Jonathan Lewis Owen
Encyclopedia
Jonny Owen is a Welsh
actor and producer. As a teenager he was a Welsh Boys Club Boxing champion. In his later teens he was in the 1990s indie band The Pocket Devils as bass player and lead singer/songwriter. Signed to Sanctuary Records
in the UK and Pop Music Records in the US they finally split after Owen landed the part of Richey in the Welsh drama series Nuts and Bolts in 1999.
From Nuts and Bolts he landed parts in UK Network series including Murphy's Law
with James Nesbitt
and Dirty Work with Neil Pearson
. It was his meeting with Irvine Welsh
when filming the Gene video "Is it over?" that proved pivotal in Owen’s career. He has since worked with Welsh (and his writing partner Dean Cavanagh
) on several dramas including Dose for the BBC
, Wedding Belles
for C4
and Good Arrows for ITV
(Owen was also producer).
His 2006 film Little White Lies
, won several film festival awards and was featured at the Moscow Film Festival. He played a BNP
thug, receiving positive reviews. In 2007 he appeared as Banana Boat in Russell T Davies’s Torchwood
.
Owen has also worked extensively as a writer and producer for ITV Wales, including winning the ‘Gwyn Alf Williams Award' at the Welsh Bafta’s for the 40th anniversary documentary of the Aberfan disaster. It was revealed during shooting that Owen’s father was one of the first Welsh miners on the scene in the recovery operation. Owen also did a piece for Cardiff City
’s appearance in the FA Cup final
for Match of the Day
in 2008. It received positive reviews in the broadsheet
s (The Guardian
saying it was the best part of the days coverage) and from football fans across the country.
In 2009 he appeared as regular character Ady in Channel 4's Shameless
. Owen has continued in the role of Ady in 2010.
Owen is currently involved in the internet series Svengali where he plays the manager of an up and coming band. It is based on his own experiences in the music industry to the point he has named the character ‘Dixie’ after the manager of his own band. The female lead is played by Smack the Pony
s Sally Phillips
. Former Creation Records
head Alan McGee
plays the Svengali 'Dixie' pursues in an effort to get the band he manages signed. The series is written by Dean Cavanagh
2009 also saw the release of the independent film A Bit of Tom Jones?, with Owen in the lead role. The film spread from a limited release in Wales to being shown in selected markets throughout the UK by Vue (cinema)
.
Owen has written for The Guardian, Telegraph, Metro and Western Mail. He also was the Voice for ITV Wales's Soccer Sunday program from 2002–2008 and did weekly reports from France
for ITV during the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
, Murphy's Law
, Dose, A Mind To Kill, Nuts and Bolts, Soccer Sunday ITV Wales 2004-2008, Soccer Special ITV Wales 2004-2008, Top Sport ITV Wales 2004-2006, Hot Pursuit ITV Wales 2002, Rugby World Cup Special ITV Wales 2003, Rugby World Cup Special ITV Wales 2007, Cancer Awareness BBC Wales
2003
Film – One of the Crowd, A Bit of Tom Jones?, Cow, Good Arrows, Little White Lies, Decidedly Bloody Dodgy
Voice – FA Cup Final Match of the Day BBC Sport
2008, Wales the Week promos ITV Sport
2008, Hospital 24/7 BBC Wales
2008, Aberystwyth Soccer Seven's Sky Sports
2005
Producer – Svengali, Good Arrows, Aberfan ITV Wales/Sky News
2006, The Last Miner, The Tower Colliery Story ITV Wales 2007, Soccer Sunday ITV Wales 2004-2008, The Story of the NHS ITV Wales 2008
also:
Keane Video for the single Atlantic
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
actor and producer. As a teenager he was a Welsh Boys Club Boxing champion. In his later teens he was in the 1990s indie band The Pocket Devils as bass player and lead singer/songwriter. Signed to Sanctuary Records
Sanctuary Records
Sanctuary Records Group Limited was a record label based in the United Kingdom and a subsidiary of Universal Music Group. Until June 2007, it was the largest independent record label in the UK and the largest independent music management company in the world...
in the UK and Pop Music Records in the US they finally split after Owen landed the part of Richey in the Welsh drama series Nuts and Bolts in 1999.
