44 Facts About Gareth Gates

Gareth Paul Gates was born on 12 July 1984 and is an English singer-songwriter and actor.

Gareth Gates was the runner-up in the first series of the ITV talent show Pop Idol in 2002.

Gareth Gates is known for having a stutter, and has talked about his speech impediment publicly.

Gareth Gates used the McGuire Programme to manage his stutter and is a speech coach with the programme.

In 2009, Gareth Gates moved into musical theatre, playing the title role in the West End production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat at the Adelphi Theatre.

Gareth Gates took the roles of Eddie in the musical Loserville, Warner in Legally Blonde in 2012 and Dean in Boogie Nights the Musical in Concert in 2013.

Gareth Gates was part of the pop group 5th Story, set up for The Big Reunion.

Gareth Gates was born in West Bowling, Bradford, to Paul and Wendy Broadbent.

Gareth Gates was head chorister by the age of eleven, singing solo for the Queen when she visited in 1997.

Gareth Gates achieved Grade 8 in piano, classical guitar and singing.

Gareth Gates became a Christian through Bradford's Abundant Life church, where he played his guitar.

Gareth Gates gained a reserve place at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester before the finals of Pop Idol.

Gareth Gates was the runner-up to Will Young on the first series of Pop Idol in February 2002.

Gareth Gates auditioned with Flying Without Wings and was put through to the next round of the show.

In 2003, Gareth Gates sang the 2003 Comic Relief charity single, "Spirit in the Sky", with The Kumars.

Gareth Gates was awarded the same title by MTV China and MTV Taiwan.

Gareth Gates promoted AIDS awareness through a charity concert to 50,000 people with MTV in Indonesia.

In 2003 and 2004, it was reported that Gareth Gates was being dropped by his record company BMG.

Gareth Gates was later dropped from the label in April 2006 before the release of any new material.

Gareth Gates had been working with writers such as Sacha Skarbek, Ricky Ross, Gary Clark and Pete Gordeno, and new the album was produced by Martin Terefe, Jon Hall and Nick Whitecross.

Since 2004 Gareth Gates had been working with singer-songwriter Judie Tzuke.

On 30 March 2007, Gareth Gates appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, the first time he had participated in an interview for a mainstream television chat-show since his speech improvement.

Gareth Gates played the part of Robbie in a preview of a new musical Soho Cinders and features on the album.

In 2008, Gareth Gates appeared on ITV1's Dancing on Ice with skating partner Maria Filippov, finishing fourth, losing a place in the final to Zaraah Abrahams and dancing partner Fred Palascak.

In 2009, Gareth Gates was cast in the lead role in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Adelphi Theatre, London.

In June 2009, it was announced that Gareth Gates was joining the cast of the International 25th Anniversary World Tour production of Les Miserables in the role of Marius.

Gareth Gates had been offered the choice of playing Marius in London's West End or in the anniversary tour, but opted for the tour as it was a new production and there was the opportunity to make the part his own.

Gareth Gates took a break from musical theatre to work on projects, including writing a new album, but planned to return in March 2012, taking the part of Claude in the UK touring production of Hair It was later announced that the musical would not proceed as efforts to rescue the tour following the bankruptcy of the original production company had failed.

In July 2012, Gareth Gates took over the role of Warner in the UK tour of the musical Legally Blonde.

In January 2014, Gareth Gates again took part in Dancing on Ice for the final series, partnered this time by Brianne Delcourt.

Gareth Gates finished in 7th place, and went on to appear in the very last Dancing on Ice tour in March and April 2014.

In 2016, Gareth Gates starred as Willard in a national tour of Footloose.

Gareth Gates took several breaks during the tour, and during his absences his part was played by Lee Brennan.

In June 2022, Gareth Gates hosted a Bradford-based Jubilee party, Big 80s Festival, in celebration of the Queen's seventieth year on the throne.

Gareth Gates lived in Chiswick, West London, with wife Suzanne Gareth Gates until their split in 2012.

The couple met when she was a dancer at the Record of the Year awards in 2002, which Gareth Gates won for "Unchained Melody".

Gareth Gates met his former partner Coronation Street star Faye Brookes when they starred together in Legally Blonde: The Musical, shortly before he split from his wife.

Gareth Gates co-led his first full course in February 2005 and in August 2006 he instructed his first course single-handedly in Galway, Ireland.

Gareth Gates led his second at Bournemouth in November 2006.

Gareth Gates spoke to MPs including David Amess, Robert Buckland, and Steve Brine at the Palace of Westminster as part of a briefing on communication disability hosted by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists and the Centre for Social Justice.

The Irish Independent newspaper reported that Gareth Gates was one of a number of celebrities with investments in the company Ingenious Media, which backed a number of films, including Avatar and X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

On 7 September 2008, Gareth Gates played for England against The Rest of the World in Soccer Aid 2008 at Wembley in aid of UNICEF.

Gareth Gates took part in the 2009 Cosmo Everyman campaign to raise awareness of prostate and testicular cancer.

In 2020, Gareth Gates presented the BBC Lifeline Appeal for the British Stammering Association.