Simon O'Brien (born 19 June 1965 in Garston,

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wir ...

) is a British television actor and radio presenter as well as a property developer.

Career

He came to prominence as the character

Damon Grant Damon Grant is a fictional character in the defunct British soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The ...

in '' Brookside'', a role he played from the soap's launch in 1982 until 1987, when his character was killed off in

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

at the end of the 'soap bubble' ''

Damon and Debbie ''Damon and Debbie'' is a three-part spin-off from the Channel 4 soap opera '' Brookside'' first broadcast in November 1987. A Mersey Television production, it was written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, directed by Bob Carlton, and produced by Colin M ...

''. In 1989, Simon starred in the British version of

Jim Henson James Maury Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer, animator, cartoonist, actor, inventor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide notice as the creator of The Muppets and '' Fraggle Rock'' (1983–1987) and ...

Fraggle Rock ''Fraggle Rock'' (also known as ''Jim Henson's Fraggle Rock'' or ''Fraggle Rock with Jim Henson's Muppets'') is a children's musical fantasy comedy puppet television series about interconnected societies of Muppet creatures, created by Jim Hen ...

until 1990. He portrayed the Lighthouse Keeper called BJ in the much acclaimed musical puppet TV series. In the 1990s, after a spell presenting BBC

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

show '' Standing Room Only'' and a regular role on the American sitcom '' Out All Night'', he left

show business Show business, sometimes shortened to show biz or showbiz (since 1945), is a vernacular term for all aspects of the entertainment industry.''Oxford English Dictionary'' 2nd Ed. (1989) From the business side (including managers, agents, produce ...

and, with Alan Bate, set up Liverpool Cycle Centre, a combination of vegetarian café, cycle shop, cycle parking and other resources relevant to his enthusiasm for cycling. O'Brien then moved into property development. He has since returned to acting and presenting, with a short-lived football quizshow, ''Do I Not Know That?'', on

ITV Digital ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc, owners ...

, co-presenting the

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

show ''

To Buy or Not to Buy ''To Buy or Not to Buy'' is a British reality television series made between 2003 and 2010 for BBC One in the UK. The final series was the eleventh and contained 90 episodes, in one of two formats—either 30 or 45 minutes in length. It aired o ...

'', as well as playing caretaker Wally Scott in ''

Grange Hill ''Grange Hill'' is a British children's television drama series, originally produced by the BBC and portraying life in a typical comprehensive school. The show began its run on 8 February 1978 on BBC1, and was one of the longest-running program ...

'' from 2003. O'Brien presented

BBC Radio Merseyside BBC Radio Merseyside is the BBC's local radio station serving Merseyside. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds, from studios on Hanover Street in Liverpool. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 203,000 ...

's Breakfast show with

Lucinda Moore Lucinda Moore (''née'', Simmons) is an American urban contemporary gospel, traditional black gospel, and gospel music recording artist and musician. She started her music career in 1989, and her first studio album, ''Lucinda Moore'', was release ...

from September 2006 until 25 June 2007, when he resigned after the accidental broadcast of a promotional preview clip of a forthcoming radio show of him saying "fuck the government, fuck the planners". In 2014, O'Brien began presenting the TV reality series ''My Dream Derelict Home''. In 2022, it was announced that O'Brien would appear on the ITV soap opera ''

Coronation Street ''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford. Orig ...

'' as guest character

Frank Bardsley '' Coronation Street'' is a British soap opera first broadcast on ITV on 9 December 1960. The following is a list of characters introduced in 2022, by order of first appearance. All characters are introduced by the programme's series producer, ...

Personal life

In 2014, O'Brien was appointed chair of the Liverpool Green Strategy Group. He and his wife Liz, a teacher, have one daughter.

References

External links

*
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, Simon 1965 births Living people English male television actors English radio presenters Male actors from Liverpool People from Garston