Shaun Williamson

Shaun Williamson
Williamson at an event in 2008
Born	(1965-11-04) 4 November 1965 (age 51) Maidstone, Kent, England
Occupation	Actor, singer, television personality, presenter
Years active	1989–Present
Children	2

Shaun Williamson (born 4 November 1965) is an English actor, singer, media personality, and occasional presenter, best known for his role as Barry Evans in EastEnders and as a satirical version of himself in the BBC/HBO sitcom Extras.

A former student of the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, he is widely known for his portrayal of foolish and hapless Barry Evans in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, a role that he played from 1994 to 2004. This was Williamson's second role in the hit soap; he previously had a brief role as a paramedic earlier in 1994. In 2009, he stated that he had no regrets about leaving the show.

Williamson was third in the 2007 series of Comic Relief does Fame Academy. Before Comic Relief he had won a hit New Zealand singing show representing England.

From 2009 Williamson has played the leading role in Scoop, a children's comedy drama series for the BBC.

In April 2009, Williamson was appearing as Ron Freeman in the Take That musical, Never Forget.

Other television roles have included parts in the detective series Inspector Morse and the BBC sitcom Waiting for God. In 2005 and 2006 he played a comically unemployable version of himself in Ricky Gervais' and Stephen Merchant's BBC sitcom, Extras. He also took part in the Five programme Gender Swap, where he was dressed as a woman and was given a prosthetic makeover before being sent speed dating in his new persona, and presented the short-lived ITV gameshow 24 Hour Quiz. He also appeared in the BBC Three comedy Funland. Shaun also made a guest appearance in ITV 1 show The Bill. He played gang leader Dave Monks, who comes under scrutiny during an international drugs smuggling investigation. The two episodes were aired in August 2008. In 2009 and 2010 he recorded episodes of children's programme Scoop on CBBC (Children's BBC) with Hacker T Dog. He played Martin Fallon in "The Gentleman vanishes", an episode of New Tricks, in 2011, and he again played a fictionalised version of himself in the Gervais/Merchant series Life's Too Short in a recurring role. The series aired in November–December 2011, with an Easter special airing in 2013 to act as a finale in which Williamson again starred (alongside Les Dennis and Keith Chegwin, both of whom had also previously played versions of themselves in Extras).