Reece Shearsmith
Encyclopedia
Reeson "Reece" Shearsmith (born 27 August 1969 in Hull
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...

) is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

 and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

. He is most famous for his work as part of The League of Gentlemen
The League of Gentlemen
The League of Gentlemen are a group of British comedians formed in 1995, best known for their radio and television series.The League of Gentlemen may also refer to:* The League of Gentlemen ,...

along with fellow performers Steve Pemberton
Steve Pemberton
Steve James Pemberton is an English actor, comedian, writer and performer, most famous as a member of The League of Gentlemen along with fellow performers Reece Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss and co-writer Jeremy Dyson.-Early life:...

, Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss is an English actor, screenwriter and novelist. He is best known as a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen, and has both written for and acted in the TV series Doctor Who and Sherlock....

 and co-writer Jeremy Dyson
Jeremy Dyson
Jeremy Dyson is an English screenwriter and, along with Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, a participant in The League of Gentlemen.-Early life:...

.

Early life

Shearsmith studied Drama at Bretton Hall College which was merged with the University of Leeds
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...

 before being sold in 2007. It was at Bretton Hall that Shearsmith met the other 3 members of the League Of Gentlemen: Steve Pemberton
Steve Pemberton
Steve James Pemberton is an English actor, comedian, writer and performer, most famous as a member of The League of Gentlemen along with fellow performers Reece Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss and co-writer Jeremy Dyson.-Early life:...

, Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss is an English actor, screenwriter and novelist. He is best known as a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen, and has both written for and acted in the TV series Doctor Who and Sherlock....

 and Jeremy Dyson
Jeremy Dyson
Jeremy Dyson is an English screenwriter and, along with Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, a participant in The League of Gentlemen.-Early life:...

.

Career

He is best known as a member of the sketch comedy team The League of Gentlemen
The League of Gentlemen
The League of Gentlemen are a group of British comedians formed in 1995, best known for their radio and television series.The League of Gentlemen may also refer to:* The League of Gentlemen ,...

, along with fellow performers Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton, and co-writer Jeremy Dyson, all of whom he met at Bretton Hall drama school in his late teens. The League of Gentlemen initially began as a stage act in 1995, transferred to BBC Radio 4 as On the Town with the League of Gentlemen in 1997 and then arrived on television on BBC Two in 1999. The latter has seen Shearsmith and his colleagues awarded a British Academy Television Award, a Royal Television Society Award and the prestigious Golden Rose of Montreux.

He has appeared in other comedy projects including Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere
Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere
Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere was an award-winning British comedy television show on Channel 4 starring and written by Peter Kay and Patrick McGuinness. All the episodes were also directed by Kay. It began on 12 November 2004 and ran for six 30 minute episodes up until 17 December 2004, with each...

as well as playing the insane villain Tony in the Vic Reeves
Vic Reeves
James Roderick Moir , better known by the stage name Vic Reeves, is an English comedian, best known for his double act with Bob Mortimer . He is known for his surreal and non sequitur sense of humour....

 and Bob Mortimer
Bob Mortimer
Robert "Bob" Renwick Mortimer is an English comedian and actor, who is best known for his double act with Vic Reeves...

 comedy Catterick. He also appeared in two episodes of the award-winning pop-culture comedy Spaced
Spaced
Spaced is a British television sitcom written by and starring Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, and directed by Edgar Wright. It is noted for its rapid-fire editing, frequent pop culture references and jokes, eclectic music, and occasional displays of surrealism and non-sequitur humour...

as robot-wars obsessed TA
TA
TA may be an abbreviation for:* EMC TA, an American diesel-powered locomotive* T.A. , 2002 album by the post-rock band Trans Am* T.A...

 soldier Dexter, and played neurotic doctor Flynn in the BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...

