Mackenzie Crook
| Mackenzie Crook | |
|---|---|
Crook in 2009
|
|
| Born |
Paul James Crook 29 September 1971 Maidstone, Kent, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Actor, writer, director, comedian |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Spouse(s) | Lindsay Crook (m. 2001) |
| Children | 2 |
Paul James "Mackenzie" Crook (born 29 September 1971) is an English actor, director, comedian and BAFTA-winning writer. He is best known for playing Gareth Keenan in The Office, Ragetti in the Pirates of the Caribbean films, and Orell in the HBO series Game of Thrones, and is the creator and star of BBC Four's Detectorists.
Crook was born in Maidstone, Kent. He grew up in Dartford, Kent. He was raised by Michael Crook, a British Airways employee, and Sheila Crook, a hospital manager. As a child, he was put on a course of hormone therapy for three years due to a growth hormone deficiency. In the summers, he spent time at his uncle's tobacco farm in northern Zimbabwe, where he developed his love for painting.
He has also performed, both on stage and in the Channel 4 sketch show Barking, as a grotesque schoolteacher called Mr Bagshaw who is said to be based on a variety of obnoxious, overbearing science teachers he was taught by while in school.
He was offered his first major television role as a comedy sketch contributor on Channel 4's The Eleven O'Clock Show in 1998, from which Crook was later dropped. He was later a member of the main cast of the BBC sketch show TV to Go in 2001.
In late 1999 he hosted the short-lived ITV1 show Comedy Café in the guise of his Charlie Cheese character. The show made by Channel X for ITV1 had Charlie Cheese interviewing various celebrities about their latest live tour, book, album or film release. In 2001, he auditioned for the role of Gareth Keenan in Ricky Gervais/Stephen Merchant popular mockumentary The Office. Written originally for a larger, thuggish actor, Crook won the role and by the end of the series in 2003 had earned himself two BAFTA nominations.
...
Wikipedia