Ray Quinn
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I met Ray Quinn in October 2012, after seeing him in the role of Billy in the play The Rise and Fall of Little Voice at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham. He signed my programme and also a photo of him as Danny Zuko in Grease.
Raymond Arthur Quinn was born in Knowsley, Liverpool in 1988. Hehas hastwo
Ray went to Rudston Primary School in Childwall
Ray Quinn aged one
He has two older brothers, Darren and Rob. He nearly didn't survive his first year after being hospitalised with meningitis when he was only three months old.
Ray aged one with his mother Val
Childwall, later moving on to Gateacre Comprehensive School in Liverpool. His parents, Ray & Val Quinn, saw that, as young as three years old, their son had a talent for dancing, and mimicing TV stars.W
stars. When he was six, he joined the Chiltern School of Dance & Drama and, under the guidance of Colette
Colette Byatt (who started the school in 1988) became a very accomplished dancer. His regular partner was Kirsty McInerney, and together they entered lots of competitions for various
Gateacre Comp.
various
Ray Quinn first shot to fame when, aged 10, he appeared in the popular, long-running Channel 4 soap Brookside in 1999. He was cast as the long sufffering Anthony Murray, continually bullied
various styles of dance, winning many of them. Ray Quinn was the British Disco Champion one year, and he also went on to become the World Latin Champion in Ballroom Dancing. In 1998 he performed on the stage of Liverpool's Empire Theatre as a dancer in a production of Me and My Girl.
Ray Quinn dances with his regular
partner Kirsty McInerney
(left) Ray Quinn in Me and My Girl
bullied and tormented until he finishes up in court on a murder charge. He remained in Brookside until 2003, winning many awards for his performance including 'Best Performance in a Network Soap' at the Royal Television Society Awards (2002), and 'Best Young Actor' at the Inside Soap Awards (2002).
Ray Quinn as Anthony Murray
in Brookside
'Best Young Actor' award
It is ironic that as a teenager at school
school, Ray Quinn was bullied, just like the character he played in Brookside. His grandmother recalls, "The other kids called him 'gay Ray' because he was into singing and dancing
Ray Quinn as Leon Marsh in Merseybeat
dancing. They'd grab hold of his satchel, pull him to the ground and then attack him."
Ray Quinn joined the Merseyside Dance and Drama College in 2003, on a three-year course to pursue a career in musical theatre.
In 2006, Quinn auditioned for the third series of the UK talent show The X Factor. He got through to the live rounds of the show where, week by week, contestants are voted off by the public. Quinn's speciality was Swing, a form of American music developed in the 1930s and 40s. Quinn made it to the final where he finished runner-up to Leona Lewis. He was quickly signed up by the recording company Sony BMG, and in March 2007 his album Doing It My
After Brookside, he had the small part of Leon Marsh in an episode of theLiverpool
the Liverpool police series Merseybeat (2003), and later played John Reilley in an episode of the BBC series The Afternoon Play entitled The Singing Cactus (2005).
Ray Quinn as John Reilly in
The Singing Cactus
Winner of Search for a Star
theatre. Whilst there, he entered the Open Mic UK talent competition Search for a Star, held at The Willows Centre in Manchester in 2005. He took the first the prize of £5,000 and a trophy.
Ray Quinn's first audition for The X Factor
Ray Quinn singing My Way in the final of The X Factor
Way was released. The platinum-selling album went straight to No.1 in the UK charts.
From September until November 2007, Quinn embarked on his first solo tour - 30 sold-out performances in theatres all over the UK, including London's huge Hammersmith Apollo. He also took part in The X Factor tour which consisted of 32 arena shows all over the country.
Ray Quinn's No.1 album
Doing It My Way
From June until November 2008 Ray Quinn took the role of the youngest T-bird Doody, in the West End's production of the Rock 'N' Roll musical Grease
Ray Quinn &
Leona Lewis
Ray Quinn as Doody in Grease
Grease at the Picadilly Theatre. In 2009 he took over the leading role of Danny Zuko in thesame
Theatre posters for the Rock 'n' Roll musical Grease
the same musical at the same theatre. He played the role for six months, alongside Emma Stephens as Sandy.
Ray Quinn & Emma Stephens in Grease
In 2010 Ray Quinn joined the cast of the Aldwych Theatre's Dirty Dancing, then in its fourth year. He played Billy Kosteki for a limited season from July 2010 until November 2011.