 sitcom TLC
TLC (TV series)
TLC was a darkly surreal farce-like sitcom set in a fictional NHS hospital called South Middlesex where coffee is traded like drugs and pretty much everyone has a personality problem. It was first broadcast on the BBC on 11 November 2002 and ran over six episodes until 16 December...

which was written by The Weakest Link
The Weakest Link
The Weakest Link is a television game show which first appeared in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 14 August 2000 and will end its run in 2012 when its host Anne Robinson ends her contract. The original British version of the show airs around the world on BBC Entertainment...

creator Fintan Coyle. His ability for talking 'gibberish' lends itself to playing his more macabre characters like Papa Lazarou
Papa Lazarou
Papa Lazarou is a fictional character in the BBC TV comedy programme The League of Gentlemen.He appeared in two episodes, a Christmas special, and the film The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse. The character is part written by and played by Reece Shearsmith.Papa Lazarou has been listed as both the...

.

From March 2006 to January 2007, he appeared in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

 as Leo Bloom in The Producers
The Producers (musical)
The Producers is a musical adapted by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan from Brooks' 1968 film of the same name, with lyrics written by Brooks and music composed by Brooks and arranged by Glen Kelly and Doug Besterman. As in the film, the story concerns two theatrical producers who scheme to get rich...

.

In the 2008 English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 DVD re-release of the cult 2006 Norwegian animated film Free Jimmy
Free Jimmy
Free Jimmy is a Norwegian/British computer animated feature film first released in Norwegian language in 2006, and later in English language in 2008. The film was written and directed by acclaimed Norwegian subculture comic book artist Christopher Nielsen...

, Shearsmith voiced the character of "Ante", a heavy-set, bizarrely-dressed biker member of the "Lappish Mafia". In this his voice is used along with the other actors of League of Gentlemen such as Steve Pemberton and Mark Gatiss. The dialogue was written by Simon Pegg
Simon Pegg
Simon Pegg is an English actor, comedian, writer, film producer, and director. He is best known for having co-written and stared in various Edgar Wright features, mainly Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the comedy series Spaced.He also portrayed Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the 2009 Star Trek film...

 and other actors included Pegg himself and Woody Harrelson
Woody Harrelson
Woodrow Tracy "Woody" Harrelson is an American actor.Harrelson's breakthrough role came in the television sitcom Cheers as bartender Woody Boyd...

, amongst others.

Psychoville
Psychoville
Psychoville is an award-winning British dark comedy television serial written by and starring The League of Gentlemen members Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton. It debuted on BBC Two on 18 June 2009. Pemberton and Shearsmith each play numerous characters, with Dawn French and Jason Tompkins in...

 aired June 2009 and marked his return to BBC2. It was co-written by Shearsmith and his League of Gentlemen cohort Steve Pemberton
Steve Pemberton
Steve James Pemberton is an English actor, comedian, writer and performer, most famous as a member of The League of Gentlemen along with fellow performers Reece Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss and co-writer Jeremy Dyson.-Early life:...

. Both Shearsmith and Pemberton star in the series and play numerous characters, similarly to the League of Gentlemen. In 2010 Shearsmith appeared in John Landis
John Landis
John David Landis is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer. He is known for his comedies, his horror films, and his music videos with singer Michael Jackson.-Early life and career:...

' black comedy Burke and Hare
Burke and Hare (film)
Burke and Hare is a British black comedy film, loosely based on the Burke and Hare murders. Directed by John Landis, the film stars Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis as William Burke and William Hare respectively. It was Landis's first feature film release in twelve years, the last being 1998's Susan's...

.

In 2010 Shearsmith played the lead character in Ghost Stories
Ghost Stories (play)
Ghost Stories is a play written by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman . It premiered at the Liverpool Playhouse in February 2010 before being transferred for a longer run at the Lyric Hammersmith in London...

