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Lenny Henry

Author profile

born

August 29, 1958 in Dudley, Worcestershire, The United Kingdom

gender

male

website

http://www.lennyhenry.com/home/index.aspx

genre

Humor, Children's Books

About this author

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Lenworth George "Lenny" Henry, CBE is an English actor, writer, comedian and occasional television presenter. Henry is known as the choleric chef Gareth Blackstock from the 1990s television comedy series Chef!, or from his 1999 straight-acting lead role in the BBC drama Hope And Glory. He was co-creator with Neil Gaiman and producer of the 1996 BBC drama serial Neverwhere.

His earliest television appearance was on the New Faces talent show, which he won in 1975 with an impersonation of Stevie Wonder. The following year he appeared with Norman Beaton in LWT's sitcom The Fosters, Britain's first comedy series with predominantly black performers. His formative years were spent in working men's clubs, where his act was as a young black man imper...more Lenworth George "Lenny" Henry, CBE is an English actor, writer, comedian and occasional television presenter. Henry is known as the choleric chef Gareth Blackstock from the 1990s television comedy series Chef!, or from his 1999 straight-acting lead role in the BBC drama Hope And Glory. He was co-creator with Neil Gaiman and producer of the 1996 BBC drama serial Neverwhere.

His earliest television appearance was on the New Faces talent show, which he won in 1975 with an impersonation of Stevie Wonder. The following year he appeared with Norman Beaton in LWT's sitcom The Fosters, Britain's first comedy series with predominantly black performers. His formative years were spent in working men's clubs, where his act was as a young black man impersonating white characters such as the Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em character Frank Spencer (whom he impersonated on New Faces). He also made guest appearances on television programmes including Celebrity Squares, Seaside Special and The Ronnie Corbett Show.

He co-hosted the children's programme Tiswas from 1978 until 1981, and subsequently performed and wrote for the show Three of a Kind, with comedians Tracey Ullman and David Copperfield. Also in 1980, he teamed up with The Comic Strip where he met his wife, comedienne Dawn French. She encouraged him to move over to the fledgling alternative comedy scene, where he established a career as a stand-up comedy performer and character comedian. He introduced characters who both mocked and celebrated black British culture, such as Theophilus P. Wildebeeste (a homage to Teddy Pendergrass using the 'TP' initials), Brixton pirate radio disc jockey DJ Delbert Wilkins and Trevor MacDoughnut (a parody of Trevor McDonald). His stand-up material, which sold well on LP, owed much to the writing abilities of Kim Fuller.

The first series of The Lenny Henry Show appeared on the BBC in 1984. The show featured stand up, spoofs like his send up of Michael Jackson's Thriller video, and many of the characters he had developed during Summer Season, including Theophilus P. Wildebeeste and Delbert Wilkins. The Lenny Henry Show ran for a further 20 years in various incarnations.

In the early 1990s, Henry starred in the Hollywood film True Identity, in which his character pretended to be a white person (using make-up, prostheses, and a wig) in order to avoid the mob. The film was not commercially successful.
In 1991, he starred in a BBC drama alongside Robbie Coltrane called Alive and Kicking, in which he played a heroin addict, which was based on a true story.

In 2003, Henry was listed in The Observer as one of the fifty funniest acts in British comedy. In 2004, he was listed in The Sunday Times as the fifteenth funniest black performer of all time. Henry is associated with the British Comic Relief charity organisation, along with his former wife, comedienne Dawn French, and Griff Rhys Jones, and has hosted the show and also presented filmed reports from overseas on the work of the charity.

He was the voice of the "shrunken head" on the Knight Bus in the 2004 movie Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and read the audio book version of Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys.

He was introduced to Shakespeare when he made the 2006 Radio 4 series Lenny and Will. Which saw him going "in search of the magic of Shakespeare in performance." In February 2009 Henry appeared in the Northern Broadsides production of Othello. He received widespread critical acclaim in the role.

Henry graduated in English Literature, (BA Hons), with the Open University in 2007. Henry studied for an MA at Royal Holloway, University of London in screenwriting for television and film, where he received a distinction and where he is now studying for a PhD on the role of black people in the media. Henry was made a CBE in the New Years Honours list in 1998 for his services to comedy drama and Comic Relief.(less)

4 posts
Lenny Henry's Blog

Lenny Henry isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but he does have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from his feed.

CRADLE TO RAVE VS MAGICIANS

It%apos;s really odd when something comes in from the side and knocks you off your trajectory.
I wasn%apos;t supposed to be hosting a magic show on prime time BBC one for the new year... read more »

View more on Lenny Henry's website »

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Published on November 29, 2010 00:00 • 5 views

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combine editions
Books by Lenny Henry

Average rating: 4.05 · 373 ratings · 129 reviews · 7 distinct works

	Lenny Henry's Well-Hard Paperback 3.20 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1989	My rating:
	Jack and the Beanstalk & Other Stories by Lenny Henry, Sheridan Smith 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2009	My rating:
	Three Little Pigs and Other Stories by Lenny Henry, Sheridan Smith 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2009	My rating:
	What a Comic Relief 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1989	My rating:
	The Quest for the Big Woof 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1991	My rating:
	Charlie, Queen of the Desert 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	My rating:
	Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (Goodreads Author), Lenny Henry (Narrator) 3.92 avg rating — 51,816 ratings — published 2005 — 54 editions	My rating:
	Lenny Henry in Shakespeare's Othello: A Full-Cast BBC Radio Drama by William Shakespeare, Lenny Henry (Narrator), Full Cast (Narrator) 3.85 avg rating — 81,860 ratings — published 1622 — 401 editions	My rating:
	Walking Away: A Film Maker's African Journal by Charlotte Metcalf, Gordon Medcalf (Editor), Lenny Henry (Foreword by) 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2003	My rating: