![]() | This article describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. (December 2019) |
Gary Windass | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Coronation Street character | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Portrayed by | Mikey North | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Duration | 2008–present | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
First appearance | Episode 6947 14 November 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Classification | Present; regular | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Introduced by | Kim Crowther | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spin-off appearances | Gary's Army Diaries (2011)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Gary Windass is a fictional character from the British soap opera Coronation Street, portrayed by Mikey North. The character first appeared on 14 November, 2008, along with his parents, Eddie (Steve Huison) and Anna Windass (Debbie Rush).
In the show, the character was romantically involved with Izzy Armstrong (Cherylee Houston), Alya Nazir (Sair Khan) and Sarah Platt (Tina O'Brien). The character was also engaged in feuds with Sarah's brother David Platt (Jack P Shephard), Izzy's father Owen Armstrong (Ian Puleston-Davies), and most prominently, with Anna's rapist Pat Phelan (Connor McIntyre).
Gary's story-lines include his conflict with PTSD after joining the army, forming a business partnership with Owen, bonding with his parents' adopted daughter Faye (Ellie Leach), a brief custody battle against ex-girlfriend Tina McIntyre (Michelle Keegan) after she becomes their surrogate and gives birth to Gary and Izzy's son Jake, a close friendship with Faye's biological father Tim Metcalfe (Joe Duttine), helping Sarah's daughter Bethany (Lucy Fallon) overcome her troubles with bullying in school and being subjugated to child grooming and sexual exploitation by her pimp Nathan Curtis (Christopher Harper), a one-night stand with Phelan's daughter Nicola Rubinstein (Nicola Thorp), which results in her giving birth to their son Zack and appointing Faye's boyfriend Seb Franklin (Harry Visinoni) to become his apprentice.
In 2019, Gary became the show's main antagonist when he was revealed to be the culprit who caused the death of Alya's sister-in-law, Rana Habeeb (Bhavna Limbachia), by sabotaging the Underworld Factory roof in his attempt to sort out his debts to loan shark Rick Neelan (Greg Wood). This led to the collapse of the factory roof and Rana being killed from the incident as a result. The character later killed Rick in self-defense when the latter tried to murder him in the woods, subsequently taking over his criminal empire as a result. Soon afterwards, Gary proceeded to establish a relationship with David's colleague Maria Connor (Samia Longchambon), clash with Rana's brother Imran Habeeb (Charlie De Melo) over the circumstances behind his sister's death, become enemies with ex-girlfriend Sarah's boyfriend Adam Barlow (Sam Robertson) after growing jealous of their newfound romance, develop a feud with Maria's love interest Ali Neeson (James Burrows), hospitalise Ali's brother Ryan (Ryan Prescott) after beating him up for unintentionally stealing his money and blackmail his own client Derek Milligan (Craige Els) into taking part in his scheme to invest the factory - which ultimately sparked the event of Derek instigating a lethal Christmas siege that culminates in his own death, though not after accidentally killing Ali's stepfather Robert Preston (Tristan Gemmill) and shooting David's wife Shona Platt (Julia Goulding) in the resulting impact.