Matthew Kelly
| Matthew Allan Kelly | |
|---|---|
| Born |
David Allan Kelly 9 May 1950 Urmston, Lancashire, England |
| Education | Manchester Metropolitan School of Theatre |
| Occupation | Actor, presenter |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Television |
Game for a Laugh (co-Presenter, 1981-85) You Bet! (Presenter, 1991-95) Stars In Their Eyes (Presenter, 1993–04) After They Were Famous (Narrator, 1999-05) |
| Spouse(s) | Sarah Kelly (? - present) (separated) |
| Children | 2 |
Matthew Kelly (born David Allan Kelly, 9 May 1950) is an English Olivier-award winning actor and presenter. Having been trained as a theatre actor, he first came to public prominence as a television presenter of ITV light entertainment shows such as Game for a Laugh, You Bet! and Stars in Their Eyes. In the 2000s he returned to acting, appearing in several West End productions, while also acting in some television roles.
Kelly was born in Urmston, Lancashire. As a child, he lived on Primrose Avenue in the town and became interested in acting when at the Urmston Musical Theatre, most notably playing the role of Louis in a production of The King and I in 1963. He continues to be President of the theatre group.
After 1961, Kelly went to Urmston Grammar School. He trained as an actor at the Manchester Metropolitan School of Theatre (formerly Manchester Polytechnic) and joined in a theatre group which included Julie Walters and Pete Postlethwaite. After graduation, he made his professional debut at the Pavilion Theatre in Rhyl. After this debut he appeared regularly at Liverpool's Everyman Theatre. He is a former member of the Workers' Revolutionary Party.
Kelly's first major TV appearances were as a panellist in the gameshow Punchlines hosted by Lennie Bennett, (1980–1984) (ITV) and in the ITV sitcom Holding The Fort (1980–1982) but he became famous as part of the original team on Game for a Laugh for the same producers and network. For the next 14 years his work centred on light entertainment shows such as Kellys Eye (TVS sketch show 1985), You Bet! (LWT/ITV) (1991–1995) and, most notably, Stars in Their Eyes (Granada/ITV), which he took over from Leslie Crowther – at first temporarily after Crowther had suffered serious head injuries in a car crash in October 1992. However, it later became apparent that Crowther would not be able to return and Kelly remained with the show until March 2004. Simultaneously, he was narrator for the ITV series After They Were Famous from 1999-2005. He was also the first Children's ITV presenter and continued to act occasionally, notably in the Channel 4 comedy Relative Strangers, and in the theatre production of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
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