Johnny Vegas | |||
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Johnny Vegas backstage at the filming of an episode of QI in 2007
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Birth name | Michael Joseph Pennington | ||
Born |
St. Helens, England |
5 September 1970 ||
Medium | Stand up, television, film | ||
Years active | 1997–present | ||
Spouse | Catherine Donnelly (m. 2002–2008; divorced) Maia Dunphy (m. 2011) |
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Children | 2 | ||
Website | Official website | ||
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Michael Joseph Pennington, Sr, better known as Johnny Vegas (born 5 September 1970), is an English actor and comedian, known for his angry rants, surreal humour, portly figure and high husky voice.
His television roles have included playing Al in the ITV Digital adverts, drug dealer Moz in the BBC black comedy Ideal, Geoff Maltby in the ITV comedy series Benidorm and Eric Agnew in the BBC sitcom Still Open All Hours.
Vegas was born in Thatto Heath, St. Helens, Lancashire, the youngest of four children of Laurence and Patricia Pennington. He has two older brothers (Robert and Mark) and an older sister (Catharine). He was brought up as a Roman Catholic. At the age of eleven, he attended St Joseph's College in Upholland, a Roman Catholic boarding-school seminary, to train for the priesthood, but came back homesick after four terms. He also attended West Park School, Alder Hey Road, St Helens.
After studying art and ceramics at Middlesex University for three years and gaining a third class degree, Vegas returned to Thatto Heath and took various short-term jobs including working in an Argos warehouse, selling boiler insurance door-to-door and packing bottles of Jif in a factory, before eventually becoming a barman at the Brown Edge pub in Thatto Heath.
Between 1994 and 1997, he was a member of Cluub Zarathustra, a comedy performance group led by Stewart Lee, Roger Mann and Simon Munnery.