Colin Wells (actor)

Colin Norman Wells (born 11 September 1963 in Greenwich, London) is an English actor best known for his role as Johnno Dean in the long-running television drama series, Hollyoaks.

In the 1980s Wells worked full-time at a high-street bank before leaving at age 27 to pursue his dream of becoming a professional actor in 1990. After several minor roles in low-budget television series and commercials throughout the 1990s, Wells first came to the attention of national audiences in his native UK when cast as Martius in the 1999 film Titus, and gained his first major television role in 2001 when he played the character Jake Booth in the revived version of the ITV soap opera Crossroads, before leaving the series to join the cast of Hollyoaks in April 2003. He took over the role of Johnno Dean from Mark Powley, who had previously played the character on a part-time basis, when the series writers decided to give Johnno a full storyline as a loyal and devoted father figure who supported his family through the simultaneous effects of his family losing their home and his suffering a midlife crisis when his workplace collapsed, and also his daughter being attacked by a serial killer, before eventually falling into disgrace when he had an affair with a teenager and left the family to marry her after discovering that he had made her pregnant.

Wells left the Hollyoaks cast in July 2005; he was invited to reprise his role as Johnno Dean in 2009 by the series' producers as part of a long-running storyline involving the remaining members of the Dean family, but declined as he was already filming two other roles in the long-running TV drama serials Casualty and The Bill. The proposed storyline involving the return of Johnno was scrapped as a result.

Wells, who has been married to actress Joanna MacLeod since 1997, has one daughter, Rachael, one son, Joseph, and is a keen supporter of West Ham United football club.