Jonny Owen
Quick Facts
Biography
Jonny Owen (born Jonathan Tudor Owen on 4 July 1971) is a Welsh producer, actor and writer who has appeared TV shows including Shameless, Murphys Law and My Family. Owen won a Welsh Bafta for the documentary The Aberfan Disaster which he co-produced in 2006.
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 media (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.
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.
He is the writer and creator of Svengali the cult internet series which the Evening Standard and NME called 'the best series on the net'. 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. In 2013 Svengali was turned into a feature-length film, directed by John Hardwick and written by Jonny Owen. The film stars Owen, Martin Freeman, Vicky McClure, Matt Berry, Michael Socha, Michael Smiley and Natasha O'Keeffe and is the debut release from Root Films. It has been selected to show at the 67th Edinburgh International Film Festival. It has also been nominated for the Michael Powell Award, a prize which honours the best British feature film.
Owen has written for The Guardian, Telegraph, Metro and Western Mail. He also was the Voice for ITV Wales's Soccer Sunday programme from 2002–2008 and did weekly reports from France for ITV during the 2007 Rugby World Cup. In 2014 he plays in the new Jack Thornes' series Glue.
Filmography
- TV
- Shameless
- Svengali
- Torchwood
- Wedding Belles
- 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
- Svengali (2013)
- 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
- Others
- Keane Video for the single Atlantic