Lenny Henry

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Lenny Henry during a performance of The Comedy of Errors 2011

Sir Lenworth "Lenny" George Henry , CBE (born August 29, 1958 in Dudley , West Midlands ) is a British comedian , actor and presenter . He is one of the two founders of the Comic Relief charity .

Life

Training and professional activity

Lenny Henry, son of Jamaican immigrants, grew up with his parents and six siblings in his native Dudley. There he attended various schools and completed his school career at what is now Preston's College in Preston .

He made his first television appearance in 1975 at the age of 17 on the talent show New Faces , which he won with an imitation of Stevie Wonder . This was followed by various smaller engagements in television series, such as The Fosters and Tiswas , as well as first work in the comedy sector . This includes the program Three of a Kind . Henry proved himself as a stand-up comedian and had his own broadcast on BBC Radio 1 for three years . In 1984 he married the comedian Dawn French , with whom he had worked from 1980. The couple adopted a daughter (* 1991). In the same year the broadcast of the comedy show The Lenny Henry Show began , which lasted until 1988 and was reissued in 1995 and again from 2003 to 2005. With Lenny Henry in Pieces , which was awarded a Golden Rose in 2001, Henry was seen in a similar format from 2000 to 2003. From 1992 to 1996, he gained further fame for his role of a choleric chef in the sitcom Chef! . He had his first role in a drama in June 1999 in the BBC series Hope and Glory , which was discontinued in November 2000 after three seasons with a total of 16 episodes.

Since the 2000s, Lenny Henry has been increasingly active as a voice actor. He had a small supporting role in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in 2004 as a talking shrunken head . This was followed by roles in the films Penelope , The Pirates! - Bunch of weird guys and Postman Pat: The Movie . In the British children's series Big & Small , which aired from 2008 to 2011, he spoke both of the leading roles.

Henry graduated from the Open University in 2007 with a bachelor's degree in English literature (honors). He followed this up with a master's degree in screenwriting at Royal Holloway in London , which he graduated with honors. In 2018 he obtained a PhD from Royal Holloway .

In 2009, Henry took on the theater play. In Leeds he played the leading role in Othello and received very good reviews for it. In November 2011 followed an engagement at the Royal National Theater in London in Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors . For this role, too, he received mostly positive reviews. He has been a Chancellor at Birmingham City University since July 2017 .

Meanwhile, Henry and French had divorced in 2010 after 25 years of marriage.

social commitment

Lenny Henry is one of the two founders of the 1985 Comic Relief charity , along with Richard Curtis , based on an idea by Jane Tewson. In 1988 Henry traveled to Ethiopia , from where he hosted the first Red Nose Day . This had over 30 million viewers and was able to acquire 15 million pounds in donations. To this day, Lenny Henry is involved in the activities of Comic Relief, which raised around 1.047 billion pounds (approx. 1.45 billion euros) for aid projects by 2015, especially on Red Nose Day. In 2005 he hosted the Live 8 concert in Edinburgh .

Early on, Lenny Henry advocated greater ethnic diversity on British television. Among other things, he criticized the fact that, although 14.5% of the total British population is made up of people from African, Asian or other ethnic minorities, their share in the British television industry is only 5.4%.

Honors

In 1999 Lenny Henry was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire . Six years later he was honored with a star on the Avenue of Stars in London, which opened in 2005 . On June 12, 2015, Henry was raised to the nobility by Elizabeth II for his artistic and charitable services and has been named Sir since then .

Filmography (selection)

literature

Web links

Commons : Lenny Henry  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Pieces of Sir Lenny Henry , bbc.com, June 12, 2015. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  2. ↑ a b c Where are all the black new faces? , theguardian.com February 11, 2008. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
  3. ↑ Sir Lenny now a doctor as comic legend picks up PhD , belfasttelegraph.co.uk, July 14, 2018. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
  4. ^ Othello with Lenny Henry at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, review , telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  5. ^ First Night: Othello, Quarry Theater, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds , telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  6. ^ First Night , independent.co.uk. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  7. ^ Sir Lenny Henry appointed as Chancellor of Birmingham City University , bcu.ac.uk. Retrieved August 11, 2018.
  8. ↑ Comic Relief raises £ 1bn over 30-year existence , bbc.com. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  9. ^ Lenny Henry: diversity in the TV industry 'is worth fighting for' , theguardian.com, June 20, 2014. Retrieved June 30, 2015.
  10. ↑ Lenny Henry 'chuffed' at knighthood , bbc.co.uk, June 9, 2015. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  11. ↑ Stars light up UK's Walk of Fame , news.bbc.co.uk, September 19, 2005. Accessed June 15, 2015.
  12. ^ Queen's Birthday Honors: Van Morrison knighted , telegraph.co.uk June 12, 2015. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Henry, Lenny
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Henry, Lenworth George (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British comedian, actor and presenter
DATE OF BIRTH August 29, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Dudley , West Midlands , United Kingdom