Kelvin Fletcher

Kelvin Fletcher
Born	Kelvin Warren Fletcher (1984-01-17) 17 January 1984 Oldham, Greater Manchester, England
Occupations	Actor model automobile racing driver presenter
Years active	1993–present
Known for	Emmerdale (1996–2016)
Spouse	Elizabeth Marsland ​ (m. 2015)​
Children	4

Kelvin Warren Fletcher (born 17 January 1984) is an English actor, model, racing driver presenter and farmer. He played Andy Sugden in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale, a role he played from 1996 until 2016. In 2019, Fletcher won the seventeenth series of Strictly Come Dancing with his professional partner Oti Mabuse.

Early life

Fletcher attended Mayfield Primary School in Derker, Greater Manchester for his primary school education, and North Chadderton School, Chadderton for his secondary education.

Born the oldest of three boys, his youngest brother, Brayden Fletcher, was also a child actor, appearing in Coronation Street in 1996. His half sister is actress and musician, Keeley Forsyth. At the age of six, Fletcher started attending drama classes at the Oldham Theatre Workshop and was first seen on television on a Saturday Disney report when he was starring as Charlie in Charlie Is My Darling, which he also performed in a special show at the London Palladium.

Career

Fletcher's television career began with appearances in In Suspicious Circumstances, Cracker, Heartbeat and Chiller. He also co-presented an episode of You've Been Framed with Jeremy Beadle. In 1996, Fletcher had a bit part in British soap opera, Coronation Street, before being selected to audition for Emmerdale for the role of tearaway Andy Hopwood, a schoolfriend of Robert Sugden. The character was originally scripted to appear in three episodes but was soon offered a longer contract, eventually appearing in 2,134 episodes over the course of 20 years, until he was written out of the soap in 2016. Fletcher went on to become one of the leading and most popular characters in the show, winning Best Actor and Best Dramatic Performance at the British Soap Awards.

Fletcher was once a National Champion in the minority sport inline hockey. He played for local Chadderton club 'Chaddy' Wildsharks. He was a national champion in 1998 when he and his team travelled to Newcastle and won the tournament over a weekend. Whilst playing for the 'Chaddy' Wildsharks, Fletcher gained many young fans who knew him from Emmerdale fame. They would turn out to watch him play, giving the 'Chaddy' Wildsharks junior team a larger than average audience.

On 8 September 2019, it was announced that Fletcher would be a competitor in the 2019 series of the BBC television competition, Strictly Come Dancing, as a replacement for reality TV star Jamie Laing, who had to withdraw from the show prior to airing due to a foot injury. He went on to reach the final and win the competition, resulting in his dance partner, Oti Mabuse, winning her first title on the show.

In 2021 Fletcher and his wife, Liz Marsland, bought a 120 acre plot of land in the village of Wincle nr Macclesfield in Cheshire with the plan to set up a farm. Their efforts were filmed for a BBC TV series, Kelvin's Big Farming Adventure which aired in January 2022. In 2023 the couple filmed a new series on the farm for ITV, Fletchers' Family Farm which consisted of 8 hour long episodes as well as a special Fletchers' Family Farm at Christmas broadcast on 24 December 2023.

Since leaving Emmerdale, Fletcher has appeared in Death in Paradise and Moving On. In January 2022, he played the part of Jack in The Teacher alongside Sheridan Smith.

Motor racing career

Fletcher first ventured into motor racing after a visit to a motoring show with his father in January 2012. He obtained an MSA Competition Licence and won the 2012 Silverstone Classic Celebrity Challenge race. Fletcher also competed in the Mighty Mini's and the Team Trophy. He was invited to partake in the Porsche Supercup support race of the 2014 British Grand Prix, where he finished 22nd.

Fletcher signed a contract to drive a Chevrolet Cruze entered by the Power Maxed Racing team in the 2016 British Touring Car Championship in March that year. He missed the Knockhill Racing Circuit and the Rockingham Motor Speedway rounds because his wife was due to give birth to their first child. Dave Newsham drove his car instead. During the season, Fletcher competed in 24 races spread over eight rounds of three events. He scored no points and was 31st in the final drivers' championship standings.

For the 2017 season, Fletcher moved to the British GT Championship and shared a Nissan 370Z Nismo with fellow driver Tim Eakin for the UltraTek Racing RJN in the GT4 category. He was mentored by FIA World Endurance Championship and 24 Hours of Le Mans class victor Martin Plowman during his rookie season. After three years of running in GT4 with Plowman, they will move up to the GT3 class in a Bentley Continental.

