Don Gilet
Encyclopedia
Don Gilet is a British
actor, best known for his roles in BBC productions Babyfather
, EastEnders
and 55 Degrees North
. Don's surname is actually pronounced 'Gillit' but takes the stage name 'Jillay'.
, Walsall
, with two older sisters. He trained at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts
, and also attended a Sunday school at Caldmore Gospel Hall in Caldmore. He now resides with his family in Bedfordshire
.
, where he was interviewed as the friend of a participant. His first major role was playing Johnny Lindo in Babyfather
(opposite future Eastenders co-star Diane Parish
), before landing the lead role in detective series 55 Degrees North
, as Detective Sergeant Nicky Cole. In 2006, he played Leo Charles in The Line of Beauty and had a prominent role in the Doctor Who
Christmas episode "The Runaway Bride
". He often performs his own stunts on set.
In 2001 Gilet appeared in a commercial for Apple's iMac G4
Computer. The commercial was named "Window Shopping" and displayed Gilet making certain gestures towards the iMac
, which the computer later copied. He also appeared as a store manager in a staff training video for Sainsbury's supermarkets.
He has had minor appearances in Casualty
, Holby City
, Silent Witness
and The Bill
.
Don has also featured in the music video for 2001 hit "Out of Reach
" by Gabrielle
. In 2011 Don featured in a music video for the song 'I Want You to Remember' by up and coming solo artist 'I Am Spartacus'
In theatre, he has appeared in As You Like It
and The Alchemist
.
In April 2008 he joined the popular BBC television soap opera
EastEnders
playing Lucas Johnson
. Gilet's character left Eastenders on July 30, 2010.
In 2010 he was cast as Abanarzar in the Churchill Theatre Bromley's Christmas pantomime Aladdin
alongside Melinda Messenger
. He followed up this performance in 2011 by appearing at the Grove Theatre , Dunstable
in Jack and the Beanstalk
. Which also featured his EastEnders co-star and Melinda's Dancing On Ice
alumni Gemma Bissix
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
actor, best known for his roles in BBC productions Babyfather
Babyfather
Babyfather is a BBC Two television programme which aired in the UK in 2001 and 2002. The show has been described as a "black, male, UK version of Sex and the City". It ran for two series, and was based on a novel written by Patrick Augustus. The writers of the screenplay include Avril E...
, EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
and 55 Degrees North
55 Degrees North
55 Degrees North is a BBC television drama series starring Don Gilet as DS Nicky Cole, a London detective relocated to Newcastle upon Tyne after exposing police corruption. Dervla Kirwan co-stars as Claire Maxwell, an ambitious solicitor....
. Don's surname is actually pronounced 'Gillit' but takes the stage name 'Jillay'.
Personal life
He was brought up in CaldmoreCaldmore
Caldmore is one of the villages that make up the town of Walsall. The name is pronounced "Kar-ma" by the local populace.-History:The area was an important junction of roads which created a triangular shaped green called Caldmore Green...
, Walsall
Walsall
Walsall is a large industrial town in the West Midlands of England. It is located northwest of Birmingham and east of Wolverhampton. Historically a part of Staffordshire, Walsall is a component area of the West Midlands conurbation and part of the Black Country.Walsall is the administrative...
, with two older sisters. He trained at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts
Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts
Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts is an independent drama school situated in the Wood Green area of North London. It was founded in 1945 by Peter Coxhead and Ralph Nossek as 'The Mountview Theatre Club', an amateur repertory company staging a new production for a six-day run every second week...
, and also attended a Sunday school at Caldmore Gospel Hall in Caldmore. He now resides with his family in Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....
.
Career
Don Gilet's first television appearance was on the Channel 4 dating show StreetmateStreetmate
Streetmate was a dating game show in the UK that first aired on Channel 4 from 30 October 1998 to 9 March 2001 and ran for 3 series. It was hosted by Davina McCall. It returned on 27 September 2007 but it moved to ITV2 as part of the channel's XXL Thursday line-up...
, where he was interviewed as the friend of a participant. His first major role was playing Johnny Lindo in Babyfather
Babyfather
Babyfather is a BBC Two television programme which aired in the UK in 2001 and 2002. The show has been described as a "black, male, UK version of Sex and the City". It ran for two series, and was based on a novel written by Patrick Augustus. The writers of the screenplay include Avril E...
(opposite future Eastenders co-star Diane Parish
Diane Parish
Diane Parish is a British actress best known for her role as Denise Johnson in the BBC Soap EastEnders and DC Eva Sharpe in The Bill.-Career:...
