Pilgrimage star Jay McGuiness' surprising career away from The Wanted pop stardom

Wales Online

22-04-2025

Pilgrimage star Jay McGuiness' surprising career away from The Wanted pop stardom
Jay McGuiness has been a familiar face on our screens for over 15 years and now he's persuing a career away from the stage, as well as continuing to entertain fans on it - with roles in various stage productions
Jay McGuiness from The Wanted has enjoyed a career in musical theatre and writing following the band's hiatus in 2014
(Image: BBC )
Singer-songwriter Jay McGuiness will be taking a step away from the stage and embarking on spiritual journey in the most recent series of BBC's Pilgrimage.
The Wanted star will be joined by presenter Jeff Brazier, comedian and writer Helen Lederer and the Traitors' winner Harry Clark amongst others as they take on the Swiss and Austrian alps to explore their faith and beliefs. Jay McGuiness has been a familiar face on our screens for over 15 years by now. For the latest TV and showbiz gossip sign up to our newsletter .
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Most fans will probably know him as being one-fifth of the popular boyband The Wanted, which reached major success all over the world and obtained two UK number one singles with All Time Low and Glad You Came from their debut eponymous named album in 2010.
The band announced a hiatus in 2014 after six years of whirlwind success, but reunited for a greatest hits album and a performance at a charity concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 2021 when band member Tom Parker had been diagnosed with brain cancer in late 2020.
Tom Parker sadly died from the illness in March 2022. During the filming of Pilgrimage, Jay, who identifies as agnostic, reflects on the death of his friend and band-member and the grief that followed.
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Since the band's hiatus in 2014, Jay has enjoyed a promising yet unique career.
The star appeared and won the 13th series of Strictly Come Dancing in 2015 with his professional dance partner Aliona Vilani.
Max George (left) and Jay McGuiness of The Wanted carry the coffin at the funeral of their bandmate Tom Parker at St Francis of Assisi church in Queensway, Petts Wood, in south-east London
(Image: PA )
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Following from this, the Nottinghamshire singer forged a career in musical theatre, starring in shows such as BIG! The Musical, which was based on the popular 1988 film starring Tom Hanks, Sleepless - A Musical Romance, also based on the screenplay of another Tom Hanks film - Sleepless in Seattle.
He also starred in the show Rip It Up, where he performed alongside JLS' Aston Merrygold, McFly's Harry Judd, and Olympic champion Louis Smith.
In 2022, the singer took the lead role of Bob Wallace in the touring musical version of the classic move, White Christmas. And in 2024, he played the role of Ben in the award-winning play 2:22 A Ghost Story. Currently he's on stage in a touring production of & Juliet. The new musical flips the script on the greatest love story ever told and asks, what would happen next if Juliet didn't end it all over Romeo?
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In his personal life, McGuiness is a committed conservationist and environmentalist. The star is also a writer and has published a young adult novel.
His debut fantasy novel, Blood Flowers, was published worldwide by Scholastic in February 2024.
Aliona Vilani and Jay McGuiness with the winning trophy in 2015
(Image: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire )
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According to Waterstones, the novel is a story of "love, witchcraft, betrayal and murder", which focuses on themes of poverty, class divide and addiction.
While speaking on Westlife's Nicky Byrne's podcast - Nicky Byrne HQ, The Wanted band member explained how the opportunity to write came around.
"They asked if I would be interested in writing an autobiography and I was like, 'heck no'," he said. "But fantasy was something I knew - I'd been around it for so long, I knew what I wanted to write.
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"And so I guess, it was a year of me on my laptop going for it. And then we shipped it to a few different places and Scholastic is my publisher. And that is the OG publishers".
He continued: "They liked my draft and away they went." He then went on to say he wanted to write a "fantasy book that I would've liked to have read when I was a kid".
Viewers can watch Pilgrimage's third episode on BBC TWO at 9pm on Tuesday evening, April 22, with all episodes available on BBC iPlayer.
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