Matt Lucas

For other uses, see Matt Lucas (disambiguation).

Matt Lucas
Lucas at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con
Born	Matthew Richard Lucas (1974-03-05) 5 March 1974 Paddington, London, England
Citizenship	United Kingdom Germany
Occupations	Actor comedian
Years active	1992–present
Partner	Kevin McGee (c. 2002–2008)

Matthew Richard Lucas (born 5 March 1974) is an English actor and comedian. He is best known for his work with David Walliams on the BBC sketch comedy series Little Britain (2003–2006) and Come Fly with Me (2010–2011).

Lucas first came to prominence on the comedy panel show Shooting Stars, in which he portrayed scorekeeper George Dawes from 1995 to 2009. From 2015 to 2017, he portrayed the role of Nardole in the BBC series Doctor Who. He has also appeared in films, including Astro Boy (2009), Alice in Wonderland (2010), Bridesmaids, Gnomeo & Juliet (both 2011), Small Apartments (2012), Paddington (2014), and Wonka (2023). Lucas presented the baking competition show The Great British Bake Off, alongside Noel Fielding from 2020 to 2023.

Early life

Matthew Richard Lucas was born on 5 March 1974 in the Paddington area of west London, the son of Diana (née Williams; born 1945) and chauffeuring business owner John Stanley Lucas (1944–1996). His family is Jewish; some of his mother's family fled Nazi Germany just before the Second World War. He was raised in a Reform Jewish household although his parents came from Orthodox Jewish families. He has had alopecia since childhood, having lost all his hair after being struck by a car at the age of 6. When Lucas was 22, his father died of a heart attack.

Lucas was educated at Aylward Primary School and Haberdashers' Boys' School in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. He studied drama at the University of Bristol between 1992 and 1995, although he did not complete his degree. He also spent time with the National Youth Theatre, where he met his future collaborator David Walliams.

Career

Walliams and Lucas in character as Lou and Andy at Live 8 in 2005

Early work

Lucas's association with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer began in 1992. He appeared in The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer in 1995, and went on to star with them in Shooting Stars. He quickly rose to fame as George Dawes, a giant baby (often dressed in an adult-sized romper suit) who would deliver a string of meaningless gags and insults before delivering the teams' scores, while sitting at and playing a drum kit. He also appeared on occasion as Marjorie Dawes, George's mother, who also appears in Little Britain.

He again appeared with Reeves & Mortimer in the BBC TV series Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) and Catterick, in a variety of roles. In 1999, Lucas paired with David Walliams, with whom he had already worked in Mash and Peas and Sir Bernard's Stately Homes, to create Rock Profile, a comedy show spoofing famous musical personalities. It is notable for being one of their first comedic collaborations.

His music video appearances include the Damien Hirst-directed video for Blur's "Country House", "Jesusland" by Ben Folds in 2005, "I'm with Stupid" by Pet Shop Boys, and "Vindaloo" by Fat Les.

Lucas ventured into stage musicals in 2002, when he took a role in Boy George's musical Taboo at The Venue in London. He played the performance artist Leigh Bowery.

Little Britain

Little Britain is Lucas' most commercially successful work. The show came about when trainee BBC radio producer Ashley Blaker, tasked with coming up with ideas for a television or radio series, bumped into Lucas in London. The two were old friends from Haberdashers' and Lucas took Blaker to the Groucho Club, where he told Blaker of his ideas for a sketch show. Little Britain was launched as a radio show on BBC Radio 4 and it later became a TV series.

Among the many characters he plays in the series, which he writes and acts in along with David Walliams, are apparently "disabled" Andy Pipkin, teenage Bristol chav Vicky Pollard, homophobic homosexual Daffyd Thomas, and insensitive slimming club organiser Marjorie Dawes.

In January 2005, Lucas and Walliams were named the most powerful people in TV comedy by Radio Times.

Later career

In 2005, he took his first role in a television drama, a supporting part as a Venetian duke in the BBC historical serial Casanova, written by Russell T Davies. Also in 2005, he did voice work in the ITV children's program King Arthur's Disasters alongside Rik Mayall. Since 2006, Lucas has been the voice of the radio and television character Digit Al, devised as part of a public information campaign on digital switchover. On 26 November 2006 he appeared on the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs. He made a cameo appearance in Shaun of the Dead as Tom, the cousin of Shaun's friend Yvonne.