, written and directed by fellow league member Jeremy Dyson
Jeremy Dyson
Jeremy Dyson is an English screenwriter and, along with Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, a participant in The League of Gentlemen.-Early life:...

 and magician Andy Nyman
Andy Nyman
Andy Nyman is an English actor and magician.Nyman first came to note with his performance as a hard nosed director in Musical! and then as Keith Whitehead in the cult film of the Martin Amis novel, Dead Babies...

.

In April 2011, Cameron Mackintosh
Cameron Mackintosh
Sir Cameron Anthony Mackintosh is a British theatrical producer notable for his association with many commercially successful musicals. At the height of his success in 1990, he was described as being "the most successful, influential and powerful theatrical producer in the world" by the New York...

's new musical Betty Blue Eyes
Betty Blue Eyes
Betty Blue Eyes was a musical with music by George Stiles, lyrics by Anthony Drewe, and book by Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman. The story was based on the Alan Bennett screenplay, A Private Function, and was set during a celebration of the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip.-...

 opened in the west end, in which he plays downtrodden husband Gilbert Chilvers (a chiropodist) alongside Sarah Lancashire
Sarah Lancashire
Sarah Lancashire is an English actress, probably best recognised for her role as Raquel Watts in Coronation Street. She graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1986.-Television:...

.

In May 2011 Psychoville
Psychoville
Psychoville is an award-winning British dark comedy television serial written by and starring The League of Gentlemen members Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton. It debuted on BBC Two on 18 June 2009. Pemberton and Shearsmith each play numerous characters, with Dawn French and Jason Tompkins in...

 returned to our screens with a second series, where once again he starred beside Steve Pemberton
Steve Pemberton
Steve James Pemberton is an English actor, comedian, writer and performer, most famous as a member of The League of Gentlemen along with fellow performers Reece Shearsmith, Mark Gatiss and co-writer Jeremy Dyson.-Early life:...

 and numerous other names including Imelda Staunton
Imelda Staunton
Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton, OBE is an English actress. She is perhaps best known for her performances in the British comedy television series Up the Garden Path, the Harry Potter film series and Vera Drake...

.

Personal life

He lives in North London
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England. It is an imprecise description and the area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes. Common to these definitions is that it includes districts located north of the River Thames and is used in comparison with South...

 with his wife Jane, whom he married on 14 February 2001 in Islington
Islington
Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...

, and their two children Holly and Danny. Holly appeared in the first episode of the first series of Psychoville
Psychoville
Psychoville is an award-winning British dark comedy television serial written by and starring The League of Gentlemen members Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton. It debuted on BBC Two on 18 June 2009. Pemberton and Shearsmith each play numerous characters, with Dawn French and Jason Tompkins in...

as the little princess whom Mr. Jelly terrorises at her birthday party.

Work

  • 2011 The Function Room: Comedy Showcase
    Comedy Showcase
    Comedy Showcase is a series of one-off comedy specials featuring some of Britain's fledgling comedy talent. Its format is reminiscent of the much earlier Comedy Playhouse....

    - Performer
  • 2011 Squeamish - Narrator
  • 2011 Betty Blue Eyes
    Betty Blue Eyes
    Betty Blue Eyes was a musical with music by George Stiles, lyrics by Anthony Drewe, and book by Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman. The story was based on the Alan Bennett screenplay, A Private Function, and was set during a celebration of the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip.-...

    (The Novello Theatre) - performer
  • 2011 Psychoville
    Psychoville
    Psychoville is an award-winning British dark comedy television serial written by and starring The League of Gentlemen members Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton. It debuted on BBC Two on 18 June 2009. Pemberton and Shearsmith each play numerous characters, with Dawn French and Jason Tompkins in...

    - Writer/Performer
  • 2011 Eric and Ernie
    Eric and Ernie
    Eric and Ernie is a 2011 television film produced by BBC Wales on the early career of the British comic double-act Morecambe and Wise. It completed production in 2010 and premiered on BBC Two on 1 January 2011.-Selected cast:*Bryan Dick - Ernie Wise...

