Jon Gaunt is a graduate of The University of Birmingham where he read Drama and Theatre Arts.

Upon graduating he formed a theatre company called Tic Toc which was based in his hometown of Coventry.

The company quickly grew and established itself as not only a major touring company but also as one of the biggest promoters at the Edinburgh Festival.

As the artistic Director of the company Jon wrote over twenty plays including Hooligans, which won a prestigious Edinburgh Fringe First and was transferred to the West End and subsequently filmed by Yorkshire TV.

Jon then secured commissions for plays and films from the BBC, YTV and the Birmingham Rep amongst others and also became a member of the Emmerdale script writing team for two years.

Alongside this he was responsible for promoting acts as varied as Julian Clary, Mike Myers, Jeremy Hardy, Frank Skinner and a host of other now household names at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where the company eventually ran seven theatres.

This combination of entrepreneurial vision and artistic endeavour characterises Jon`s career which culminated in him raising over a million pounds from both the private and the public sector to convert a disused and derelict bingo hall in Coventry into a thriving nightclub and arts centre called the Tic Toc Club, which won an Arts council award for inner city arts projects.

The company ran for ten years until finally after a long struggle going into administration in 2002. This experience didn’t drag Jon down in fact it inspired him to reinvent himself as a talk radio host and TV performer.

This rags to riches to rags and “riches” again journey is told in moving and amusing detail in Jon’s best selling autobiography, Undaunted, published by Virgin press. The book also chronicles Jon’s fractured childhood, his time in care and his subsequent difficult relationship and eventual reconciliation with his Policeman father.

Jon’s career in radio has been a rollercoaster ride in the truest sense of that often misused cliché!

Starting off in Coventry on the local BBC radio station Jon graduated to hosting the breakfast show within three months and subsequently worked on BBC WM where he still holds the record for the largest audience for his Saturday show.

He then spent five happy years as Breakfast phone in host on BBC Three Counties in Luton where he won three Sony Radio awards (the industry’s equivalent of the Oscars) in one night for his coverage of the closure of the Vauxhall factory.

From there Jon went on to BBC London where he hosted the prestigious mid morning phone, which is now presented by Vanessa Feltz.

Whilst he was at BBC London he was approached by Rebekah Wade of the Sun and asked whether he would like to be a columnist on Britain`s best selling newspaper, a position he held for five years.

During this period he was also the host of the mid morning phone in show on talkSport and increased the audience massively until he was fired for calling a councillor a health Nazi for wanting to ban prospective foster parents from having children if they smoked.

Jon then launched SunTalk a digital Internet radio station on the Sun’s website and this station was awarded a British Press Award for Digital Innovation in 2010.

Throughout this period Jon remains a regular press reviewer for Sky News as well as appearing on programmes such as Vanessa, Newsnight, The Daily Politics, Question Time and Countdown.

He is also a regular contributor on the Jeremy Vine radio show on BBC Radio Two and various BBC Five Live programmes.

Jon has written articles and columns for many magazines and newspapers including The Daily Express, Square Mile Magazine and Public Service Europe.