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Kevin Eldon

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Kevin Eldon

Kevin Eldon ( b. 4 December 1960, Chatham, Kent, England ) is an English stand-up comic and actor. Although he predominantly plays character roles, he has appeared prominently in several of the most critically-acclaimed British comedy television shows of the 1990s, notably Fist of Fun, I'm Alan Partridge, Big Train, Brass Eye and Jam.

Eldon started on the stand-up circuit in the early '90s performing an act in character as the political poet Paul Hamilton, but has also done stand-up as himself on occasions. On the circuit, Eldon formed a friendship with the stand-up comedian Stewart Lee, which would later lead to an invitation to work with Lee on the radio series Lee & Herring's Fist Of Fun with Lee's comedy partner Richard Herring. Lee and Herring would usually refer to him as "The Actor Kevin Eldon", in reference to his claim to be an actor, rather than a comedian.

Eldon's work sat well with that of Lee & Herring, and he continued to work with them on all their projects, including The Lee & Herring Radio Show, Fist of Fun and This Morning With Richard Not Judy, providing a multitude of characters, most notably: the jelly-obsessed False Rod Hull; and Simon Quinlank, the self-proclaimed "king of hobbies", who would always be accompanied by a flask of "weak lemon drink". He also played a version of himself, as The Actor Kevin Eldon. In addition to his Lee & Herring collaborations, he has worked closely with Simon Munnery and Julia Davis.

He has featured in several other comedy projects including Brass Eye, Smack the Pony, Sean Lock's 15 Storeys High, Spaced, Look Around You, Black Books, Big Train, World of Pub, The Sunday Show, Comedy Nation, Cows (ill-fated Eddie Izzard-penned comedy pilot that followed the life of a family of cows), Jam, I Am Not An Animal, I'm Alan Partridge, The Sofa of Time, Attention Scum!, Nighty Night, Green Wing, Jammin', Nathan Barley, Hyperdrive and Saxondale. He has also been seen on the comedy panel show, "Never Mind The Buzzcocks". His guest appearance on Black Books involved him playing the critically appraised role of a creepy cleaner.

He made a guest appearance in a special webcast version of Doctor Who in a story called Death Comes to Time, in which he played Antimony, a companion of the Doctor. He also had a brief role in the 2005 film version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, playing "Man with Dog" alongside his friend and regular on-screen companion Mark Heap who had a similar role.

Kevin has also appeared onstage performing as a spoof member of the German band Kraftwerk for the recorded version of Bill Bailey's Part Troll comedy tour when it was performed in Hammersmith, along with two others (John Moloney and Martin Trenaman). He played the same role in Bailey's 2007 tour Tinselworm.

Eldon has recently starred as First Officer York in two series of the BBC sitcom Hyperdrive. He also played the role of Pete in the David Shrigley/Chris Shepherd animation Who I Am And What I Want, and recently appeared in Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's Cop Comedy Hot Fuzz, as Sergeant Tony Fisher.

Returning to the medium of radio, Kevin Eldon has also written and starred in a series of monologues, collectively entitled Speakers, broadcast on the London art radio station, Resonance FM. The podcasts are available on the station's website. [1] Eldon also features on a CERN podcast and youtube video with Simon Munnery.

In a Sept 2006 interview with www.notbbc.co.uk, Kevin explained that he would soon be recording a 15 minute BBC Radio 4 pilot, with his early character Paul Hamilton presenting a "poetry type programme". Stewart Lee would help script and edit it. This project, entitled "Poets' Tree", appeared on Radio 4 in four parts in April 2008.

In late 2006 Eldon helped organise and produce a short tour and a West End run of Pinter's People at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London (2007). The show was a collection of sketches written by Harold Pinter. Pinter titled the show himself. The show also starred Geraldine McNulty, Bill Bailey and Sally Philips.

Kevin recently took part in a short film by Tim Plester entitled World of Wrestling in which he played Mick McManus a wrestler fans loved to hate. The film has now been released and will be available on 2Entertain DVD in late 2007 alongside its companion films Ant Muzak and Blakes Junction Seven.

Kevin is to play a major role in E4's Charlie Brooker 5-part horror thriller Dead Set in late 2008.

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