    - performer
  • 2010 Burke and Hare - performer
  • 2009 Comedians
    Comedians
    Comedians are a type of entertainer who tell jokes.Comedians can also refer to:* Comedians , a 1954 film* Comedians , a 1975 play by Trevor Griffiths* The Comedians, a 1940 concert suite by Dmitry Kabalevsky...

    at the Lyric Hammersmith
    Lyric Hammersmith
    The Lyric Theatre, also known as the Lyric Hammersmith, is a theatre on King Street, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, which takes pride in its original, "groundbreaking" productions....

    - performer
  • 2009 Psychoville
    Psychoville
    Psychoville is an award-winning British dark comedy television serial written by and starring The League of Gentlemen members Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton. It debuted on BBC Two on 18 June 2009. Pemberton and Shearsmith each play numerous characters, with Dawn French and Jason Tompkins in...

    - Writer/Performer
  • 2008 Free Jimmy
    Free Jimmy
    Free Jimmy is a Norwegian/British computer animated feature film first released in Norwegian language in 2006, and later in English language in 2008. The film was written and directed by acclaimed Norwegian subculture comic book artist Christopher Nielsen...

    - Ante (voice)
  • 2008 The Common Pursuit at the Menier Chocolate Factory
    Menier Chocolate Factory
    The Menier Chocolate Factory is an award-winning 180 seat fringe studio theatre, restaurant and gallery. It is located in a former 1870s Menier Chocolate Company factory in Southwark Street, a major street in the London Borough of Southwark, central south London, England. The theatre stages plays...

    - performer
  • 2008 The Cottage
    The Cottage
    The Cottage is a 2008 British darkly comic horror film, written and directed by Paul Andrew Williams.-Plot:Two brothers, David and Peter , kidnap Tracey , the stepdaughter of Arnie , an underworld crime boss...

    - performer
  • 2008 Coming Up - Performer
  • 2007 Christmas at the Riveria - performer
  • 2007 Ladies and Gentlemen: Comedy Showcase
    Comedy Showcase
    Comedy Showcase is a series of one-off comedy specials featuring some of Britain's fledgling comedy talent. Its format is reminiscent of the much earlier Comedy Playhouse....

    - Performer
  • 2007 Modern Men - performer
  • 2007 The Abbey - performer
  • 2007 Miss Marple: Ordeal by Innocence
    Marple (TV series)
    Marple is a British television series based on the Miss Marple and other murder mystery novels by Agatha Christie. It is also known as Agatha Christie's Marple. The title character was played by Geraldine McEwan from the first to third series, until her retirement from the role. She was replaced...

    - performer
  • 2006 The Producers
    The Producers (musical)
    The Producers is a musical adapted by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan from Brooks' 1968 film of the same name, with lyrics written by Brooks and music composed by Brooks and arranged by Glen Kelly and Doug Besterman. As in the film, the story concerns two theatrical producers who scheme to get rich...

    (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
    Theatre Royal, Drury Lane
    The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane is a West End theatre in Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster, a borough of London. The building faces Catherine Street and backs onto Drury Lane. The building standing today is the most recent in a line of four theatres at the same location dating back to 1663,...

    ) - performer
  • 2005 The League of Gentlemen Are Behind You (various venues) - writer/performer
  • 2005 Wyndham's Theatre
    Wyndham's Theatre
    Wyndham's Theatre is a West End theatre, one of two opened by the actor/manager Charles Wyndham . Located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, it was designed by W.G.R. Sprague about 1898, the architect of six other London theatres between then and 1916...

     Presents Shakespeare's As You Like It
    As You Like It
    As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...

    - performer
  • 2005 The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse
    The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse
    The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse is a feature film spin-off of the popular British television comedy series The League of Gentlemen. Starring Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, the film was written by the cast with Jeremy Dyson, and directed by Steve Bendelack...

