Michael Ball

Michael Ashley Ball, OBE (born 27 June 1962) is an English actor, singer and broadcaster, who is known for his work in musical theatre. He made his West End debut in 1985 playing Marius in the original London production of Les Misérables, and went on to star in 1987 as Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera. In 1989, he reached number two in the UK Singles Chart with "Love Changes Everything", a song taken from the musical Aspects of Love, where he played Alex. He played the role in London and on Broadway.

In 1992, Ball represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest, finishing second with the song "One Step Out of Time". In 1995, he reprised the role of Marius in Les Misérables: The Dream Cast in Concert. His other West End roles include Giorgio in Passion (1997) and Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (2002). He has twice won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He won in 2008 for his role as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray, and then in 2013 for the title role in the revival of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Ball was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2015 Birthday Honours for his services to musical theatre.

Ball was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire to a Welsh mother and an English father. His father Tony, who originally wanted to be an actor, trained as an Austin apprentice at the Longbridge plant and progressed to become head of global sales at British Leyland. He was awarded an MBE for services to industry. Ball's maternal grandfather was a coal miner. His maternal grandmother was protective of the family. Ball has a sister, Katherine, almost a decade his junior. He moved to Dartmoor with his parents when he was three years old. He has never had singing lessons, but as a boy he learned to sing by singing along to music, for example, songs by Ella Fitzgerald, Mahalia Jackson and Frank Sinatra. When he was 11 years old he went to Plymouth College, an independent boarding school, because his parents thought this would give him a good education. However this made him unhappy, as he did not fit into the academic and sporting environment at the school at that time. He did join his fellow junior boarders on Sunday morning at the Pathfinder bible group in St Andrew's church. One summer he went to Pathfinder camp on the isle of Jersey.