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ActingMcGann made his professional acting debut in 1981 after joining the Everyman Theatre Company, Liverpool, for their 1981/82 rep season under Bob Eaton. He was initially earmarked for elevation from the Everyman Youth Theatre the previous year by Ken Campbell, the then Artistic Director. McGann's breakthrough role was as the eponymous hero in the company's production of Lennon in 1981, which received outstanding reviews and ran for 10 months at the London Astoria Theatre. He won his first Olivier Award nomination for best actor in a West End theatre production for his performance.
His first television appearances were in 1982 in Recording Studio opposite Peter Howitt and Robert Stephens for Granada TV, and Moving On The Edge, a BBC Play for Today TV Drama starring Eleanor Bron. He then appeared as 'Mad Dog' in the C4 TV series Scully by Alan Bleasdale in 1983 with Cathy Tyson and Elvis Costello. This was the first of three separate collaborations with Bleasdale, which included the films No Surrender in 1985 and Pleasure for Channel 4 in 1990.
Throughout his long career in TV, McGann has played a wide variety of characters. He played 'Marcus Bannerman' in the World War I era drama series The Grand in 1999 for Granada TV; 'Joseph Bazalgette' the great Victorian industrial engineer in the award-winning factual drama/doc Seven Great Industrial Wonders of the World in 2002 for the BBC; and 'Tom Crean' the Irish companion of Ernest Shackleton in Shackleton opposite Kenneth Branagh.
McGann has also appeared in many successful theatre productions. He played Mickey in Blood Brothers by Willy Russell in 1984, An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestley for a National Theatre Tour, and Macbeth in Macbeth by William Shakespeare. He has also appeared in Volpone by Ben Jonson for the Cambridge Theatre Company, twin brothers Rupert & Evelyn in Corpse by Gerald Moon, Scott in Up On The Roof at the Donmar Warehouse and Apollo Theatre London, and Javetts in Yakety Yak at the Astoria London.
McGann has also written and directed several original works for stage and screen. He co-wrote "Two of Us" the Lennon & McCartney Songbook with Bob Eaton and directed it for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Albert Hall, and other venues. He also wrote and directed "Imagine Lennon" for the Stadsteatern Gothenburg Sweden, "Perplexed Music" a film currently in post-production, and "Backstories" written and directed for the Merton Music Foundation and performed at the Royal Albert Hall in 2015.
McGann has also directed several plays, including iVirgin Boy by South African writer Peter Krummeck for the Oval Theatre London, Socrates by Colin Swash at Andover Lights Theatre, and Bullet Shaped Heart for Neil A. Edwards. He has also written and produced The McGann Acting Academy, two complete online professional acting courses for Stage and Screen presented by McGann and due to go live online in 2017/18.
McGann is also a published songwriter who has written many original compositions, including for the West End production Up On the Roof with co-writer Simon Moore and three original compositions for the album The McGanns in 1999. He has also written a short film Perplexed Music, which is based on the Elizabeth Barrett Browning petrarchan sonnet of the same name. The film is written and directed by McGann and stars his brother Paul and nephew Jake Sonny McGann in leading roles.
In his personal life, McGann's three brothers (Joe, Paul, and Stephen) are all actors. He lives with his wife Caroline Guinness-McGann in Frome, Somerset. Since 2007, McGann has been the director of Drama Direct Ltd, a creative production company which has produced many original productions and projects for the entertainment and education industries.
