Simon Pegg
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Simon Pegg
Pegg with Spaced co-star Jessica Hynes in the background, 2008
Born	Simon John Beckingham 14 February 1970 (1970-02-14) (age 38) Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England
Other name(s)	Dr. Russel Fell / The Fresh Pegg
Occupation	Actor, Comedian, Writer, Producer, Singer, Film director
Years active	1995-present
Spouse(s)	Maureen McCann (2005-present)
Awards won Other awards Bram Stoker Award - Screenplay 2005 Shaun of the Dead - Shaun British Independent Film Award - Best Screenplay 2004 Shaun of the Dead - Shaun Peter Sellers Award for Comedy 2005 Shaun of the Dead - Shaun National Movie Award - Best Comedy 2007 Hot Fuzz - Sgt. Nicholas Angel

Simon Pegg (born Simon John Beckingham; 14 February 1970) is an award-winning English actor, comedian, writer, producer, stand-up comedian, and director. He is best known for his starring roles in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, and for the sitcom Spaced. Much of his major work has been in collaboration with some combination of Nick Frost, Jessica Hynes, Dylan Moran and Edgar Wright. Pegg has a close friendship 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 Pegg's permission, he quickly became a fan of the title, and even wrote the introduction to the first bound volume).^[1]

Biography

Early life

Pegg was born Simon John Beckingham in Gloucester, Gloucestershire, 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 and he took on the surname "Pegg" after his mother re-married.^[3][4] He attended many schools including Dene Magna Secondary School and 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".^[4]

Career

In 1993 he moved to London and performed on the stand-up comedy circuit. In 1995 he took his acclaimed one-man show to the Edinburgh Festival, which led 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 book 2000 AD and featured in Guest House Paradiso, a film based on the sitcom Bottom.

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.^[5] 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 attends the premiere of Run, Fat Boy, Run

In 2007, Pegg starred in The Good Night (directed by Jake Paltrow) and Run, Fat Boy, Run directed by David Schwimmer and co-starring Thandie Newton and Hank Azaria.

Pegg confirmed in an interview on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross that he will be co-writing and starring in another film with Frost. The title will be Paul, and will revolve around Pegg and Frost road tripping across America.^{citation needed} Pegg also announced that he and Wright had the idea for "the concluding part in what we are calling our 'Blood and Ice Cream' trilogy" (the first two being Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz). It is provisionally called The World Ends.^[6] The trilogy has also been referred to by Pegg and Wright as their 'Three Flavours Cornetto' trilogy. Each film in this trilogy features characters eating a Cornetto ice cream and the flavour generally represents an aspect of the film: Shaun of Dead uses strawberry (red package to signify blood), Hot Fuzz featured a blue package, signifying police officers, and The World Ends, a science-fiction spoof, is rumored to feature mint green package, signifying aliens.^{citation needed}

In those movies and in Spaced, Pegg typically plays the leading hero while Frost plays the sidekick. However, he has revealed that Paul, an upcoming film written by Pegg and Frost will reverse this dynamic. Pegg has also stated that Wright will not direct, Paul not being part of their 'Blood and Ice Cream' trilogy.^[7] The completed script appeared on the 2008 Brit List, a film-industry-compiled list of the best unproduced screenplays. Paul received two votes.^[8]

Pegg will play the part of engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in a new film adaptation of Star Trek,^[9] now due to be released May 8, 2009.

Personal life

Pegg in NYC

Pegg married Maureen McCann on 23 July 2005 in Glasgow. Nick Frost was the best man. Along with Jonny Buckland, Pegg is godfather to close friends Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow's daughter, Apple.^[10] Pegg's parents and sister briefly appeared in Spaced while his mother alone appeared in both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

His favourite film is The Empire Strikes Back, and his favourite television shows are Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The X-Files.^[11]

Television credits

Filmography

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Simon Pegg

• Peggster.net
• Run, Fat Boy, Run Official Trailer
• Simon Pegg at the Internet Movie Database
• Simon Pegg article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
• Mark Kermode's review of Hot Fuzz on BBC Radio Five Live - includes Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright interview
• BBC Radio Gloucestershire interview with Simon and John Beckingham (his father) - from the set of "Run Fat Boy Run"