Lenny Henry

Lenworth George Henry, CBE, better known as Lenny Henry (born 29 August, 1958), is an English entertainer.

Early life

Henry was born in Dudley, West Midlands, the son of parents who migrated to Britain from Jamaica in the 1950s.

He studied at Bluecoat Secondary Modern School, WR Tewson School, and Preston college, and has since obtained a degree in English literature from the Open University. His earliest TV appearance was on the New Faces TV talent show in 1975 where he repeatedly won.The following year he appeared in LWT's sitcom The Fosters alongside Norman Beaton. His formative years were in working men's clubs where his unique act — a young black man impersonating white characters such as Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em Frank Spencer (whom he impersonated on New Faces) —gave him an edge in what were racially divisive times. He also toured for five years as a comic performer with The Black and White Minstrel Show, the only black performer in a troupe where the men all appeared in blackface.

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. Around this time, he met his future wife, Dawn French, who 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 Barry White-a-like), Brixton pirate radio disc jockey DJ Delbert Wilkins and Trevor MacDoughnut (a spoof on Trevor McDonald). His stand-up material, which sold well on LP, owed much to the writing abilities of Kim Fuller.

Henry's TV work started principally with his own self-titled show, which has appeared in variant forms ever since. He was also a part-time member of The Comic Strip.

Recent work

In the early 1990s, Henry was lured to Hollywood to star in the film True Identity, in which his character spent most of the film pretending to be a white person (using make-up, prostheses, and a wig) in order to avoid the mob.

The film was not commercially successful, and it has been claimed that part of the problem could have been that the film's producers (Disney) didn't understand Henry and used him in a project that may have not been suited to his talents. However, in 1991, he starred in a BBC drama along side Robbie Coltrane called Alive and Kicking, in which he played a heroin addict (based on a true story).

Henry is perhaps best known to modern audiences as the choleric chef of the comedic 1990s television series Chef!, or from his 1999 straight-acting lead role in the BBC drama Hope And Glory.

Henry tried his hand at soul singing, appearing, for example, as a back-up singer on Kate Bush's album The Red Shoes (1993) and, backed by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, at Amnesty International's Big 3-0 fund raising concert. He would later say that both moves did not show him at his best and that he felt most comfortable with character comedy. Henry would occasioanlly return to singing, performing in small local venues in the West Midlands. Henry returned to the BBC to do Lenny Henry in Pieces, a character-based comedy sketch show which was followed with The Lenny Henry Show in which he combined stand-up, character sketches and song parodies.

In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy.

Henry is also one of the celebrities most associated with the British Comic Relief charity organisation along with Griff Rhys Jones, and has hosted the show as well as presented filmed reports from overseas on the work of the charity.

He lent his voice to 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 also voices a character on the children's show Little Robots broadcast on Cbeebies.

Henry has also appeared in advertisements for butter products in New Zealand, which were commissioned by the company now known as Fonterra, as well as portraying Saint Peter in the Virgin Mobile advertising campaign in South Africa. In the UK, he used his character of Theophilus P. Wildebeeste to advertised Alpen muesli, and also promoted the non-alcoholic lager, Kaliber.

In 2005, he appeared in Birmingham, as an act for "Jasper Carrott's Rock With Laughter". He appeared alongside performers such as, Bill Bailey, Jasper Carrott, Bonnie Tyler, Bobby Davro and the Lord of the Dance troupe.

Personal life

Henry met his future wife Dawn French on the alternative comedy circuit. The couple married on 20 October, 1984, and have an adopted daughter, Billie. The couple have a home in Reading, Berkshire but have put it on the market in light of their purchase of a home close to Dawn's mother in Fowey, Cornwall

Biography

• Lenny Henry - A Biography, Jonathan Margolis (Orion, 1996)

Filmography

• Lenny Live And Unleashed
• True Identity (1991)
• Alive and Kicking (1991)
• Bernard and the Genie (1991)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

External links

• Lenny Henry website
• Lenny Henry, Comedian: entry at h2g2
• Lenny Henry entry at BFI Screenonline
• Not enough black people in media, says Henry
• BBC Programme Catalogue entry for Lenny Henry
• The Encyclopedia of Television