Name	Jon Wilkes
Height
Naionality	American
Date of Birth	01-Aug-1978
Place of Birth	America
Famous for

Jonathan Wilkes was born on August 1st 1978 in Baddeley Green, Stoke-on-Trent , where he lived with his parents and older sister Kay. Growing up, Jonathan was a fanatical football player and set his mind on becoming a pro. He played for Everton youth, but at the age of 15 was told told he wasn't good enough and didn't get offered a contract. He did, however, get offers from other teams such as Crewe and Chester , but his heart wasn't in it and he decided not to sign. You can still catch him showing off his footballing skills today for various charities, including Sky One's 'the Match' and more recently on ‘SoccerAid', a charity show in aid of Unicef, which was the brain child of Jonny and his best friend Robbie Williams.

Just as his dreams of becoming a professional football player were shattered Jonathan discovered he had another hidden talent - his voice - and decided to try his luck at singing. As he says himself: "I wasn't really clued up on singing but when I had my tonsils out when I was fifteen I discovered I had a voice and it just went from there really!" In 1996, Jonathan won the 'Cameron Mackintosh Young Entertainer of the Year' award singing Tom Jones' classic 'Kiss', and headed to Blackpool as the youngest person to star in their own show at the Pleasure Beach . After three successful years at Blackpool, Jonathan was offered a presenting job for the BBC Choice programme 'Hype' and moved to London . As a presenter Jonathan interviewed many famous people, including the Corrs and Boyzone, but it never felt right. He always wanted to be the star, not the presenter.

Whilst in London , Jonathan's dream came one step closer as he signed a record deal with Innocent Records, following a fierce bidding war between several major record companies. He soon set to work on an album, and his debut single 'Just Another Day' was released on March 5th 2001, entering the UK charts at number 24 and the top ten in several European countries. Following the release of his first single Jonathan became slightly disillusioned with the music industry and took some time out; he wanted to perform live, not mime to the same three minute song. It wasn't long however, before Jonathan was back into the limelight performing 'Me and my Shadow' at the Royal Albert Hall alongside fellow Potteries singer Robbie Williams. This proved a big turning point in Jonathan's career. He received a fantastic response and people suddenly realised he was talented and knew how to work a crowd.

From then on the stage beckoned for Jonathan and he took to the road with the musical Godspell (2002). The first of many stage shows Jonny appeared in over the years. Other shows include: The Rocky Horror Show (2002/2003), Grease (2003/2004) Tommy (2005), a Donmar Warehouse production of Guys and Dolls (2007) and The Wedding Singer (2008). Jonathan often receives raving reviews about his performances, and many of his fans keep coming back for more! Although he has always had other projects ‘on the go', theatre is Jonny's passion.

Another passion of Jonathan is his hometown of Stoke-on-Trent , which he loyally visits every winter, treading the boards at the Regent Theatre's panto! Ever since his first one (Mother Goose 2005), panto in Stoke seems to be going from strength to strength with record-breaking sales year after year (Cinderella 2006, Aladdin 2007 and Snow white 2008). Not only is Jonathan seen on stage, he's also very much involved with the production. His wife, Nikki Wheeler, is in charge of each panto's choreography, making it a true family affair!

In the meantime Jonathan signed a deal with ITV and became the new host of You've Been Framed, and co-presented the first series of the dating show 'Love on a Saturday night'. He also appeared in other shows, such as 'Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes', where he sang the Neil Diamond song 'Hello', impressing both the studio audience and the viewers at home and got voted the winner as a result. He also presented ‘The All Star Cup', scored the winning goals in ‘The Match' and ‘SoccerAid' (twice!) and took part in ‘Ant versus Dec' in Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway. He's often seen as a guest on ‘Loose Women' and ‘Paul O'Grady', promoting his latest projects.

As if juggling theatre and tv work wasn't enough, Jonny managed to find the time to go on tour with Robbie (2006). He joined him on his Close Encounters tour, singing two songs (Me and my shadow and Strong). The tour took him to Europe, South Africa , Australia and South America . Jonathan really enjoyed the tour, but did find it difficult to get used to the press intrusion he experienced throughout the tour and was glad to be back at home at the end of that year.

One of the things Jonathan often refers to as ‘One of the most important weeks of his career' is when he did ‘Stoke's Top Talent' in 2008. It had always been a dream of his to give something back to Stoke-on-Trent, and he decided to offer one lucky winner of this show the opportunity to star in panto and perform on live TV and give them the break they needed so desperately. The final night at the Regent Theatre was electric and a winner was voted by Jonny, his wife and some very special guests! It gave him the idea to start a performing arts academy (WAPA) which is currently being worked on and should have its grand opening in Stoke some time in the next few months.

2009 promises to be a fantastic year for Jonathan; it will see the return of Stoke's Top Talent, a stint as Khashoggi in the first ever national tour of We Will Rock You and hopefully another pantomime performance as Dick Whittington.