Leading artists’ agency Jewell Wright is celebrating its first decade in the business of representing stage, screen and radio performers.
Founder Jimmy first met his business partner Neal Wright in 1999 in the first year of the hit show Mamma Mia! in which Wright created the role of Pepper, and the pair have worked closely ever since. Although Jewell originally set up the agency with his then agent Rebecca Gillett, Jewell Wright Ltd was born ten years ago when the Jewell Wright partnership was formalised.
The agency has launched the careers of many talented new performers including Ashley Byam who, fresh from Oxford School of Drama, starred alongside Tom Hardy in Legend. Byam went on to gain a role in the much-anticipated Warner Brothers’ The Legend of Tarzan, and is appearing on stage in The Velveteen Rabbit, which has just transferred from London’s Unicorn Theatre to the Off-Broadway venue The New Victory Theater.
Other current successes include Irvine Iqbal who is about to star as the Sultan in Disney’s Aladdin, Ashleigh Gray who played Elphaba in the UK tour of Wicked, and Miquel Brown who just finished shooting Genius opposite Colin Firth and is filming on J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
Agent Jimmy Jewell
As a performer Jewell has been part of the industry since his childhood. At the age of nine, he toured America and the following year he sang with José Carreras and recorded the soundtrack of Spielberg’s The Land Before Time at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra. At 18 his first theatrical role was in the National Youth Music Theatre’s production of Bugsy Malone which starred Sheridan Smith and S Club 7’s Hannah Spearritt, a production which transferred from the Edinburgh Festival to the West End.
At the age of 21, Jewell returned to Abbey Road Studios to write an arrangement of ‘Iris’ by The Goo Goo Dolls for the London Symphony Orchestra. In his second year of study at the Royal Academy of Music he took part in a tour of the United States alongside rock legends Roger Daltrey and Alice Cooper. He stayed with the pair as associate musical director for the following three years. In 2015, he was made an associate of the Royal Academy of Music in recognition of his ‘outstanding contribution to the UK music industry’. In 2015, Jewell was had associate producer credits on Memphis at Shaftesbury Theatre and The Mentalists starring Stephen Merchant at Wyndham’s Theatre.
Commenting on his partnership with Wright, Jewell says: “Neal and I are both creative people. I spend my life creating and Neal has spent his life on stage. We’re immensely privileged and lucky to be working in this industry and are always out there doing things for the industry, which set us apart and give us a unique take.”
Angela Thomas
SHARE THIS POST:
Comments are closed.