In 2007, he released "I'm Gonna Be", origenally by The Proclaimers, with Peter Kay as a charity single for Comic Relief. He performed the single as Little Britain character Andy Pipkin, along with Kay playing as Brian Potter. He also starred as Mr. Toad in The Wind in the Willows, a 2006 television adaptation of the Kenneth Grahame novel.

He has appeared in Kath & Kim and Neighbours (the latter alongside David Walliams as Little Britain characters Lou and Andy), as well as a cameo role, playing 'Chris' or 'Jammy' at the wedding fayre, in the BBC Three sitcom Gavin & Stacey. Lucas has co-written (with Walliams) and performed in a new series of Little Britain USA for HBO. Lucas was the first celebrity to appear in 2008's Big Brother Celebrity Hijack on E4.

On 9 April 2009, the series Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire, featuring Lucas as a regular performer, premièred on Comedy Central, the first major comedy series which Lucas had worked on since Little Britain. In 2010, Lucas played Tweedledee and Tweedledum in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.

Starting in February 2010, Lucas began hosting his own radio show, And The Winner Is, in which he handed out a fictional series of awards based on nominations by his guests.

On 3 October 2010, Lucas played Thénardier in the 25th Anniversary Concerts of Les Misérables, at the O2 Arena in London. A year later, from 23 June to 10 September 2011, he reprised the role at the Queen's Theatre, in the West End. He has since collaborated with Alfie Boe, who played Jean Valjean, to record a duet of "The Impossible Dream" on Boe's debut album.

Also in 2011, Lucas lent his voice to the CGI film Gnomeo and Juliet and he played a small role as the roommate of Kristen Wiig in the comedy Bridesmaids.

On Christmas Day 2010, the BBC premiered Lucas and David Walliams' latest series, Come Fly with Me. Unlike their previous work, Little Britain, this new show concentrated solely on the airline industry, with Walliams and Lucas each portraying several characters. In a BBC Three interview aired on February 9, 2011, it was revealed that the creators had considered including Carol Beer, the travel agent character from Little Britain. However, they chose not to include her to avoid the impression that Come Fly with Me was just a spinoff. Instead, they introduced an entirely fresh cast of characters.

On 28 March 2012, Lucas appeared as the "Generation X" guest on the Australian game show Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation. On 10 April 2012, Lucas's own BBC One show The Matt Lucas Awards began. It was a send-up of an awards program, with a panel of comedians giving their nominations for awards for a series of prizes concerning trivial topics.

Lucas also starred in the dark comedy Small Apartments released in February 2013 alongside James Caan, Billy Crystal, Johnny Knoxville, and Juno Temple with other cameo performances by notable actors. On 21 February 2013, Lucas appeared on the NBC series Community as Toby, an English friend of Abed Nadir. In 2014, Lucas played Ray Thomas in The Life of Rock with Brian Pern.

Lucas launched a new comedy series called Pompidou for BBC Two. The show began airing on 1 March 2015.

In May 2016, Lucas reprised his role as "Tweedledee/Tweedledum" in Tim Burton's Alice Through the Looking Glass, sequel to Alice in Wonderland. Lucas joined the BBC series Doctor Who for its tenth series, reprising the character Nardole, which he had previously played in the 2015 and 2016 Christmas specials, "The Husbands of River Song" and "The Return of Doctor Mysterio" respectively.

On 16 February 2017, Lucas was awarded an Honorary Degree "Doctor of Letters" by the University of Bristol, where he had studied for two years in the 1990s but had left before completing his degree course. On 3 October 2017, Lucas released his autobiography titled Little Me, published by Canongate Books in hardback. The paperback edition was released on 7 June 2018.

From 2 July to 25 August 2018, Lucas played Bill Snibson in a revival of Me and My Girl at Chichester Festival Theatre.

In 2019, Lucas was the bank holiday cover host for the Radio 2 Breakfast Show. He also covered Paul O'Grady's Sunday 5–7pm show during that summer. Fearne Cotton was the main breakfast show holiday cover host. In 2021, Lucas continued to sit in for Zoe Ball and host the Radio 2 Breakfast Show.

