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Simon Pegg

Simon John Pegg (born 14 February 1970) is an award-winning English actor, comedian, writer, producer, singer, stand-up comedian, and director.

He is best known for his starring 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 close friends with American actor David Schwimmer. The two have worked together in Band of Brothers, Big Nothing and Run, Fat Boy, Run. His likeness was also used for the character of Wee Hughie in the comic book series The Boys (while this was done without permission from Pegg, Pegg quickly became a fan of the title, and even wrote the introduction to the first bound volume).

Pegg was born as Simon John Beckingham in Gloucester, England, the son of Gillian Rosemary (née Smith), a civil servant, and John Henry Beckingham, a jazz musician and keyboard salesman.[2] His parents divorced when he was seven.[3] He attended Brockworth Comprehensive Secondary School and later Stratford Upon Avon College to study English Literature and Performance Studies. Pegg finally studied drama at the University of Bristol and wrote his undergraduate thesis on "A Marxist overview of popular Seventies cinema and hegemonic discourses".

In 1993 he moved to London and gigged on the stand-up comedy circuit. In 1995 he took his acclaimed one man show to the Edinburgh Festival, which lead to his being invited to perform at festivals in Adelaide and Melbourne in Australia and Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in New Zealand, which he did in 1996 and 1997. His work as a stand up attracted the attention of several TV producers, leading to appearances 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 Stevenson. For this project Pegg brought in Nick 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 (or "RomZomCom") Shaun of the Dead, released in April 2004. At George A. Romero's invitation, Pegg and Wright made cameo appearances in Romero's 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.

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 and featured in Guest House Paradiso, a film based on the sitcom Bottom, where he played a guest at Richie and Eddie's hotel.

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.

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 Mission: Impossible III!" He then promptly went on to do just that, playing Benji Dunn, an I.M.F. technician who assists Tom Cruise's character, Ethan Hunt.[4] 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 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.[7] Pegg's parents and sister briefly appeared in Spaced while his mother alone appeared in both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. He is a supporter of Chelsea F.C.