Peter Kay's Biography

Who is Peter Kay?

Peter Kay was born on July 2, 1973 in Bolton, England.

He 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.

He 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.

His 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.

On 20 November 2009, Peter Kay confirmed that he will be performing his first live stand-up shows in nearly seven years in April 2010 at Manchester's MEN Arena.

In December 2011, Peter Kay became the first British comedian to sell more than 10 million DVDs.

In 2016, he won a National Television Award for his comedy drama Peter Kay's Car Share, which won a BAFTA for Best Scripted Comedy with Peter Kay winning the award for Best Male Performance in a Comedy,

On 1 June 2016, the BBC announced that they had commissioned a second series of Peter Kay’s Car Share.

In November 2017, it was revealed that Peter Kay was going to tour the UK for the first time in 8 years.

However, in December 2017 he announced that his work projects including the tour were to be cancelled 'due to unforeseen family circumstances.'

In February 2020, Peter Kay revealed that he was making a comeback with some live charity shows.

In November 2022, it was announced that Peter Kay was doing his first tour for 12 years.

The BBC reported that Peter Kay was moved to tears when he was given a standing ovation at the start of his first tour for 12 years.

In February 2024, it was reported that Peter Kay would be headlining at the opening night of the new 23,500-seater Co-op Live arena in Manchester on 23 April.

Trivia
In 2010 Peter Kay took the record for the biggest-selling comedy tour after performing to 1.2 million people.

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