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Peter Kay mini-bio: Best known as a stand up comedian, in 1997 Peter Kay won the "So You Think You're Funny" contest at Edinburgh.
Peter John Kay (born 2 July 1973) is an English comedian, writer, producer, director and actor. His work includes That Peter Kay Thing (2000), Phoenix Nights (2001), Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere (2004), Britain's Got the Pop Factor... (2008) and other independent productions.
Kay was born in Farnworth near Bolton, Lancashire, and attended Mount St Joseph High School, leaving with one GCSE in Art. He took several menial jobs, including working in a toilet roll factory, Netto supermarket, a Cash and Carry, and a Bingo Hall, which later inspired episodes or sequences in That Peter Kay Thing. He began a degree course at the University of Liverpool but was unable to cope with the written work and dropped out. He then attended the University of Salford where he studied for a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Media Performance, which he completed, this involved a stand-up course at which he excelled.
His first stand-up was a competition in Manchester hosted by later co-star and co-writer of Phoenix Nights, Dave Spikey. Kay was last on the bill and won the competition, beating fellow stand-up comedian Johnny Vegas. His earliest appearance was an interview with Granada Television in which he listed the contents of his room, as well as detailing his experience meeting Jimmy Savile.
This would later be used in That Peter Kay Thing in the role of Leonard de Tomkinson. Kay's experience working at the Manchester Evening News Arena inspired him to wear the official yellow jacket of the MEN Arena for the final performance of his Mum Wants a Bungalow tour Kay has said that he sought a career in comedy.
During his time working as a cinema usher, he experimented with stand-up, participating in several local events as well as others at the Comedy Store in Manchester. After losing his job at the cinema, Kay was presented with the choice between finding another menial job or moving into comedy.
After he entered and won Channel 4's So You Think You're Funny contest in 1997, his first' semi-professional stand-up appearances were at the 1998 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where he received a prestigious Perrier Award nomination. During this time, he also appeared at various other clubs such as London's influential Comedy Store and the Barracuda Club in Lincoln.
Although this led to a certain level of public recognition, it was only after his heavily-promoted show Live at the Top of the Tower in 2000 that Kay attained mainstream recognition. During this period, he appeared on several chat shows, such as Parkinson and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, where he had previously been a warm up man Production also began on Phoenix Nights, which was to see him achieve critical acclaim as well as mainstream success.
Subsequent advertisements, for John Smith's Bitter, which imitate the realistic style of Phoenix Nights, saw Kay develop his now much-repeated catchphrases "'ave it!" and "two lamb bhunas".
After a favourable reception to the pilot, That Peter Kay Thing was devised. It was based solely on the experiences of Kay's earlier life working in several menial jobs. The range of characters included Brian Potter, who would go on to become the primary character in Phoenix Nights, and who Kay said was a combination of all his bosses' personalities along with the voice of a man he knows.
The eccentric Leonard de Tomkinson is reputedly based on a real man named Leonard who used to visit Peter during his working time at the local Majestic Garage. Following the series' success, Kay and his co-writers, Neil Fitzmaurice and Dave Spikey, used the episode "In The Club" as the basis for Phoenix Nights.
Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights was his notable TV programme, written by him, Dave Spikey and Neil Fitzmaurice and set in a newly refurbished social club run by wheelchair-bound Brian Potter. The club was based on an episode of That Peter Kay Thing entitled "In The Club".
The cast of Phoenix Nights was made up almost entirely of stand-up comics whom the writers had met on 'the circuit'. The show was an immediate hit. It followed the story of the club and the various events that happened there. Expertly written, much of the humour was somewhat implicit - relying on subtle background clues and hints or paradoxes. The first series was partly filmed at St. Gregory's Social Club in Farnworth, Greater Manchester - where the exterior, hallways and function suite were all used. Other sets, such as the Jocky Wilson suite, were built at Granada Studios. For the second series, all filming took place at St. Gregory's.
Max & Paddy's Road to Nowhere was a spin-off of Phoenix Nights. Featuring the bouncer characters from the show played by Peter Kay and Patrick McGuinness and even featured at times characters from Phoenix Nights. Notably this did not include the characters portrayed by his former co-writers Neil Fitzmaurice or Dave Spikey, the latter's character instead being represented by a body double in brief scenes.
He has also released several DVDs of live performances, including Live at the Top of the Tower, Live at the Bolton Albert Halls, Peter Kay: The Live Collections (the previous two combined) and Peter Kay: Live At Manchester Arena. Kay appeared on stage at the Queen + Paul Rodgers concert at Manchester's MEN Arena (with Patrick McGuinness) and in Hyde Park in 2005 both as himself and in the persona of Brian Potter.
Kay also appeared at the BBC's televised charity event Comic Relief in 2003 and 2005, sharing the stage with Alan Partridge (actor Steve Coogan) in 2003. As part of the 2005 event, on 14 March Kay promoted a re-release of Tony Christie's 1971 hit "(Is This the Way to) Amarillo?". The song had earlier featured in Phoenix Nights, and Kay performed in the accompanying music video. On Sunday, 20 March 2005, the single reached number one in the UK Singles Charts, and stayed there for seven consecutive weeks. In 2007 he released "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)", originally by The Proclaimers, with Matt Lucas for Comic Relief.
| VITAL STATS | | Eye color:blue/grey | | Height: 5' 8½" (1.74 m) | | Nickname(s): | | Notable feature(s): | | Education: Mount St Joseph High School, University of Salford | Family:parents john &
wife susan,son charlie | | Resides in:bolton | | Religious affiliations:c of e | | Political affiliation:labour | | Personal interests/hobbies:stand up comedy,writing, | | Charities/Causes:comic relief | Other:
He worked at the Manchester Evening News Arena in 1996 as a steward. His experiences there were the bases for the episode The Arena which followed a steward around on their first day of work. The episode belongs to the series That Peter Kay Thing
In spite of fronting a number of adverts for beer on British TV he is actually teetotal | | |
