Gareth Paul Gates is an English singer-songwriter. He was the runner-up in the first series of the ITV talent show Pop Idol. Gates has sold over 3.5 million records in the UK. He is also known for having a stutter, and has talked about his speech impediment publicly. Gates used the McGuire Programme to manage the problem and is now a speech coach with the programme. In 2009, 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. In 2009?2011, Gates completed an eighteen month stint as Marius, initially in the touring production and then in the West End production of Les Mis�rables. He also 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. He is now part of the pop group 5th Story, set up for The Big Reunion. [More at Wikipedia]

July 12th, 1984 in Bradford (Age 40)