Michael Ashley Ball was born on 27th June 1962 at Bromsgrove, Worcestershire.  When he was 3yrs old, the family moved to Dartmoor, Devon.  Following several school holiday trips to the theatre, Ball joined a youth theatre group, and in 1984 graduated from the Guildford School of Acting.  After leaving school, his first part was in “Godspell” at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre, but won a lead role in Gilbert & Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance” at the Manchester Opera House.

Following that success, Ball was cast in the role of “Marius” in the musical “Les Misérables” and although his performance was memorable, he was plagued with illness and was forced to leave the show.  He was then invited to take over the role of “Raoul” in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera”, following the original cast moving onto Broadway in the USA.  Ball went onto to create the role of “Alex” in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Aspects of Love”, both in London and in New York.  In 1992 he represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest with “One Step Out of Time” - coming second.  He then took the role of “Giorgio” in the London production of Sondheim’s “Passion”.   

In 2002, he created the role of “Caractacus Potts” in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” - based on the musical film of the same name.  In true “showbiz” style, Ball replaced Michael Crawford, OBE (with just 10 days notice) in the role of “Count Fosco” in “The Woman in White” in 2005 and returned to Broadway in the role, but was forced to pull out due to illness.  Ball made his Henry Wood Promenade Concert debut in 2007 with “An Evening with Michael Ball” - the first time a star from musical theatre had been given a solo concert within the classical music festival.  Later in 2007, he once again returned to the West End, in the role of “Edna Turnblad” in “Hairspray” - which he won the Olivier Award 2007 for Best Actor in a Musical.

Ball remains one of Britain’s best known musical theatre stars due to his enormous concert tours, television and radio appearances and successful recording career.