Mackenzie Crook
 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. |
Mackenzie Crook | |
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| File:McCook.JPG | |
| Born | Paul Mackenzie Crook |
| Years active | 1996 - present |
| Spouse | Lindsay Crook |
Paul Mackenzie Crook (born September 29, 1971) is an English actor, comedian, and environmentalist, best known for playing Gareth Keenan in The Office and Ragetti in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.
Biography
Early life
Crook was born in Maidstone, Kent, England, and grew up in Dartford. His father, Michael Alan Crook, worked for British Airways and his mother, Sheila, was a hospital manager and teacher. He has two sisters. As a child he collected stamps, Toby jugs and Star Wars figurines and would venture to ponds collecting amphibians and vegetation which he would often take home, store in his room, and paint. One of his schoolteachers once described him as "A small, quiet child with a great interest in the natural world". When he was ten years old, he was put on a course of hormone therapy for a year due to a growth hormone deficiency. He went to Wilmington Grammar School for Boys, and did his first seven plays there.
He joined the Orchard Youth Theatre in Dartford when he was about fifteen years old and gained his inspiration for acting and song. In the summers he spent time with his uncle at his farm in Northern Zimbabwe where he developed a love for basketball and painting and grew with an ambition to be a graphic artist. As an adolescent he copied a painting of The Soul Of A Rose, by John William Waterhouse, onto his bedroom wall and the back of his biker's jacket and commissioned a painting of the album cover from Meat Loaf's Bat out of Hell on a former manager's jacket. He also greatly admired Kurt Cobain, grew his hair long, grew a beard, wore ripped jeans and an earring and started a heavy metal band called Up and Over, but dropped it after deciding his voice was too high, even though his keybaord and guitar performances earned him critical acclaim. Even as a teenager he was still small for his age due to his growth hormone deficiency; accessing pubs and adult-rated films with his friends and family was a difficult task as he was often not believed to be over sixteen or eighteen years old.
When he was eighteen he applied to the Kent Institute of Art & Design three times but failed to secure a place on each attempt. He spent a while doing part-time jobs in a publishers, a library, a hospital, a fruit stall, a chicken factory, a brewery, a florist, a Chimney Sweep, Halfords and Pizza Hut before he turned to environmentalism and writing comedy sketches.
Film and TV roles
In 1996 near the beginning of his acting career his first 2 short films were called The Man who Fell in Love with a Traffic Cone! and The Crayon, the Cabbage and the Smelly Shirt. There is very little information on these films. Crook began his career as a standup comedian alongside Iain Lee for about eight years, in the guise of Charlie Cheese, "the cheeky chirpy chappy from Chorley". They appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the mid-90's as Chalk and Cheese. He had also often performed as a grotesque schoolteacher called Mr. Bagshaw, who is said to be based on a variety of obnoxious, overbearing teachers he was tutored by while in school. Crook's first major television role was as a comedy sketch contributor on Channel 4's The Eleven O'Clock Show in 1998. He was later a member of the main cast of the BBC sketch show TV to Go in 2001. From 2001 to 2003 he played the role of Gareth Keenan in the popular mockumentary The Office, the role earned him two nominations.[1]
He appeared in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006), and in Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End (2007), as Ragetti, a pirate with a comically ill-fitting wooden eye. He has appeared in ads for Visa, the Green Party and M&Ms (as his Ragetti character in all 3). He has also featured in an advert for MTV, Film Four, and another he narrated for the motor insurance company Green Flag in 2007.
He also appeared as Launcelot Gobbo in Michael Radford's 2004 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. Crook played a minor role in the 2004 film Finding Neverland as a theatre usher. Other films he has appeared in include The Gathering (2002), Sex Lives of the Potato Men (2004), Churchill: The Hollywood Years (2004), and The Brothers Grimm (2005).
