Ricky Grover

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Ricky Grover
Born
Rickie Joseph Grover

(1961-12-24) 24 December 1961 (age 62)
West Ham, east London, England
Occupation(s)Actor, Comedian

Rickie Joseph Grover[1] (born 24 December 1961[2]) is an English actor and comedian. His stepfather was an armed robber and his mother a hairdresser.[3] His first cousin is Jimmy Doherty. Grover became a ladies' hairdresser and a champion boxer,[3] with the nickname Ricky 'Goodnight' Grover due to his big punching power. He then become a stand-up comedian, actor and occasional television presenter. He is best known for his role as Andrew Cotton in EastEnders. Grover is dyslexic and could not read or write until his early thirties.

Career

Born in West Ham, East London, Grover has appeared in television programmes including Red Dwarf,[3] Fist of Fun, 'Orrible,[4] The 11 O'Clock Show,[3] Honky Sausages and Black Books. He also provided the voice acting for the character of Yangus in the English language version of the PlayStation 2 game Dragon Quest VIII.

His 1996 short film Punch won the Silver Bear Award[4] at the Berlin International Film Festival.[5]

In 1998 he featured in the music video for the England song Vindaloo by "Fat Les".

In 2000, he won the Best Actor award at the Brest European Short Film Festival for his performance in Hungry (1998)[6] One of his most regular characters is "Bulla", a violent offender who originally featured on The 11 O'Clock Show and was interviewed by Michael Parkinson. Other fans of Bulla include, Ray Winstone, Dizzee Rascal, Jools Holland and Jamie Oliver. He had a guest appearance in Top Buzzer. In 2011 he starred and co-wrote the feature-length film Big Fat Gypsy Gangster with his wife, Maria Grover.

Since July 2003, Grover has written a column, "Raging Bulla", for the monthly magazine Loaded. He has also appeared as a bandit in a Virgin Mobile advert.

In 2006, Grover presented the documentary F*** Off I'm Fat as part of BBC Three's first "Body Image" season. In 2007 he presented a peak-time Tonight With Trevor McDonald report on obesity and a BBC Two episode of Grandad's Back in Business in which he mentored two stand-up comedians.

Since July 2009 he has played the part of Matron Hilary Loftus in the BAFTA award winning BBC Four medical 'docu-sitcom' Getting On, directed by Peter Capaldi. He had a role in the vampire film Dead Cert (directed by Steven Lawson)[7] and in the horror drama Tony (directed by Gerard Johnson).[8][9] which was released in UK cinemas on 5 February 2010[10][11]

Ricky Grover also had a role in an episode of Not Going Out in 2011, playing a drug dealing butcher. An article in The Sun newspaper on 11 June 2011 confirmed that Grover had joined the BBC soap EastEnders [12]

On 25 February 2015, in response to a fan's request for comment, Grover confirmed on Twitter that he was reprising the role of Yangus in the upcoming videogame Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below.[13]

Filmography

Video game roles

Books

  • Sit-Down Comedy (contributor to anthology, ed Malcolm Hardee & John Fleming) Ebury Press/Random House, 2003. ISBN 0-09-188924-3.

References

  1. ^ http://www.endole.co.uk/profile/1968225/ricky-joseph-grover
  2. ^ "Ricky Grover". IMDb. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d "Scotsman, 11th August 2002". Retrieved 16 April 2008.
  4. ^ a b "BBC website, 18th September 2002". Retrieved 16 April 2008.
  5. ^ "Phuket Gazette, 25 January 2008". Retrieved 16 April 2008.
  6. ^ "IMDB list of awards for Hungry". Retrieved 23 September 2007.
  7. ^ More cast, new poster for vampire film DEAD CERT Archived 12 October 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ "Tony Sneaks into Slamdance 2010". Dread Central. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  9. ^ Slamdance '10: 'Tony' Makes Friends the Gruesome Way
  10. ^ First Stills from Revolver Entertainment's 'Tony'
  11. ^ "Images Surface for Serial Killer Flick Tony". Dread Central. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  12. ^ "Taken for a ride, Shirley?". The Sun. London.
  13. ^ "Ricky Grover on Twitter: "@yellowmage correct blimey yes!"". 25 February 2015. Retrieved 16 May 2015.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ricky_Grover&oldid=753115138"