From Nuts and Bolts he landed parts in UK Network series including Murphy's Law
Murphy's Law (TV series)
Murphy's Law is a BBC television drama, produced by Tiger Aspect Productions for BBC Northern Ireland, starring James Nesbitt as an undercover police officer, Tommy Murphy. There were five series of the drama, shown on BBC One. The first two were composed of individual stories. Series three, four...
with James Nesbitt
James Nesbitt
James Nesbitt is a Northern Irish actor. Born in Ballymena, County Antrim, Nesbitt grew up in the nearby village of Broughshane, before moving to Coleraine, County Londonderry. He wanted to become a teacher like his father, so he began a degree in French at the University of Ulster...
and Dirty Work with Neil Pearson
Neil Pearson
Neil Joshua Pearson is a British actor best known for his work on television.-Biography:Pearson grew up in Battersea, London, the son of a panel beater, who left home when he was five, and a legal secretary, and was educated at Woolverstone Hall School, Suffolk, a boarding school, where he first...
. It was his meeting with Irvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh is a contemporary Scottish novelist, best known for his novel Trainspotting. His work is characterised by raw Scottish dialect, and brutal depiction of the realities of Edinburgh life...
when filming the Gene video "Is it over?" that proved pivotal in Owen’s career. He has since worked with Welsh (and his writing partner Dean Cavanagh
Dean Cavanagh
Dean Cavanagh is an award-winning artist, screenwriter, film and TV producer and music producer born in Bradford, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in 1966...
) on several dramas including Dose for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, Wedding Belles
Wedding Belles
Wedding Belles is a Scottish-based British television drama first broadcast on Channel 4 in 2007.-Plot:Wedding Belles centres around four young women struggling with personal issues, while preparing to throw one of their group the wedding of the year...
for C4
C4
C4, C04, C.IV or C-4 may refer to:* C-4 , a type of plastic explosive* Hafdasa C-4, an Argentine submachine gunIn biology:* C4 carbon fixation, a pathway for carbon fixation in photosynthesis...
and Good Arrows for ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
(Owen was also producer).
His 2006 film Little White Lies
Little White Lies
"Little White Lies" is a popular song.It was written by Walter Donaldson. The song was published in 1930. It was recorded on July 25, 1930 by Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians with vocal by Clare Hanlon and The Waring Girls...
, won several film festival awards and was featured at the Moscow Film Festival. He played a BNP
BNP
-Politics:*Bahujana Nidahas Peramuna, a Sri Lankan political party*Balochistan National Party, a Pakistani political party*Bangladesh Nationalist Party, a Bangladeshi political party*Barbados National Party, a defunct political party in Barbados...
thug, receiving positive reviews. In 2007 he appeared as Banana Boat in Russell T Davies’s Torchwood
Torchwood
Torchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. The series is a spin-off from Davies's 2005 revival of the long-running science fiction programme Doctor Who. The show has shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growing audience, moving from...
.
Owen has also worked extensively as a writer and producer for ITV Wales, including winning the ‘Gwyn Alf Williams Award' at the Welsh Bafta’s for the 40th anniversary documentary of the Aberfan disaster. It was revealed during shooting that Owen’s father was one of the first Welsh miners on the scene in the recovery operation. Owen also did a piece for Cardiff City
Cardiff city
Cardiff City may refer to:* Cardiff city centre* Cardiff City Council* Cardiff City F.C.* Cardiff City L.F.C.* Cardiff City Stadium...
’s appearance in the FA Cup final
FA Cup Final
The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. With an official attendance of 89,826 at the 2007 FA Cup Final, it is the fourth best attended domestic club championship event in the world and the second most...
for Match of the Day
Match of the Day
Match of the Day is the BBC's main football television programme. Typically, it is shown on BBC One on Saturday evenings during the English football season, showing highlights of the day's matches in English football's top division, the Premier League...
in 2008. It received positive reviews in the broadsheet
Broadsheet
Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages . The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet...
s (The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
saying it was the best part of the days coverage) and from football fans across the country.
In 2009 he appeared as regular character Ady in Channel 4's Shameless
Shameless
Shameless is a British television drama series set in Manchester on the fictional Chatsworth council estate. Produced by Company Pictures for Channel 4, the first seven-episode series aired weekly on Tuesday nights at 10pm from 13 January 2004...
. Owen has continued in the role of Ady in 2010.
