’s Jay Kontzle, who plays Billy Fletcher, found fame on a reality show years before his soap debut.
The actor first set foot in the famous Dales as former bad boy Billy back in December 2018. Since then, he’s become a firm favourite with the soap’s loyal legion of fans.
Billy has also played a part in several big storylines too - from his disastrous wedding to wide Dawn Taylor () to the shock leukaemia diagnosis of their child Evan.
And over on the soap at the moment, he’s hiding something huge from Dawn, amid their mounting money issues. After a few weeks of speculation, this week it’s revealed that Billy has been fighting in unlicensed matches.
READ MORE:
READ MORE:
Billy has been taking part in the matches in a bid to financially support his family, who have been struggling since Evan’s diagnosis. His secret is eventually revealed to Mackenzie Boyd (Lawrence Robb) and John Sugden (Oliver Farnworth).
The latter helped clean up Billy's wounds after he was injured during a boxing match. However, his wife Dawn is very much still in the dark. Prior to his stint though, actor Jay was on screens but in a very different role.
The actor appeared on both The and Britain’s Got Talent, as a singer in a boy band. The band, called The Mend, consisted of Jay and three friends and they auditioned for The X Factor in 2011.
However, they were asked to leave at the bootcamp stage because they already had a management deal in place - this was against the competition’s rules.
The next year though, the band was back on screens, and auditioned for Britain’s Got Talent in front of Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and .
Jay and his band ended up reaching the final of BGT, eventually finishing in 7th place. While in 2022, Jay opened up about his boyband past, admitting he was “put off” by the music industry.
“The best thing about being in a band was the insight I got into the industry,’ he told Inside Soap. He added: “We worked with people at the top of their game, like Simon Cowell. But in the end, the business side of music put me off. It was an experience! I don’t really talk about it now because I’ve kind of moved on.”