), before landing the lead role in detective series 55 Degrees North
55 Degrees North
55 Degrees North is a BBC television drama series starring Don Gilet as DS Nicky Cole, a London detective relocated to Newcastle upon Tyne after exposing police corruption. Dervla Kirwan co-stars as Claire Maxwell, an ambitious solicitor....
, as Detective Sergeant Nicky Cole. In 2006, he played Leo Charles in The Line of Beauty and had a prominent role in the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
Christmas episode "The Runaway Bride
The Runaway Bride (Doctor Who)
"The Runaway Bride" is a special episode of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, starring David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor...
". He often performs his own stunts on set.
In 2001 Gilet appeared in a commercial for Apple's iMac G4
IMac G4
The iMac G4 was a computer that was produced by Apple from the beginning of 2002 to mid 2004. It replaced the aging iMac G3. The computer had a new design compared to older Macs. It had a 15-inch LCD which was mounted on an adjustable arm above a hemisphere containing a full-size, tray-loading...
Computer. The commercial was named "Window Shopping" and displayed Gilet making certain gestures towards the iMac
IMac
The iMac is a range of all-in-one Macintosh desktop computers built by Apple. It has been the primary part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since its introduction in 1998, and has evolved through five distinct forms....
, which the computer later copied. He also appeared as a store manager in a staff training video for Sainsbury's supermarkets.
He has had minor appearances in Casualty
Casualty (TV series)
Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...
, Holby City
Holby City
Holby City, stylised as Holby Ci+y, is a British medical drama television series that airs weekly on BBC One.The series was created by Tony McHale and Mal Young as a spin-off from the established BBC medical drama Casualty, and premiered on 12 January 1999...
, Silent Witness
Silent Witness
Silent Witness is a BBC crime thriller series focusing on a team of forensic pathology experts and their investigations into various crimes. First broadcast in February 1996, the series is still airing to the present day, with a fifteenth series expected to air in January 2012. The series was...
and The Bill
The Bill
The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
.
Don has also featured in the music video for 2001 hit "Out of Reach
Out of Reach (song)
"Out of Reach" is 2001 song by singer Gabrielle that featured on the Bridget Jones's Diary soundtrack and her greatest hits compilation Dreams Can Come True, Greatest Hits Vol. 1. It is the main ballad from the movie and was released as a single in 2001...
" by Gabrielle
Gabrielle (singer)
Louisa Gabrielle Bobb is a multi-platinum selling, BRIT Award winning English singer, who records under the name Gabrielle. Gabrielle began her career temping during the day and singing for free in London clubs at night...
. In 2011 Don featured in a music video for the song 'I Want You to Remember' by up and coming solo artist 'I Am Spartacus'
In theatre, he has appeared in As You Like It
As You Like It
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...
and The Alchemist
The Alchemist (play)
The Alchemist is a comedy by English playwright Ben Jonson. First performed in 1610 by the King's Men, it is generally considered Jonson's best and most characteristic comedy; Samuel Taylor Coleridge claimed that it had one of the three most perfect plots in literature...
.
In April 2008 he joined the popular BBC television soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
playing Lucas Johnson
Lucas Johnson
Lucas Aaron Johnson is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Don Gilet. He made his first on-screen appearance on 3 April 2008. Lucas is introduced as a preacher and estranged father of established character Chelsea Fox. He has a son, Jordan, and goes on to marry...
. Gilet's character left Eastenders on July 30, 2010.
In 2010 he was cast as Abanarzar in the Churchill Theatre Bromley's Christmas pantomime Aladdin
Aladdin
Aladdin is a Middle Eastern folk tale. It is one of the tales in The Book of One Thousand and One Nights , and one of the most famous, although it was actually added to the collection by Antoine Galland ....
alongside Melinda Messenger
Melinda Messenger
Melinda Jayne Messenger is an English ex-glamour model, Page 3 Girl and a former presenter on the magazine programme Live from Studio Five. She is currently co-broadcaster of the reality show Cowboy Builders.-Biography:...
. He followed up this performance in 2011 by appearing at the Grove Theatre , Dunstable
Dunstable
Dunstable is a market town and civil parish located in Bedfordshire, England. It lies on the eastward tail spurs of the Chiltern Hills, 30 miles north of London. These geographical features form several steep chalk escarpments most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north.-Etymology:In...
in Jack and the Beanstalk
Jack and the Beanstalk
Jack and the Beanstalk is a folktale said by English historian Francis Palgrave to be an oral legend that arrived in England with the Vikings. The tale is closely associated with the tale of Jack the Giant-killer. It is known under a number of versions...
