West End agent, musician, composer and producer - that's Colchester's Jimmy Jewell

He had other things on his mind like appearing with rock stars and writing musicals and shows.

“I really did fall into it,” he smiles. “I never wanted to be an agent at all. It was never part of the plan. I was doing my music and the rock tours, signed to an agency in London and it was my agent that got me into it.”

The company Jimmy’s agent, a certain Rebecca Gillett, was working for was about to close and so with a little business experience himself he agreed to help her set up her own business.

“At the time I was running my own little production company,” he explains, “and so I said to Rebecca ‘I’ll set up the business with you and just in come in on Friday’s to dot the ‘i’s and cross the ‘t’s.”

A year later Jimmy had married Rebecca and now while Rebecca looks after their two girls, Lucy and Emma, Jimmy runs the agency.

This year Jewell Wright Ltd is celebrating ten “wonderful” years representing artists worldwide on screen, radio and stage.

Jimmy met his business partner Neal Wright more than ten years ago, in 1999, when they worked together on the first year of the stage musical Mamma Mia!

“While she stayed at home with the children,” he laughs, “I was left with an agency with a hundred or so clients so thank goodness for Neal. He’s like my best friend and has been in every musical ever written, no honestly, he has.

“We met on the World premiere of Mamma Mia and we’ve been friends ever since.”

The agency has launched the careers of many aspiring new performers such as Ashley Byam who, fresh from Oxford School of Drama, starred alongside Tom Hardy in Legend, gained the supporting lead role in Warner Brothers’ The Legend of Tarzan, and in The Velveteen Rabbit, which transfers this January from The Unicorn Theatre to off- Broadway in New York.

Other current successes include Irvine Iqbal who is about to star as the Sultan in Disney’s Aladdin; Ashleigh Gray who played Elphaba in the UK tour of Wicked; and Miquel Brown who just finished shooting Genius opposite Colin Firth and is currently on J K Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

“We pride ourselves on being unique,” Jimmy begins, “and on the fact we keep our client list to around a 100 and try to keep it that way. Those close relationships with our clients are important and built on trust.”

Sometimes a lot of trust.

“Let me give you an example,”he continues. “Ashleigh Gray who came and did some work for us, was waiting tables at the time and I remember saying to her ‘you should not be waiting tables’.

“She signed with us and told us her dream was to play Elphaba in Wicked, which of course is not a role you just walk into. She did some bits and pieces before getting into the ensemble of Wicked, where she worked hard and made second understudy.

“Eventually she walked away from the show because we knew that was what she had to do.

That’s when we established her as a solo artists doing all kinds of concerts around town until the part of Elphaba came up in the UK tour.

“That first night up in Liverpool with the banner with her name on it above the theatre was one of the proudest moments for Neal and I because of the involvement we had in making that happen.”

Jimmy is no stranger to the stage himself and has been part of the industry since his childhood.

Aged only nine, he toured the States and the following year sung a duet with Jose Carreras and recorded the soundtrack of Spielberg’s the Land Before Time at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra.

This was the moment he realised the career he wanted to pursue.

His first theatrical role in the National Youth Music Theatre’s production of Bugsy Malone – starring Sheridan Smith and S Club 7’s Hannah Spearritt – transferred from the Edinburgh Festival to the West End when he was 18 years old.

His academic studies at the Royal Academy of Music provided him with incredible opportunities to learn under the tutelage of Elton John, Michael Kamen, Jerry Goldsmith and Richard Rodney Bennett. In his second year he took part in a rock tour of the US alongside legends Roger Daltrey and Alice Cooper. He remained alongside them as Associate Musical Director for the following three years.

Last year, he was made an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music for his “outstanding contribution to the UK music industry”, and in the same year he got his first associate producer position on a major West End musical, Memphis at the Shaftesbury Theatre.

Jimmy says: “When you strip away being an agent and being a producer, a conductor or even a production facilitator, I am essentially a creator and always have been.

“My greatest achievements are when I see what I’ve created coming to fruition, be that something I’ve put on stage, something I’ve written, or even a career that I’ve been a part of creating through the agency."