Going with the flow

WHEN a good thing ends, you move on. So when the boy band London Boys decided that it was the end of the road for the trio, Mark O'Dea left the bow ties, vests and the stage for better opportunities in the same place that he considers his second home — Malaysia.
O'Dea has been performing from a tender age. He grew up and spent most of his time in small town Kent in England before winning a scholarship to attend a prestigious performing arts school at 12. The school, attended by the likes of Rita Ora, Leona Lewis and Pixie Lott, was in London and the then 12-year-old O'Dea would take lonely one-and-half-hour train rides daily just to go to school and back.
The routine was as such until he was 16 when it was time to move on to college where he spent another four years studying performing arts.
At 20, armed with a degree, O'Dea joined a band as their back-up dancer and went on tour all over England. He was also employing his performing skills at West End theatres, musical theatres as well as at plays.
"The thing about performing in shows like these is that it gets a bit boring like I'd have to do the same show for six months and I was doing the same role, same character, same singing, same dialect ...," he trailed off.
Even after three years of taking a break off the performing arts scene, you could still see the exhaustion and exasperation in the 23-year-old's piercing dark eyes. But it is part and parcel of life when something you love doing so much can turn into something so draining at the same time.
Then, the Cleo's Most Clickable Bachelor 2013 left West End to be part of London Boys in Malaysia, travelling out of England for the first time. When it ended, O'Dea stayed on in Malaysia and got the job as an 8TV Quickie host, fanning his local fan base even greater with his good looks and charisma.
At the hosting job, O'Dea gets to truly be himself. There is no alter ego when he goes on television except making sure that the enthusiasm is always up no matter how bad of a day he is having. The chemistry he shares with his co-hosts is genuine as well. You can tell that their banters are not just for show business and these folks are honestly very fond of one another, on and off the screen.
O'Dea's fun personality is also translated into his YouTube channel where he hosts videos of him getting up to mischief organising funny pranks on the public. He also does a comedy travel show where he goes around to different places all over Malaysia as a dysfunctional travel show presenter. In his channel, O'Dea also keeps his passion for singing live by doing covers. In fact, the good looking chap will be releasing a song in a couple of months which he wrote and will sing in Malay.
"I would love to have my own tv show where I would want to create and star in something so I can have full control of it [...] Apart from that, performance is all that I've lived and studied and breathed even when I was younger so I can't really see myself doing something else," said O'Dea.
However, the entertainment industry isn't forever as the scale can tip in your favour just as quickly as it can tip the other way and O'Dea knows that.
"I don't plan much. I go with the flow. I mean if the time is right and if things aren't working out I think I'd probably move on (out of Malaysia). But for the time being, it's good so I'm going to stick around," said the British national.
O'Dea is a prime example of a talent moulded and accustomed to charm the eyes of many. The entertainment industry is understandably wide; like O'Dea, you could be doing West End theatre at one point and then television hosting next but despite doing two things, both on two ends of the spectrum in the same field, it's important to "always believe in yourself". That way, no matter what you do, you are only heading upwards.