Ray Quinn as Billy in Dirty Dancing
Ray Quinn's success at combining dancing, singing & acting would later lead to him starring as Warner Huntingdon III in the UK national tour (January - July 2012) of the comedy musical
musical Legally Blonde, alongside two other Liverpudlians Les Dennis and Claire Sweeney.
Ray Quinn is clearly in demand as a pantomime star. His first panto was at Peterborough's Broadway Theatre in 2008/09, when he took the lead role in their production of Aladdin.
Aladdin. In this, he showed off his amazing acrobatic skills on the flying wires.
Ray Quinn & Emma Stephens on BBC Breakfast
Ray Quinn with Alex Bird in Aladdin
In 2009/10, he was at Birmingham's Hippodrome Theatre playing Prince Charming in Sleeping Beauty, alongside Joe Pasquale and Lucy Evans. In 2010/11, Quinn took the leading role of Jackin
Ray Quinn in Jack and the Beanstalk
With Joe Pasquale in Sleeping Beauty
Ray Quinn's 2011/12 panto was Cinderella at the Civic Theatre in Darlington, where he played Prince Charming, again alongside Emma Stephens (now his fiancee) as Cinderella. In 2012/13, Quinn is again taking the leading role in Aladdin, this time at the Lighthouse Theatre in his home town of Poole.
Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk at Northampton's Royal & Derngate Theatre. In this, his co-star as the Princess was girlfriend Emma Stephens.
With Emma Stephens in Cinderella
Ray has signed my programme for
The Rise and Fall of Little Voice
Ray Quinn & Jess Robinson in
The Rise and Fall of Little Voice
In 2012, Ray Quinn took up a straight acting role when hewas
he was cast as Billy in Jim Cartwright's Olivier Award-winning play The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. The play visited 16 theatres (including Nottingham's Theatre Royal) during its tour from September until March 2013.
Ice skating is another skill that this talented performer hasin
Ray Quinn and Maria Filippov in
the finals of Dancing on Ice
Ray Quinn with the Dancing on Ice trophy
has in abundance. He demonstrated this to the whole nation when he took part in the ITV series Dancing on Ice, in which celebrities, along with their professional partners, figure skatein
skate in front of a panel of expert judges, chaired by Robin Cousins. Quinn was partnered by the Bulgarian professional skater Maria Filippov, and topped the leader board every week. In week six of the competition they scored 30 points out of a possible 30, the first perfect score in the competition. They went on to win the competition, again with perfect scores, in a final that was watched
Maria Filippov & Ray Quinn
watched by 11.3 million viewers.
On their way to a perfect score
Ray Quinn in action on the ice
Ray Quinn has appeared as himself on a variety of TV chat shows, including The Wright Stuff (2008), BBC Breakfast (2008), The Paul O'Grady Show (2009) and GMTV (2010). He has been a very popular guest on ITV's Loose Women where he has appeared no less than six times from 2007 to 2011.A
2011. As yet, his TV work as an actor is not very extensive. He played himself in a comedy short called Bulletproof (2006); appeared as Owen Miller in an episode of Doctors 2006) and was Davey in Sky 1's comedy short John Bishop's Little Cracker: MyFirs
Ray Quinn, Cilla Black & Janet Street-Porter on Loose Women
My First Ton (2011).
Ray Quinn took part in ITV's All Star Family Fortunes in October 2009, along
With Beverley Callard on Loose Women
Ray Quinn in Bulletproof
Ray Quinn as Davey in My First Ton
Ray Quinn with relatives on All Star family Fortunes
In 2010, on stage during a performance of Jack and the Beanstalk in Northampton, Ray Quinn announced his engagement to Emma Stephens who was also in the pantomime. They were married at a beach ceremony in Barbados in March 2012, when they also announced that they were expecting their first child. Their son Harry Frank was born in August 2012
along with his parents and an uncle and aunt. His team beat Hannah Waterman's family and raised almost £4,000 for Destination Florida, a charity giving 'holidays of a lifetime'
lifetime' to sick children.
Ray Quinn has signed this photo to me
Hello! magazine's photo of Ray Quinn's beach wedding
Dancing on Ice final (22 March 2009)
VIDEOS
Ray Quinn's website
click
X Factor Final (Recap & Backstage)
