Known to millions of avid Australian soap opera fans as the handsome young husband of Kylie Minogue’s character, Charlene, in Neighbours and later for his musical career in which his first single Nothing Can Divide Us reached number five in the UK.

Jason Donovan was born in Malvern, Melbourne, Australia on June 1^st 1968 to Terence Donovan and Sue McIntosh . Following in his father’s footsteps, a man who was also an actor and appeared in Neighbours, Jason made his first television appearance at the age of eleven on another Australian series, Skyways. Jason still continued with his education at De La Salle College in Malvern.

After his role in Skyways and I Can Jump Puddles he landed the part of Scott Robinson in Neighbours where he played the love interest of Kylie Minogue and the friend of another Australian actress, Natalie Imbruglia.

After leaving Neighbours in 1988 Jason signed a recording contract with Mushroom Records and his first single, Nothing Can Divide Us brought him a top five hit in the United Kingdom where he already had a huge fan base from his days in Neighbours. His musical success was not confined to the UK and he made his mark on the Japanese market and several other countries worldwide.

Jason’s second single, Too Many Broken Hearts reached number one in the UK followed by his debut album, Ten Good Reasons, in May 1989, which entered the charts at number two and within a week had reached the number one album spot remaining there for three weeks.

Donovan went on to release as cover of Brian Hyland's hit Sealed With a Kiss which entered the UK charts at number one, making Jason the first Australian male to ever hold both single and album chart number one positions simultaneously. He was also the youngest artist to enter the charts at number one.

With former Neighbours co-star Kylie Minogue he recorded the duet of the song Especially for You, which became the fourth-highest selling single in the United Kingdom that year and its was during this period of time that Donovan and Minogue dated.

Donovan’s next leap in the music business was his role in the long running West End musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat where he landed the role of Joseph and had a third solo UK number one single with one of the sings from the show, Any Dream Will Do.

Jason’s pop career suffered irreparable damage when he was advised to sue The Face magazine in 1992 for liable after it printed allegations of Jason being gay. However, the court action merely served to alienate many of his fans and eventually he settled with the magazine out of court but admitted that it had lead to the down turn in his career. Donovan's career never recovered from his act of litigation.

For several years following the demise of his career Jason faced a battle with drugs but since 1997 when he and his partner, Angela Malloch, had their two children Jemma and Zach he has got his life back on track and he has begun to get more steady work as a serious actor, notably in a role in the high-brow medical-legal drama MDA on Australia's ABC network.

In late 2004, he was headlining in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium in England. He finished his original run on 13 March 2005, but was then invited back from June onwards to play in the final two months of the show, until its closure on 4 September 2005.

In 2006 Donovan has also starred in the UK’s Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd. He also performs at various concerts. He performed a medley of songs from Joseph along with other actors who have played the role Joseph, Donny Osmond and Lee Mead at the Concert for Princess Diana in July 2007 which was organized by her two sons Prince William and Prince Harry.

In 2006 Jason also took part in I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! the UK reality show in which he finished in 3rd place and which saw him striking up a friendship with David Gest and Matt Willis.

ABB