James Wynne EvansBEMMStJ (born 27 January 1972) is a Welsh opera singer, presenter and actor, known for his role as Gio Compario and latterly himself in the Go.compare insurance adverts on UK television. Evans hosts a regular radio programme on BBC Radio Wales and has hosted programmes on BBC Radio 2.
In 2010, Evans signed a six-album deal with Warner Music; his first album is called A Song in My Heart and was released on 21 March 2011. The album went straight to number one in the UK Classical Charts in the following week.[13] His second album, Wynne, was released in 2013.[14]
Television and radio
Go.Compare
Since August 2009, Evans has starred in an advertising campaign for UK insurance comparison website Go.Compare, playing the flamboyant, operatic tenor Gio Compario.[15]
In 2012, Go.Compare launched the 'Saving the Nation' campaign starring Evans again as Gio Compario. Evans made adverts in the series with Sue Barker, Stuart Pearce, Ray Mears, Louie Spence and Professor Stephen Hawking, with all of them trying to kill him and thus save the nation from his singing about Go.Compare.[16]
In 2011, Evans began presenting. He presented a programme about the Eisteddfod for the BBC and his own TV show on S4C. In 2012, Evans became a regular presenter on BBC Radio Wales and, from October 2013, Evans presented a weekly Friday afternoon show called Wynne Evans' Big Welsh Weekend. Between February 2016 and 23 June 2023, he presented The Wynne Evans Show on the station from 11am to 2pm every weekday. From 26th June 2023 the show moved to the 9am to 12pm slot.
Evans was also one of eight celebrities chosen to participate in an intense week of learning Welsh at a campsite in Pembrokeshire for the series cariad@iaith:love4language, shown on S4C in May 2012.
In 2012, Evans presented The Guide to Opera on Classic FM. The show was subsequently nominated for an Arqiva award. In 2013, Evans became a regular presenter on Classic FM. In August 2012, Evans appeared on the football show Soccer AM. He went on the show again in August 2013.
In March 2015, Evans appeared in the Sky 1 comedy drama Stella, as a candidate running for council / Mexican wrestler. The episode ended with Evans singing a couple of numbers.
In 2016, he hosted the BBC One Wales programme Search For A* alongside other celebrities Behnaz Akhgar and Omar Hamdi.[19]
Evans is a trustee of The Elizabeth Evans Trust.[25] Evans's mother was Elizabeth Evans MBE, who founded and ran both The Carmarthen Youth Opera and The Lyric Theatre in Carmarthen for 25 years. She died in 2004 and subsequently Evans and his two brothers founded the Trust.[26] A film was later made about her life called Save The Cinema. Evans played a cameo in the film but also made the Behind the Curtain programme about his life for Sky Arts.[27] Evans is divorced, and has two children.[28]