Michael McKell was born in London and in the 1980s he was a prolific singer and song-writer. However, in 1991 he was involved in a near-fatal car crash which proved to be the catalyst for a career change. He studied acting for three years at the Lee Strasberg Institute and began on stage, in classical roles, making his West End debut in the musical Blood Brothers. After years of television supporting roles as villains, in the mid-2000s he has been a leading player in a police series Murder Investigation Team and as one of the titular Doctors in the weekday afternoon soap. He and his partner Sally, a legal P.A., have three children.