Hollyoaks and Neighbours star quits fame for completely different job – and it’s worlds away from TV
FORMER Neighbours and Australian Idol star Dan O’Connor has quit fame to set up a personal training business.
The Aussie actor rose to fame in Neighbours before joining Hollyoaks and Death in Paradise.
Dan, 42, now lives in Los Angeles with his partner Marc who is from Wales.
The ex TV star regularly shares snaps of his life in the sunshine state and his fitness pursuits.
He first rose to fame in 2004 alongside Casey Donovan and Ricki-Lee Coulter as a Top 12 finalist on the second season of Australian Idol.
After being voted off the show, he had several small acting roles and appeared as Coulter’s love interest in her music video for Can’t Touch It.
He went on to star as Ned Parker in popular soap Neighbours, before going on to act in Hollyoaks.
Dan played sex symbol Ally Gorman in the Channel 4 soap, and opened up about stripping off on screen in 2012.
He said: “By far it had to be the naked scene. Some guys have no issue stripping off but it’s really awkward when you have a room full of fully clothed people and the camera is stationed behind your butt.”
Australian soap Neighbours was sensationally axed by Channel 5 last year, bringing production to an end after 37 years.
Amazon‘s streaming platform Freevee has snapped up the Ramsay Street-based soap after striking a deal with its makers Freemantle.
From February 23 all of the episodes from the show’s season in 2012 were made available to stream.
It includes Chris and Aidan’s first kiss, as well as Toadie’s heart-warming proposal to Sonya, and Lucas and Vanessa’s dramatic wedding day.
Fans will have plenty of Neighbours content to tide them over until its return later this year as a full library season will drop each month.
But that’s not all – Freevee has also announced it’s adding two dedicated channels on its platform for the show.
The linear channels will be called ‘Neighbours – Looking Back’ and ‘Best of Neighbours’ which play episodes back-to-back.
A brand-new series will begin filming in Australia next year and will see show favourites Stefan Dennis (Paul Robinson), Alan Fletcher (Karl Kennedy), Ryan Moloney (Toadfish Rebecchi), and Jackie Woodburne (Susan Kennedy) returning to reprise their leading roles.
Production is set to commence in early 2023 with a world premiere slated for the second half of the year.
The Australian show has screened in multiple countries during its reign, including the UK, airing on both BBC One and, most recently, Channel 5, since its launch in 1985.