Personal life

Fletcher married fellow actor Elizabeth Marsland, whom he had known since the age of eight, in a secret ceremony on 28 November 2015. They have a daughter and a son and more recently twin boys. Fletcher is also a fan of rugby league; growing up, he was a fan of Paul Sculthorpe and Kevin Sinfield as they were both from Oldham, and he makes occasional appearances at testimonial matches of famous players.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2020	We Go in at Dawn	John Seabourne
2022	Jack Absolute Flies Again	Dudley Scunthorpe

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Three Seven Eleven	Darren	Main cast; 10 episodes
	Cracker	Boy	Episode: "The Big Crunch: Part 3"
1995	Chiller	Gordon	Episode: "Number Six"
	Heartbeat	Colin Ellis	Episode: "Unfinished Business"
1996	Coronation Street	Lad	Episode: #1.3987
1996–2016	Emmerdale	Andy Sugden	Regular role; 2,134 episodes
2012	Who Wants to be a Millionaire	Himself (with his brother Brayden)	'Schools Out' Episode
2018	The Shore	Steve	Main cast
2019	Strictly Come Dancing	Contestant (partnered with Oti Mabuse)	Series winner
2021	Death in Paradise	Gavin Jackson	Episode: #10.3
	Moving On	Nathan	Episode: "More Than Words"
2022	Kelvin's Big Farming Adventure	Himself	6 episodes
	The Teacher	Jack	3 episodes
	McDonald and Dodds	Donovan Janaway	Episode: "A Billion Beats"
2023	Fletchers' Family Farm	Himself	8 episodes plus Christmas special
2024	Father Brown	Brian Fleming	Episode: #11.1 "The Kembleston Olimpicks"

Racing results

Complete Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 1 point awarded all races) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap – 1 point awarded all races)

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	DC	Points
2014	Redline Racing	Porsche 991 GT3	PA2	BRH 1 12	BRH 2 11	DON 1	DON 2												SIL 1 8	SIL 2 6	BRH 1	BRH 2	13th	46
	Team Parker Racing							THR 1 10	THR 2 10	SAR 1	CRO 1	CRO 2	SNE 1	SNE 2	KNO 1	KNO 2	ROC 1	ROC 2

Complete Porsche Supercup results

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	DC	Points
2014	Porsche Cars GB	ESP	MON	AUT	GBR 22	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	USA	USA	NC†	0†

^† As Fletcher was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points.

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 1 point awarded in first race) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap – 1 point awarded all races) (* signifies that driver lead race for at least one lap – 1 point awarded all races)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	DC	Points
2016	Power Maxed Racing	Chevrolet Cruze	BRH 1 Ret	BRH 2 25	BRH 3 Ret	DON 1 24	DON 2 Ret	DON 3 20	THR 1 Ret	THR 2 23	THR 3 17	OUL 1 29	OUL 2 23	OUL 3 22	CRO 1 Ret	CRO 2 22	CRO 3 Ret	SNE 1 Ret	SNE 2 Ret	SNE 3 18	KNO 1	KNO 2	KNO 3	ROC 1	ROC 2	ROC 3	SIL 1 22	SIL 2 22	SIL 3 26	BRH 1 24	BRH 2 24	BRH 3 21	31st	0

Complete British GT Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	DC	Points
2017	Team RJN Nissan with UltraTek	Nissan 370Z GT4	GT4	OUL 1 23	OUL 2 19	ROC 1 22	SNE 1 25	SNE 2 19	SIL 1 24	SPA 1 23	SPA 2 23	BRH 1 19	DON 1 Ret	22nd	9
2018	UltraTek Racing / Team RJN	Nissan 370Z GT4	GT4	OUL 1 32	OUL 2 17	ROC 1 13	SNE 1 22	SNE 2 22	SIL 1 19	SPA 1 20	BRH 1 10	DON 1 Ret		9th	65.5
2019	Beechdean AMR	Aston Martin Vantage GT4	GT4	OUL 1 18	OUL 2 17	SNE 1 21	SNE 2 19	SIL 1 14	DON 1 20	SPA 1 23	BRH 1 17	DON 1 15		5th	98.5
2021	JRM Racing	Bentley Continental GT3	GT3	BRH 1 7										11th	59.5
	Paddock Motorsport				SIL 1 25	DON 1 7	SPA 1	SNE 1 2	SNE 2 8	OUL 1 9	OUL 2 9	DON 1 10
2022	Paddock Motorsport	McLaren 720S GT3	GT3	OUL 1 15	OUL 2 3	SIL 1	DON 1 11	SNE 1	SNE 2	SPA 1	BRH 1 21	DON 1		26th	15

External links

• Kelvin Fletcher at IMDb