SIMON PEGG

'Simon John Pegg' (born 14 February 1970 in Gloucester) is an English comedian, writer and film and television actor. He has also performed stand-up comedy.
He is known for his title roles in ''Shaun of the Dead'' and ''Hot Fuzz'', and for the British sitcom ''Spaced''. Much of his major work has been in collaboration with some combination of Nick Frost, Jessica Hynes, Dylan Moran and Edgar Wright.
Simon is also close friends with American Comedian David Schwimmer.
The two have worked together in ''Band of Brothers'', ''Big Nothing'' and newly released comedy ''Run, Fat Boy, Run''.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Career

Personal life

Television credits

Filmography

Trivia

References

External links

Biography

Early life

Pegg was born in Gloucester, England. His father was a jazz musician/keyboard salesman; his parents divorced when he was seven.^[1] He attended Stratford Upon Avon College to study English Lit and Performance Studies. Pegg later studied drama at the University of Bristol and wrote his undergraduate thesis on "A Marxist overview of popular Seventies cinema and hegemonic discourses".

Career

In 1993 he moved to London and gigged on the stand-up comedy circuit before breaking into television comedy in ''Asylum'', ''Six Pairs of Pants'', ''Faith in the Future'', ''Big Train'' and ''Hippies''. From 1998 to 2004, Pegg regularly featured on BBC Radio 4's ''The 99p Challenge''. In 1999, he created and co-wrote the Channel 4 sitcom ''Spaced'' with Jessica Hynes. For this project Pegg brought in Frost, his best friend. For his performance in this series, Pegg was nominated for a British Comedy Award as Best Male Comedy Newcomer. Pegg co-wrote (with ''Spaced'' director Edgar Wright) and starred in the "romantic zombie comedy" film ''Shaun of the Dead'', released in April 2004. At George A. Romero's invitation, Pegg and Wright made cameo appearances in Romero's latest zombie film, ''Land of the Dead''. In 2004 Pegg also starred in a spin-off of the television show ''Danger! 50,000 Volts!'' called ''Danger! 50,000 Zombies!'', in which he played a Zombie Hunter named Dr Russel Fell.

As the Editor in the ''Doctor Who'' episode "The Long Game"

Pegg's other credits include the World War II miniseries ''Band of Brothers'', guest appearances on ''Black Books'', ''Brass Eye Special'', ''I'm Alan Partridge'' , ''The Parole Officer'' and in the Factory Records story ''24 Hour Party People''. He also played the mutant bounty hunter Johnny Alpha, the Strontium Dog, in a series of Big Finish Productions audio plays based on the character from British comic ''2000 AD''.
Pegg appeared in the Big Finish Productions ''Doctor Who'' audio story ''Invaders From Mars'' as Don Chaney, and portrayed the Editor in the 2005 ''Doctor Who'' episode "The Long Game". He also narrated the first series of the documentary series ''Doctor Who Confidential''.
Pegg auditioned for a part in the romantic comedy ''Love Actually'', but the role eventually went to Rowan Atkinson. Upon completion of ''Shaun of the Dead'', Pegg was questioned on whether he would be abandoning the British film industry for bigger and better things, to which he replied "It's not like I'm going to run off and do ''!" which he then promptly went on to do, playing Benji Dunn, an I.M.F. technician who assists Tom Cruise's character, Ethan Hunt.^[2] In 2006 he played an American character, Gus, in ''Big Nothing'' alongside David Schwimmer.
In 2006, Pegg and Wright completed their second film, ''Hot Fuzz'', released in February 2007. The film is a police-action movie homage and also stars Nick Frost. Pegg plays Nicholas Angel, a London policeman who is transferred to rural Sandford, where grisly events take place.
Pegg is to appear in ''The Good Night'' and has finished filming ''Run, Fat Boy, Run'' directed by David Schwimmer and co-starring Thandie Newton and Hank Azaria.

Personal life

Pegg married Maureen McCann on 23 July 2005 in Glasgow. Nick Frost was the best man. Pegg is godfather to Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow's daughter, Apple. Pegg's mother, father and sister briefly appeared in ''Spaced''.

Television credits

★ ''Faith in the Future'' (1995) TV Series - Jools

★ ''Asylum'' (1996) TV Series - Simon

★ ''I'm Alan Partridge''

★ ''We Know Where You Live'' (1997) TV Series - Various Roles^[3]

★ ''Is It Bill Bailey?'' (1998) TV Series - Various Roles

★ ''Big Train'' (1998, 2002) TV Series - Various Roles

★ ''Spaced'' (1999, 2001) TV Series - Tim Bisley

★ ''Hippies'' (1999) TV Series - Ray Purbbs

★ ''Jam'' (2000) - Radio and TV series - Various roles

★ ''Band of Brothers'' (2001) Mini Series - 1st Sgt. William Evans

★ ''Brass Eye Special'' (2001) - Gerard Chote

★ ''Look Around You'' (2002) - Sleeping guard in episode "Maths", Toothpaste Guy

★ ''Black Books'' (2004) TV Series - Evan

★ ''I Am Not An Animal'' (2004) TV Series - Kieron the cat

★ ''Derren Brown'' (2005) TV Series

★ ''Doctor Who'' (2005) - The Editor in episode "The Long Game"

★ ''Top Gear'' (2007) Star in a reasonably priced car (Time - 1:48.5)

★ ''Mind Control with Derren Brown'' (2007) as Himself in the episode "Receptive Children",Pegg was the subject of the episode's final trick in which Brown correctly guessed what Pegg wanted for his birthday; which was a BMX Bicycle.

★ ''This Morning'' (2007) - Interview

★ ''Channel 4 News at Noon'' (2007) - Interview

★ ''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross'' (2007) - Interview

★ ''Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway'' (2007) - Celebrity voiceover

Filmography

★ ''Guest House Paradiso'' (1999) - Mr Nice

★ ''The Parole Officer'' (2001) - Deflated Husband

★ ''Band of Brothers'' (2001) - First Sergeant William Evans

★ ''Shaun of the Dead'' (2004) - Shaun

★ ''The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse'' (2005) - Peter Cow

★ ''Land of the Dead'' (2005) - Photo Booth Zombie

★ '' (2006) - Benji Dunn

★ ''Big Nothing'' (2006) - Gus

★ ''Free Jimmy'' (2006) - Geir

★ ''Grindhouse'' - segment ''Don't'' (2007)

★ ''The Good Night'' (2007) - Paul

★ ''Hot Fuzz'' (2007) - Nicholas Angel

★ ''Run, Fat Boy, Run'' (2007) - Dennis

★ ''Diary of the Dead'' (2007) -Voice-over Cameo

★ ''How to Lose Friends and Alienate People'' (2008) - Sidney Young

★ ''Paul'' (announced) (2008) - (co-written with Nick Frost)

Trivia

★ A character named 'Hugh Campbell' nicknamed "Wee Hughie" from the comic book series The Boys was intentionally modeled in the likeness of Simon Pegg.

References

1. http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,,2005313,00.html
2. A fair cop observer.co.uk
3. We Know Where You Live

External links

★

★ Peggster(dot)net

★ Mark Kermode's review of Hot Fuzz on BBC Radio Five Live - includes Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright interview

★ http://www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire/content/articles/2007/02/21/rockley_with_simon_pegg_feature.shtml BBC Radio Gloucestershire interview with Simon and John Beckingham (his father) - from the set of "Run Fat Boy Run"]

★ Vid of premiere 3rd Sept 2007