. Which also featured his EastEnders co-star and Melinda's Dancing On Ice
Dancing on Ice
Dancing on Ice is a British television show co-hosted by Christine Bleakley and Philip Schofield, in which celebrities and their professional partners figure skate in front of a panel of judges. The format, devised by LWT and Granada Television, has been a prime-time hit in eight different...
alumni Gemma Bissix
Gemma Bissix
Gemma Bissix is an English actress. She has been acting since the age of 9. Her most prominent roles have been in soap operas, as Clare Bates in EastEnders and Clare Devine in Hollyoaks ; she was awarded with two British Soap Awards for the latter role...
.
Filmography
- The Imaginatively Titled Punt & Dennis ShowThe Imaginatively Titled Punt & Dennis ShowThe Imaginatively Titled Punt & Dennis Show was a stand-up and sketch show by comedians Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis. They were a double act in The Mary Whitehouse Experience, and they also featured in Canned Carrott, so they had plenty of experience working together. Impressionists Alistair McGowan...
(1994) - Now WhatNow WhatNow What is the second album from American singer/songwriter Lisa Marie Presley. It was released on April 5, 2005 in the United States and Canada, and is available in both unedited and edited versions. Singles from the album are Dirty Laundry and Idiot. As of November 2, 2005, the album has...
(1995) - Brothers and Sisters (1998)
- The Return Of Nick Cotton (2000) - Biscuit
- CasualtyCasualty (TV series)Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...
(2001) - BabyfatherBabyfatherBabyfather is a BBC Two television programme which aired in the UK in 2001 and 2002. The show has been described as a "black, male, UK version of Sex and the City". It ran for two series, and was based on a novel written by Patrick Augustus. The writers of the screenplay include Avril E...
(2001) - Holby CityHolby CityHolby City, stylised as Holby Ci+y, is a British medical drama television series that airs weekly on BBC One.The series was created by Tony McHale and Mal Young as a spin-off from the established BBC medical drama Casualty, and premiered on 12 January 1999...
(2002) - Time Gentlemen PleaseTime Gentlemen PleaseTime Gentlemen Please is a British sitcom. Commissioned by Sky One, it was primarily written by Richard Herring and Al Murray and ran for two series between 2000 and 2002.- Premise and characters :...
(2002) - Cutting ItCutting ItCutting It was a popular BBC television programme set in Manchester, England, which ran for four series between 2002 and 2005.- Series 1 :...
(2002) - Single Voices (2002)
- Silent WitnessSilent WitnessSilent Witness is a BBC crime thriller series focusing on a team of forensic pathology experts and their investigations into various crimes. First broadcast in February 1996, the series is still airing to the present day, with a fifteenth series expected to air in January 2012. The series was...
(2003) - The BillThe BillThe Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
(2003) - Belly Button (2004)
- 55 Degrees North55 Degrees North55 Degrees North is a BBC television drama series starring Don Gilet as DS Nicky Cole, a London detective relocated to Newcastle upon Tyne after exposing police corruption. Dervla Kirwan co-stars as Claire Maxwell, an ambitious solicitor....
(2004–2005) - The Line of BeautyThe Line of BeautyThe Line of Beauty is a 2004 Booker Prize-winning novel by Alan Hollinghurst.-Plot introduction:Set in Britain in the early to mid-1980s, the story surrounds the post-Oxford life of the young gay protagonist, Nick Guest....
(2006) - The Runaway BrideThe Runaway Bride (Doctor Who)"The Runaway Bride" is a special episode of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, starring David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor...
(Doctor WhoDoctor WhoDoctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
Christmas special) (2006) - Cape WrathCape Wrath (TV series)Cape Wrath is a British drama television series produced by Ecosse Films which focuses on a family trying to escape its past while confronting an even more uncertain future...
(2007) - EastEndersEastEndersEastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
(2008–10) - Lucas JohnsonLucas JohnsonLucas Aaron Johnson is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Don Gilet. He made his first on-screen appearance on 3 April 2008. Lucas is introduced as a preacher and estranged father of established character Chelsea Fox. He has a son, Jordan, and goes on to marry... - EastEnders: E20EastEnders: E20EastEnders: E20 is a British Internet soap opera, which began airing on 8 January 2010. A spin-off from the established BBC soap EastEnders, it is set in EastEnders regular setting of Albert Square, a Victorian square in the fictional borough of Walford, in the East End of London...
(2010) - Lucas Johnson
External links
- Don Gilet at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...