Owen is currently involved in the internet series Svengali where he plays the manager of an up and coming band. It is based on his own experiences in the music industry to the point he has named the character ‘Dixie’ after the manager of his own band. The female lead is played by Smack the Pony
Smack the Pony
Smack the Pony is a British sketch comedy show that ran from 1999 until 2003 on Channel 4. Its title was intended to sound like a euphemism for female masturbation; the working title was Spot the Pony. The main performers and writers on the show were Fiona Allen, Doon Mackichan and Sally Phillips...
s Sally Phillips
Sally Phillips
-Career:Sally Phillips was the only woman in the 1990 Oxford Revue THRASH which also starred Ed Smith. She did nine consecutive Edinburgh Festivals, appearing in shows such as Ra-Ra-Rasputin, Arthur Smith's version of Hamlet and Cluub Zarathustra with Simon Munnery, Stewart Lee, Richard Thomas,...
. Former Creation Records
Creation Records
Creation Records was a British independent record label headed by Alan McGee. Along with Dick Green and Joe Foster, McGee founded Creation in 1983. The label lasted until its demise in 1999. The name came from the 1960s band The Creation , whom McGee greatly admired. McGee, Green and Foster were...
head Alan McGee
Alan McGee
Alan McGee has been a record label owner, musician, manager, and music blogger for The Guardian.McGee is best-known for co-forming and running the independent Creation Records label from 1983–1999, and then Poptones from 1999-2007...
plays the Svengali 'Dixie' pursues in an effort to get the band he manages signed. The series is written by Dean Cavanagh
Dean Cavanagh
Dean Cavanagh is an award-winning artist, screenwriter, film and TV producer and music producer born in Bradford, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in 1966...
2009 also saw the release of the independent film A Bit of Tom Jones?, with Owen in the lead role. The film spread from a limited release in Wales to being shown in selected markets throughout the UK by Vue (cinema)
Vue (cinema)
Vue Entertainment , formerly known as SBC International Cinemas, is a cinema company in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. The company was formed in May 2003 when SBC acquired 36 Warner Village cinemas. There are now 69 Vue cinemas, with 654 screens totaling 140,500 seats, including the rebranded...
.
Owen has written for The Guardian, Telegraph, Metro and Western Mail. He also was the Voice for ITV Wales's Soccer Sunday program from 2002–2008 and did weekly reports from France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
for ITV during the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
Filmography
TV – Shameless, Svengali, Torchwood, Wedding BellesWedding Belles
Wedding Belles is a Scottish-based British television drama first broadcast on Channel 4 in 2007.-Plot:Wedding Belles centres around four young women struggling with personal issues, while preparing to throw one of their group the wedding of the year...
, Murphy's Law
Murphy's Law (TV series)
Murphy's Law is a BBC television drama, produced by Tiger Aspect Productions for BBC Northern Ireland, starring James Nesbitt as an undercover police officer, Tommy Murphy. There were five series of the drama, shown on BBC One. The first two were composed of individual stories. Series three, four...
, Dose, A Mind To Kill, Nuts and Bolts, Soccer Sunday ITV Wales 2004-2008, Soccer Special ITV Wales 2004-2008, Top Sport ITV Wales 2004-2006, Hot Pursuit ITV Wales 2002, Rugby World Cup Special ITV Wales 2003, Rugby World Cup Special ITV Wales 2007, Cancer Awareness BBC Wales
BBC Wales
BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation for Wales. Based at Broadcasting House in the Llandaff area of Cardiff, it directly employs over 1200 people, and produces a broad range of television, radio and online services in both the Welsh and English languages.Outside...
2003
Film – One of the Crowd, A Bit of Tom Jones?, Cow, Good Arrows, Little White Lies, Decidedly Bloody Dodgy
Voice – FA Cup Final Match of the Day BBC Sport
BBC Sport
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand , Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Rugby Special and coverage of Formula One motor racing, MotoGP and the Wimbledon Tennis...
2008, Wales the Week promos ITV Sport
ITV Sport
ITV Sport is a sport producer and brand name owned by ITV plc. It was formed from the amalgamation of Granada Sport, Carlton's sports department and ISN, the sports division of London News Network. The company produces Champions League and FA Cup Football, along with coverage of England's national...
2008, Hospital 24/7 BBC Wales
BBC Wales
BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation for Wales. Based at Broadcasting House in the Llandaff area of Cardiff, it directly employs over 1200 people, and produces a broad range of television, radio and online services in both the Welsh and English languages.Outside...
2008, Aberystwyth Soccer Seven's Sky Sports
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland...
2005
Producer – Svengali, Good Arrows, Aberfan ITV Wales/Sky News
Sky News
Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...
2006, The Last Miner, The Tower Colliery Story ITV Wales 2007, Soccer Sunday ITV Wales 2004-2008, The Story of the NHS ITV Wales 2008
also:
Keane Video for the single Atlantic