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Robert Llewellyn
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Robert Llewellyn (born 10 March 1956 in Northampton, England) is an English actor, presenter, and writer. He is best known for his roles as presenter of Scrapheap Challenge, and as the android Kryten in the hit sitcom Red Dwarf.
Robert's first foray into the world of show business started out as a hobby. He was part of a comedy group called The Joeys, with Bernie Evans, Nigel Ordishand and Graham Allum. The group toured the UK and Europe in the early 1980s.
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Encyclopedia
Robert Llewellyn (born 10 March 1956 in Northampton, England) is an English actor, presenter, and writer. He is best known for his roles as presenter of Scrapheap Challenge, and as the android Kryten in the hit sitcom Red Dwarf.
Robert's first foray into the world of show business started out as a hobby. He was part of a comedy group called The Joeys, with Bernie Evans, Nigel Ordishand and Graham Allum. The group toured the UK and Europe in the early 1980s. Llewellyn wrote much of the material, and also began writing novels. The group split in 1985, having toured for years and done thousands of shows.
Robert's big break came when he was seen at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, performing in his new comedy, Mammon, Robot Born Of Woman. The story is about a robot who, as he became more human, began to behave increasingly badly. This was seen by Paul Jackson, producer of Red Dwarf, and he was invited to audition for the role of Kryten. His skills as a physical performer encouraged Rob Grant and Doug Naylor to write him additional characters for the series, namely The Data Doctor ("Back in the Red"), Human Kryten ("DNA") and Able ("Beyond A Joke"). Llewellyn co-wrote the Red Dwarf Series VII episode "Beyond A Joke" with Doug Naylor. He was the only British cast member originally to participate in the American version of Red Dwarf, though other actors such as Craig Charles and Chris Barrie were also approached to reprise their roles.
In 1997, Llewellyn provided the voice of Feeble for The Feeble Files.
Llewellyn has presented a number of programmes for UK television. His first outing as presenter was on Scrapheap Challenge produced by Channel 4; the series sees teams of engineers competing to build machines to complete a given task from materials scavenged from a scrapheap. His other presenting roles include a version of Discovery Channel's How Do They Do It? and Hollywood Science, the latter of which is a joint production between the BBC and the Open University.
Llewellyn also recently played the role of the perplexed 'Gryphon' in the film MirrorMask (2005). He has described himself as "very much a 'don't want to do it now' kind of person" (Dwarfing USA documentary, Red Dwarf V DVD).
On 24 August 2008 Robert Llewellyn attended a special briefing session in Seattle Washington at KCTS 9 PBS and confirmed to a small select briefing of fans that just before he left the UK for this visit, the BBC had confirmed that a one hour new episode with all the original cast had been commissioned with filming to start in October 2008. Robert Llewellyn went on to confirm that the cast had all been informed previously that "something had been in the works" but that they had to keep silent until the BBC confirmed all the details. Fan reaction at the event was extremely enthusiastic and a DVD of the interview will be made available at some future point by KCTS 9 PBS.
Llewellyn is also the author of nine books, including Sold Out! and Therapy And How To Avoid It with Nigel Planer and four novels:
- The Man On Platform 5 (1998);
- Punchbag (1999);
- Sudden Wealth (2000);
- Brother Nature (2001).
On February 10, 2009 Llewellyn was featured as a guest on the popular technology related podcast MacBreak Weekly with Leo Laporte (episode 127). Llewellyn's project it2i2, was released on DVD in March 2006. Since 2006 he has had a YouTube video blog called "Llewtube". His latest book "Sold Out: How I Survived a Year of Not Shopping" - based on his YouTube series "Making Do" - was published in October 2008.
Llewellyn's wife Judy Pascoe, starred alongside him in the Red Dwarf Episode Camille, playing female android, Camille.
Recently, Llewellyn has starred in the CBBC show MI High as the Prime Minister, and become the presenter of Top Trumps.
Robert is currently reviewing the world of science and technology in his popular Machine of the Week report (The MoWer)
Publications
- The Man in the Rubber Mask - Llewellyn's personal account of his career with Red Dwarf. Penguin Books Ltd (16 May 1994), ISBN 0-14023-575-2
- a regular video podcast in which Llewellyn interviews other celebrities whilst driving a car
External links
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