DATE OF BIRTH : 14th October 1972
HEIGHT : 5ft 11
BORN : Born and brought up in Lincoln. His first home was in a bungalow in ‘Fenn Lane’ in North Hykeham.
LIVES : London
FAMILY : Mother, Pat, and father, Stan – who runs a printing company. Jon is the youngest of three children, having a brother, Jeremy and sister, Louise.
PARTNER : Married to Shelley Conn (m.2011).
CHILDREN : Son, Oscar (b.2012)
PREVIOUS RELATIONSHIPS : Used to date Casualty co-star, Claire Goose.
STUDIED : Did A Levels in Drama, Sociology, and English Literature. He then went on to Bretton Hill Drama College, Leeds, in 1995, completing a theatre arts degree.
PREVIOUS JOBS : Barman in his year out, at a pub called ‘The Harrow’.
HOBBIES : Pool, DJ work, mountain biking, clubbing, poker, and he also has an interest in Quantum Physics!
SKILLS : Plays keyboard, piano, guitar, Commedia del Arte, tumbling skills, mask, juggling, gymnastic skills, football (professional level), ski-ing, fencing, mime and movement. He also learned sign language for an episode (S11 E2) of CASUALTY.
ON JOINING CASUALTY : I appreciate how lucky I’ve been and being in CASUALTY is an amazing opportunity, I sometimes have to pinch myself to believe it’s all true’
ON SAM : ‘I know there have been gay characters on TV before, but with Sam there is no shock, no trail, he’s just out having a laugh.’
BEST MEMORIES OF WORKING ON CASUALTY : ‘The cast. All of whom were a delight to be with and who are all still good friends.’
FAVE SAM STORYLINE : ‘My boyfriend Paul going off with a woman. I had to then ‘blow up’ with Eve. Good fun.’
HOW CASUALTY HELPED HIM : ‘My Dad was having an electrocardiogram for heart disease and the student nurse couldn’t get a read out. I saw one of the leads on his chest was low and said ‘I think you want to put that higher’ which she did and it worked!’
ON LEAVING CASUALTY : ‘I was tired of Sam by the end of it and very ready to move on, I was tired of the fact we couldn’t show certain things about Sam.’
REAL LIFE CASUALTY INCIDENT : ‘I chipped some bone off my ankle when I was 15, playing football. It wasn’t discovered for two years, at which point I underwent a three hour operation to get rid of the loose bone, which cured the problem.’
FAVE FILM : Leon
FAVE ACTOR : Paul Newman
FAVE MUSIC : St Germain, Frank Sinatra, Autechre, Woob, EMT, Luke Vibert, Cafe del Mare, Gonzales uber alles, Beuna Vista. On music, ‘I buy around 10 CD’s a week. Our spare room is filled with them. So, with so many to choose from, any album I keep going back to has got to be a good one. I can stick on Moon Safari by Air at any time and it stills sounds as fresh as when it came out a couple of years ago.’
FAVE MEAL : Peppered steak, fries, mushrooms, followed by his mum’s cherry crumble
FIRST HOLIDAY : In Corfu with his parents, aged 7
FIRST RECORD : ‘Being With You’ by Smokey Robinson
IF HE HADN’T BEEN AN ACTOR : Either a footballer or a musician.
HOLBY CITY APPEARANCE : Jonathan plays Sam Colloby in S1 E2 ‘Happy Families’
TELEVISION CREDITS : Byker Grove; Peak Practice; Disney’s Wake Up in the Wild Room; Night Fever; Casualty; Holby City; Reach for the Moon; The Knock; Dinner of Herbs; Mersey Beat; Having it Off; The Afternoon Play – Drive; Heartbeat; Doctors; NCIS; Emmerdale; The Santa Incident; Best Possible Taste; The Five; In The Club; Stan Lee’s Luky Man
FILM CREDITS : Talk; The Somnambulists; Diana, Flim;
THEATRE CREDITS : Alex; Dancing at Lughnasa; A Family Affair; Equus; A Midsummer Nights Dream; Thirteenth Night; Representational Scale; Zoo Story; Sleuth
BOOKS : Appears in ‘CASUALTY : Behind the Scenes’ by Rachel Silver
AGENT : CAM, First Floor, 55-59 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1D 6LD.
DID YOU KNOW?
* His natural hair colour is brown. His blonde hair was a result of a colouring accident at Uni, ‘I’d just left Uni and put hair lightener in it and it went orange, my girlfriend said I’d have to shave it or bleach it.’
* Jonathan has compared for the Clothes Show Live Roadshow, and in 1997 presented ‘Mr Gay UK Contest’ with Danny La Rue.
* Jonathan created the theme music for ‘Mersey Beat’. ‘I jokingly asked Mal Young, the producer, if I could have a pop at a theme tune and he called my bluff. I did it during a few days off from filming and really enjoyed it. I’m quite proud that I’m in the show and I’ve written the theme music.’