    - writer/performer
  • 2005 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
    The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (film)
    The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a 2005 comic science fiction film based on the book of the same name by Douglas Adams. Shooting was completed in August 2004 and the movie was released on April 28, 2005 in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and on the following day in Canada and the United...

    - voice actor
  • 2004 Max & Paddy's Road to Nowhere - performer
  • 2004 The All Star Comedy Show - performer
  • 2004 Shaun of the Dead
    Shaun of the Dead
    Shaun of the Dead is a 2004 British zombie comedy directed by Edgar Wright, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and written by Pegg and Wright. Pegg plays Shaun, a man attempting to get some kind of focus in his life as he deals with his girlfriend, his mother and stepfather...

    - performer
  • 2004 Catterick - performer
  • 2002 Legend of the Lost Tribe - voice actor
  • 2002 'Art'
    'Art' (play)
    ‘Art’ is a French language play by Yasmina Reza that premiered on 28 October 1994 at Comédie des Champs-Élysées in Paris. The English language adaptation, translated by Christopher Hampton opened in London's West End on 15 October 1996, starring Albert Finney. It played on Broadway in New York...

    (Whitehall Theatre) performer
  • 2002 The League of Gentlemen - The Making Of Series 3 - presenter
  • 2002 TLC
    TLC (TV series)
    TLC was a darkly surreal farce-like sitcom set in a fictional NHS hospital called South Middlesex where coffee is traded like drugs and pretty much everyone has a personality problem. It was first broadcast on the BBC on 11 November 2002 and ran over six episodes until 16 December...

    - actor
  • 2002 The League of Gentlemen, Series 3, writer/performer
  • 2001 A Local Show for Local People (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane) - writer/performer
  • 2001 Birthday Girl
    Birthday Girl
    Birthday Girl is a 2001 British-American drama and crime film directed by Jez Butterworth. The plot focuses on English bank clerk John Buckingham who orders a Russian mail-order bride, Nadia. It becomes clear upon her arrival that Nadia cannot speak English, and early into her stay, two mysterious...

    - actor
  • 2001 Spaced
    Spaced
    Spaced is a British television sitcom written by and starring Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, and directed by Edgar Wright. It is noted for its rapid-fire editing, frequent pop culture references and jokes, eclectic music, and occasional displays of surrealism and non-sequitur humour...

    - performer
  • 2000 The League of Gentlemen - A Local Book For Local People - writer
  • 2000 Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)
    Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)
    Randall and Hopkirk , first transmitted during 1969-70, is a British private detective television series starring Mike Pratt and Kenneth Cope as the private detectives Jeff Randall and Marty Hopkirk, respectively. The series was originally created by Dennis Spooner and produced by Monty Berman...

    - performer
  • 2000 The League of Gentlemen Christmas Special - writer/performer
  • 2000 The League of Gentlemen, Series 2 - writer/performer
  • 2000 A Local Show For Local People - writer/performer
  • 1999 This Year's Love
    This Year's Love
    This Year's Love is the title of a 1999 film set in and around Camden Town in London. It was written and directed by David Kane.-Cast:*Dougray Scott as Cameron*Jennifer Ehle as Sophie*Ian Hart as Liam*Sophie Okonedo as Denise...

    - actor
  • 1999 The League of Gentlemen, Series 1 - writer/performer
  • 1998 Auton2: Sentinel - performer
  • 1998 Lenny Goes to Town - performer
  • 1997 On The Town With The League Of Gentlemen - writer/performer
  • 1997 Auton - performer
  • 1997 Mashman & Peas do U.S. - performer
  • 1997 In the Red - performer
  • 1996 P.R.O.B.E. - The Ghosts of Winterborne - performer
  • 1996 Friday Night Armistice - performer
  • 1995 P.R.O.B.E. - The Devil of Winterborne - performer
  • 1995 The League of Gentlemen stage show - writer/performer
  • Smith & Jones performer

External links

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