Crook has starred in three of Tim Plester and Ben Gregor's short films: as Gary Tibbs in Ant Muzak (2002), as Servalan in Blake's Junction 7 (2004), and as Glorious George in World of Wrestling (2006). All three of these films have been released on DVD. He has also voiced in a television series called Modern Toss and has featured in I Want Candy (2007 film) as Mr Dulberg, a quirky University Professor. He has also performed a duet with Ricky Gervais in the Concert for Diana.
He has also voiced a main character called Rolli Bobbler in an animated film from Finland called Quest For A Heart. Later this year Mackenzie will feature in Wyndham Price's drama Abraham's Point as Comet Snape and appeared in City of Ember as Looper, and will also be featured in the upcoming documentary Tattoos: A Scarred History (2009). He has featured on Big Brother Celebrity Hijack. On TV, he is currently appearing in an ITV drama "Demons" (originally called "The Last Van Helsing") as a vampire named Dr. Gladiolus Hadilus Tradius Thrip. Also at the moment he plays gangster boss, Johnny White in the new series of Skins.
He played the leading role of Paul Callow in the British comedy Three and Out released on April 25, 2008. On 10th May 2008 he appeared in an episode of the BBC1 comedy/drama "Love Soup" playing the character Marty Cady and featured in an episode of Andrew Davies' 2008 BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit. He also provides his voice and movements to a character in Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, which began filming in January 2009 and will be released in 2011.[2]
In January 2009, Crook featured in the second and third episodes of the third series of the E4 hit teen cult drama Skins. In the show Crook played psychotic Bristol gangster Johnny White.
Theatre and other work
Crook made his directorial debut with a pop video for the London electro band Paw Paw. The stop motion animation video accompanies the band's debut single 'Wired OK', released on July 16, 2007 on Albino Recordings. The video has been posted on Paw Paw's myspace page - PawPawMusic
He played Billy Bibbit in the 2004 London West End production of the stage play of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and in 2006 The Exonerated at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. In February/March 2007 he was featured in a production of The Seagull (for which he earned a nomination from The Evening Standard Theatre Awards[3]) at the Royal Court Theatre as the troubled writer Konstantin. He has just finished the Broadway run of The Seagull at the Walter Kerr Theatre.
Crook appeared as a postman in the music video for Paul McCartney's single "Dance Tonight" alongside Golden Globe award-winning actress Natalie Portman. The video for the song was directed by Michel Gondry and was posted exclusively on YouTube on May 22, 2007.
Crook has said that his other ambitions would be to draw, dance, write, sing and further encourage vegetarianism and protection of the environment. He has made a deal with the book publisher Faber to illustrate and write a children's book. His first one, Fairy Tale is due for release in October 2009. His second book will be Ragetti's Secret Diary which will also be released in 2009.
Personal life
Crook lives in North London suburb Highgate in Peter Sellers' former semi-detached house with his wife, Lindsay, a former chef and advertising executive (they married in April 2001), his son, Jude Michael Crook (born on January 17, 2003), and his daughter, Scout Elizabeth Crook (born on December 24, 2007). His hobbies include songwriting, yoga, jigsaws, gardening, reading, gathering mushrooms and also breeding fish and tortoises. He has said he and his wife are very passionate about the environment, have been maintaining an organic vegan lifestyle, and plan to establish their own recycling plants both near Stonehenge and on the Isle of Wight. He has written several articles about the importance of curbing the use of plastic carrier bags.
He also owns 8 acres (32,000 m2) of woodland and heath in Essex.
In 2008 he expressed his dislike for the popular BBC Two programmes Top Gear and The Hairy Bikers for "peddling a dangerous attitude towards the earth" and has spoken in favour of the UK public smoking ban.
References
- ^ Mackenzie Crook - Awards
- ^ Jay A. Fernandez, Borys Kit (2009-01-27). "Daniel Craig to star in "Tintin"". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
- ^ Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2007: the longlist| Theatre | This is London
External links
- Mackenzie Crook at IMDb
- Mackenzie's official website
- Times Online Interview (2008)
- Daily Mail Interview (2008)
- Daily Mail Interview (2007)
- Guardian Unlimited Interview (2007)
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