Peter Kay's Biography
Comedian, Peter Kay was born on July 2, 1973 in Bolton, England.
Peter Kay left school with one GCSE in art and held various jobs including being a steward at Manchester Arena, a mobile disc jockey, and an usher at Bolton's ABC cinema on Bradshawgate.
Peter Kay initially performed his comedy act in the clubs of the North West, where his experiences provided the inspiration for future characters and situations made famous on his TV shows.
Peter Kay won the 1997 Channel 4 'So You Think You're Funny?' competition for new stand-up talent, and the following year, his show at the Edinburgh Festival was nominated for the Perrier Award.
Peter Kay's success continued, gaining awards for Top Stand Up and Top TV Comedy Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards.
Peter Kay wrote and played five characters in The Services, a spoof documentary set in a motorway service station. He was nominated for the Royal Television Society Award for best actor.
Kay then developed the fake-documentary style into a series, That Peter Kay Thing. As well as writing the series, Peter Kay played fifteen characters.
That Peter Kay Thing was awarded Best New Comedy Series at the British Comedy Awards in 2000. It was followed up with the acclaimed Phoenix Nights.
In Spring 2005 Peter Kay in collaboration with Tony Christie had a huge Number 1 hit with Is This The Way To Amarillo?
In May 2005 Peter Kay came second in Nuts magazine's list of funniest one-liner ever, just behind Homer Simpson, with the line:
"All castles had one major weakness. The enemy used to get in through the gift shop."
The line from Phoenix Nights: "Garlic bread, I've tasted it, it's the future" was voted the ninth funniest catchphrase by UK Gold viewers.
Peter Kay's autobiography The Sound of Laughter sold a massive 600,000 copies in its first two months and was nominated for book of the year and biography of the year at the Galaxy British Book Awards.
After writing in his autobiography how much he liked The Producers, Peter Kay was given the part of Roger DeBris in the Manchester leg of the UK tour of the production.
In August 2008, Channel 4 announced that Peter Kay had written, directed and was starring in Britain's Got The Pop Factor And Possibly A New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly On Ice to be broadcast in the autumn.
In October 2008, Peter Kay released Sales of The Winner's Song.
It was sung by Peter Kay in the guise of Geraldine McQueen, an overweight transsexual from Northern Ireland who won the spoof talent show, Britain’s Got the Pop Factor and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice.
In November 2008, Peter Kay was voted the UK's favourite comedian in an online poll for the bank Smile. He was chosen by 63% of the 3,000 adults polled.
