Jon English (26 March 1949 – 9 March 2016) was an English-born Australian singer, songwriter, musician and actor who emigrated to Australia with his parents and three siblings in 1961. He began performing at 16, forming his earliest known band, Zenith, at Cabramatta High School in 1965.

English rose to fame in the 1970s, when he was chosen from over 2,000 applicants for the part of Judas Iscariot in the Australian version of Tim Rice/Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar. Selected by Australian theatre producer Harry M Miller and theatre director Jim Sharman, English starred alongside fellow headliners Trevor White as Jesus Christ and Michele Fawdon as Mary Magdalene. Superstar was staged at Sydney's Capitol Theatre and ran for over 700 shows from 4 May 1972 to February 1974. English later reprised his role of Judas in the 1975 and 1978 productions. 

Following on from this success, English launched his recording career. Collaborating with members of the Superstar chorus band, he recorded his debut solo album Wine Dark Sea, which was released in March 1973.

In 1977 – 1978, English was approached by ATN Seven to take the starring role of convict Jonathan Edward Garrett in Against the Wind, its first Australian miniseries for a number of years. This 13-part historical drama was drawn from real life events and based on painstaking research into official records held in the Mitchell Library, Melbourne's La Trobe Library and the National Library in Canberra. It was filmed at Old Sydney Town (near Gosford), NSW, with a budget of over a million dollars.

Before production commenced, English asked if he and a friend (Mario Millo) could score the soundtrack for the series. Co-written & performed by English, the title song "Six Ribbons" reached No. 5 on the Australian singles charts and the soundtrack peaked at No. 10 on the Australian albums charts.

Against the Wind began screening in October 1978 and was viewed by 2,174,000 people across four cities, becoming the second most popular show on Australia TV that year.