Andrew O'Connor (actor)

Andrew Mark O'Connor (born March 1963 in Stevenage, Hertfordshire) is an English actor, comedian, magician, television presenter and executive producer.

Although he enjoyed a short stint as a child actor, appearing as Tom Brill in the BBC mini-series The Canal Children in 1976, he made his mark as a children's magician, and won the Magic Circle's Young Magician of the Year prize in 1981. After appearing in a number of variety shows on television, he was invited to join the cast of London Weekend Television's Copy Cats, a showcase featuring impressionists such as Bobby Davro and Gary Wilmot, in 1985. A second series, without Wilmot, followed in 1986. O'Connor received a writing credit for each series. His own children's show, Andrew O'Connor's Joke Machine soon followed, in which he told jokes and performed magic tricks and invited children to do the same.

In 1986, he began appearing in ITV's popular Saturday morning children's series, No. 73. But shortly afterwards, he switched to the BBC to launch another Saturday morning children's series, On the Waterfront, alongside fellow ex-No. 73 host Kate Copstick. In 1991, O'Connor became the second actor to play The Head in CITV's arts and crafts show Art Attack presented by Neil Buchanan.

In 1988, O'Connor also appeared regularly in short comedy sketches co-written by himself for the Observation round in ITV game show The Krypton Factor. In the same year, he took over from Jeremy Beadle as the presenter of the daytime game show, Chain Letters. He returned to acting to play the role of the computer in early 90's children's sci-fi show Kappatoo but it was his career as a quiz-show host that took off, and he subsequently presented the UK version of Talk About, moved to Saturday night prime time in 1991 with One to Win, and returned to daytime television with The Alphabet Game. This latter show was devised and produced by O'Connor, under the aegis of Objective Productions which he formed with Michael Vine.

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