Principals
KhashoggiJonathan Wilkes
Jonathan’s first stage appearance was at the Queen’s Theatre in Burslem in a Stoke Amateur Operatic Society production of Hans Christian Andersen, when he was six years old.
In 1996, at the age of 17, he won the prestigious Cameron Mackintosh Young Entertainer of the Year Award by wowing the judges with his version of ‘Kiss’ by Prince/Tom Jones. Jonathan then became the youngest ever entertainer to headline his own show in Blackpool, which due to its enormous success, ran for three years.
Whilst in Blackpool, he was approached by the BBC and offered his own show, Hype, on BBC Choice.
In 2000, Jonathan signed a deal with Virgin and began to write and record material for his album with songwriters such as Guy Chambers, Bryan Adams and Elliot Kennedy. His debut single, ‘Just Another Day’, was released on 5th March 2000. It went straight into the UK Top 30 and hit the Top 5 in 18 countries worldwide.
Jonathan then paired up with his mate Robbie Williams at Robbie’s Royal Albert Hall concert, in which they performed the duet ‘Me and My Shadow’, which was recorded live and featured on Robbie’s Number 1 selling album, DVD and video, Swing When You’re Winning.
February 2002 saw Jonathan take the lead role in the hit musical Godspell, which premiered in Liverpool and had Jonathan and Daniel MacPherson alternating the roles of Jesus and Judas each night.
Following massive public acclaim from Godspell, Jonathan accepted the lead role of Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Show thirtieth anniversary national tour. The tour kicked off in October 2002, and was extended until November 2003 due to its enormous success.
In April 2003, Granada Television announced Jonathan as the new presenter for their prime-time ITV1 show, You’ve Been Framed. The show was re-launched with Jonathan at the helm.
As 2003 drew to a close, he played the lead role of Danny in a special five-week sell-out Christmas and New Year production of Grease at the Palace Theatre in Manchester and from early 2004, he was on screens weekly for ITV1’s Love on a Saturday Night, which continued transmitting alongside You’ve Been Framed.
Throughout 2004, Jonathan continued touring nationwide with the theatre production of Grease, and in October he finally got the chance to live out his childhood dream as a professional footballer, when he captained the celebrity team in Newcastle for the Sky One show The Match, during which he scored the only goal for their team.
In the first half of 2005, Jonathan toured Nationwide in the Who’s musical Tommy and then in August reported on-course for Sky One’s All *Star Cup, which took place over the bank holiday weekend. The competition saw celebrities from Europe and America go head to head in a live golfing event.
September 2005 saw Jonathan again captain his team for Sky One’s The Match.
In 2006 Jonathan played in Soccer Aid (ITV1), and then embarked on tour, performing with Robbie Williams on his Close Encounters world tour. Over the August bank holiday weekend, Jonathan again took part in the All *Star Cup for ITV1.
In 2007 he toured with the Donmar Warehouse production of Guys and Dolls, playing the role of Sky Masterson and finished his third record-breaking year at the Stoke Regent Theatre in pantomime.
In 2008, Jonathan toured in the debut UK theatre production of The Wedding Singer and was England captain for Soccer Aid for ITV1 in September, live from Wembley Stadium. He once again performed in his hometown of Stoke-on-Trent over the Christmas period in the panto production of Snow White.
From February 2009, Jonathan made weekly guest appearances on Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway in Ant’s team for Ant vs Dec.
Jonathan is absolutely delighted to be working with the We Will Rock You production and would like to thank his beautiful wife Nikki and his special little man, Mickey for all their love and support.