotional tour he's danced at every happening night club in the country, and he's donned boxer shorts and strutted down the cat-walk alongside Mr Ireland.

And yet, modelling, he insists, is not about looks. "I myself am no Gillette man. What I have, I think, is the boy-next-door look. A sort of Billy Bunter's Dixon."

At Coolmine Community School in Dublin modelling "was the furthest thing from my mind," he says. After the Leaving Cert he went to TCD to study electronic engineering. He's now in his final year, preparing to sit his fourth-year exams. Since Christmas he's cut back on the amount of modelling he does in order to study. But throughout second and third year he continued to work as a model. "I actually did very well in my exams. Because you are missing a lot of lectures you are putting yourself under pressure compared with when I was in school for example. I was very casual about it then."

"Modelling has been the best thing for me," he says. "It's given me great confidence to talk to anybody. And also in dealing with the so-called beautiful people. That would have been difficult for me a few years ago."

He got interested, he says, because "it was new, it was a bit of a laugh, it was exciting, I wasn't nervous at any stage." He had never been involved in anything like this before, he adds. His mother used to model, so did his aunt and his cousin is the model, Yvonne Connelly, who is married to Ronan Keating.

Yes, he laughs, it must be in the blood. "I'm an extrovert," he explains. "I don't get nervous before a fashion show. I get such a buzz." He first went to the Eddie Shanahan agency. He brought a number of photographs with him. Then the jobs started to come in. He's been kept busy ever since, doing fashion shows, photo-shoots, dance shoots, PR work and commercials, and he's represented by Morgan The Agency.

Modelling "doesn't make you look in the mirror in a different way," he says. "That's the worst thing that can happen. As far as modelling is concerned you have to take it as it comes, nice and easy. Don't take it too seriously."

Being on the ramp, he says, "is about using your own space. I'm good on the ramp, so I've been told - I've a presence. There's a lot of acting. Versatility is the key. I had my hair bleached two years ago. Now it's brown . . .

"I see people who are brilliant-looking but they don't do that well. They have a look but it's not particularly happy or sad, and if they just have that look, they're not going to do well, because it's about diversity. "You have to be different and willing to change as well. It's personality that comes out so much." And models, he warns, cannot get attached to a particular look. "It's hard as well because that's something that is inside of you as well." The main thing, he stresses, is friendliness. It's important that "you can get on with people and be genuinely friendly." Those who take it seriously can "get this arrogance".

After his exams, Dixon plans to travel to an island off the south-east coast of Indonesia to study marine life. He's currently raising funds to support this research project. After that he plans to go to Australia for a year. Modelling, he says, "has shown me a different way of life." It has shown him what's possible. He may go to New York or to London to work. "I don't have a tunnel-vision view. I'm more of a personal person than someone who sits in a room with a computer. In Australia I might try acting. It's a progressive step."

As for keeping fit and eating properly, he has kept up his football and soccer training. And he doesn't smoke or drink coffee.