Lee Mead

A British performer steeped in musical theater, Lee Mead first captured widespread attention by winning the reality competition Any Dream Will Do, which secured him the title role in the 2007 London revival of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Prior stage experience already included appearances in Tommy and Miss Saigon, so the Joseph assignment marked a continuation rather than an introduction. The televised victory also yielded a Polydor recording contract, prompting the release later that year of his debut solo album, which mixed original songs written by Gary Barlow with assorted covers. Audience demand stretched his Joseph commitment beyond six hundred performances, bringing the run to a close on 10 January 2009. Months afterward he issued his second album, Nothing Else Matters, an assortment of fresh material and reinterpretations that featured a duet with New Zealand classical crossover artist Hayley Westenra. After stepping back from the stage for the remainder of 2009, Mead rejoined live theater in 2010, first in a touring adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s short story Lord Arthur Saville’s Crime and, six months later, as Fiyero in the West End production of Wicked. The following year he portrayed Emmett in the London mounting of Legally Blonde while making isolated television appearances in the BBC series Casualty and Sky’s Bedlam. Early 2012 brought his third studio album, Love Songs, a program of standards that encompassed Coldplay’s “Fix You” and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” That December he made his pantomime debut, playing the title character in Jack and the Beanstalk opposite Julian Clary and Nigel Havers. In 2013 he joined the revue The West End Men, which showcased leading performers singing numbers from major musicals, and returned to pantomime the next month as the lead in Robin Hood. A full-time return to Casualty in 2014 cast him as Lofty Chiltern, earning nominations for Favorite Newcomer at both the TV Times Awards and the 2015 National Television Awards. At the start of 2016 he announced his fourth studio album, Some Enchanted Evening.