User:Ellerdch/Raymond Griffiths
Raymond Griffiths born in Hull. Short Actor
(Acondroplasia)
This is how his story begins.
Whilst on a trip to London he was walking down the Kings Road when a guy on roller skates stopped him and asked him how tall he was. He happened to be the casting director for Willow and if he was interested he could be in the film the very next day.
When he finished filming he returned to Hull and enrolled in the Northern Theatre School. At the end of his course he was in a play called Auto-de-FE.
Raymond Griffiths stared in his first pantomime Snow white and the Seven Dwarfs with the great Marti Caine at the Cambridge Arts Theatre. He has not looked back since, travelling all over the world including the Belfast Opera House and a tour of Holland for which he had to learn Dutch as part of Soezie.
Having made his debut in George Lucas Willow he was lucky to also appear in Star Wars “The Phantom Menace 1” as a gonk droid and stand-in for Sebulba and Annakin Skywalker. Filming took place at Levesden Studios and the Sahara Dessert in temperatures of 140 degrees.
Other films he has appeared in are The Visitors, The Tenth Kingdom, Two of the Harry Potter movies “The Philosophers Stone” ( where he played a goblin in Gringotts bank) and The Prisoner of Azkaban (in Hogmeads Choir), Nine Dead Gay Guys and his latest Death Defying Acts with Catherine Zeta Jones.
The Cronicles of Narnia was his first television appearance for childrens programmes with Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader followed by Through the Dragons Eye, Grange Hill and co-presenting Hullabaloo with Floella Benjamin as Ted Bear and Billy Bobkin in Jamboree. Within the last year he has worked with Sir David Jason in a new Terry Pratchett adaptation called The Colour of Magic for Sky TV.
Other shows include Mr Make It for CBeebies, Moon and Son, TFI Friday, The Priory, Casualty, Where we Live Now for BBC1, Lock Stock The Series for Channel 4, numerous appearances on the Big Breakfast including the New Years Eve Party for 2000, working with Harry Hill, TV Meltdown and also Boosh Parker for BBC3 , A BBC1 Christmas Special Johnathan Creek Satins Chimney in which his character Raymond the man from the world of shadows was a prominent part.
Raymond Griffiths has done various one offs including an advertisement for MTV, appearing on Comic Relief and a live performance with Spinal Tap at the newly opened Wembley Stadium for Live Earth. He was also a model for a bespoke miller Justin Smith Esq and also presented the Fashion of the Year Awards in Holland. He has worked promoting the Irish Lottery, & Co for Martell, Fishing for Sega games , advertising car speakers for Revs Magazine, Beauty products for Enhance Technology, entertaining at Kensington Palace, playing in Jimmy Carrs football team for Soccer Six and appearing with Al Murry in the Secrect Policemans Ball
His geatest achievement was to see himself on a billboard in Leicester Square and in many magazines for the Levis 'Sta-Press' advertisement. He also worked with The Russian Kirov Opera Company in their production of War and Peace as Napoleon at the Covent Garden Opera House and also with the English National Opera Company in two of their productions The Masked Ball and St Johns Passion at the Coliseum.
"MOM" was the word every Saturday Morning on CITV's Ministry of Mayhem with "Raymondo" in "Ram Ray" as everyone shouted at their TV's "Go on Ray" & "Ram It". He enjoyed working with various artists such as Ricky Gervaise, McFly and Girls Aloud.
He then started the new "Holly & Stephens Saturday Showdown" were he had "Rays' Tiny Tiddlers" and also back by popular demand "Ram Ray".
He has also teamed up with fellow presenter Stephen Mulhern for a summer tour at Butlins in a show called Mega Magic and his show "Tricky" which is in it's second series.
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