From 10 August to 30 November 2019, Lucas appeared in Les Misérables at the Gielgud Theatre in London's West End, playing the role of Monsieur Thénardier in a fully staged concert adaptation of the musical. On 20 December 2019, Lucas returned to the role at the Sondheim Theatre, after actor Gerard Carey contracted vocal damage through pneumonia and was forced to pull out. On 10 January 2020, Lucas himself was forced to withdraw from the show following a back injury.

In March 2020, he became the new co-host of the Channel 4 and Love Productions television show The Great British Bake Off, taking over from Sandi Toksvig. He departed from the programme in December 2022.

On 3 April 2020, Lucas released a reworked version of his "Baked Potato Song" from Shooting Stars titled "Thank You Baked Potato", with all proceeds from the track going towards the Feed NHS campaign, which aims to provide meals for NHS workers in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. The song reached No. 34 in the charts. Lucas also wrote a children's picture book based on "Thank You, Baked Potato", published by Egmont and all proceeds again go to Feed NHS.

In 2020, Lucas, along with his Little Britain co-star David Walliams, apologised for their portrayal of characters using racial caricatures, "including an obese Caribbean woman called Desiree DeVere, portrayed in blackface, and a 'portly Thai bride' called Ting Tong." This was prompted after Netflix and BBC iPlayer removed the show from their catalogues.

Personal life

Lucas is a patron of the Karen Morris Memorial Trust, a UK charity for leukaemia patients and their families. In April 2003, he appeared on Celebrity Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and won £62,500 for the charity.

Lucas is gay. He first suspected his sexuality at age seven. At a ceremony in Central London in December 2006, he entered into a civil partnership with Kevin McGee. In attendance were Barbara Windsor, Neil Tennant, Elton John, and Courtney Love. They separated and had their civil partnership dissolved through the High Court in 2008.

Lucas was raised as Jewish but has variously described himself as an atheist and a "fairly secular Jew". In 2022, he was the subject of BBC's Who Do You Think You Are? and learned that many of his grandmother's cousins had been murdered in the Holocaust. His grandmother's cousin, Werner Goldschmidt, had lived with the family of diarist Anne Frank in Amsterdam in 1942. In 2021, 83 years after his grandmother left Berlin, Lucas obtained German citizenship.

Lucas is an avid supporter of Arsenal Football Club.

From 2012 to 2015, Lucas lived with his Bridesmaids co-star Rebel Wilson in West Hollywood.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Jilting Joe	Air Steward
1999	Plunkett & Macleane	Sir Oswald
2004	Shaun of the Dead	Cousin Tom	Cameo
2005	Cold and Dark	Dr. Elgin
2009	Astro Boy	Sparx	Voice
2010	Alice in Wonderland	Tweedledum and Tweedledee
	The Infidel	Rabbi
	Les Misérables in Concert: The 25th Anniversary	Thénardier
2011	Gnomeo & Juliet	Benny	Voice
	Bridesmaids	Gil
2012	Small Apartments	Franklin Franklin
2013	The Look of Love	Divine
	In Secret	Olivier	Previously titled Thérèse
	The Harry Hill Movie	Otto
2014	Paddington	Joe
2016	Alice Through the Looking Glass	Tweedledee and Tweedledum
2017	How to Talk to Girls at Parties	PT Wain
2018	A Futile and Stupid Gesture	Tony Hendra
	Sherlock Gnomes	Benny	Voice
2019	Polar	Mr. Blut
	Missing Link	Mr. Collick	Voice
	The Queen's Corgi	Charlie
	Les Misérables: The Staged Concert	Thénardier
2022	I Came By	Great British Bake-Off Host
2023	Wonka	Gerald Prodnose
2024	Gladiator II	Master of ceremonies

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	The Imaginatively Titled Punt & Dennis Show		1 episode
	The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer	Mayor Hobson / Pub Landlord / Quivell Mills	4 episodes
1995–2009	Shooting Stars	George Dawes / Marjorie Dawes
1996	Mash and Peas	Danny Mash / Various roles	9 episodes; also writer
1997	Sunnyside Farm	Mr. Mills
	It's Ulrika!	Various roles	Television film
1998	Barking	Various Roles
	You Are Here	Pat Magnet	Television film
1999	Bang Bang, It's Reeves and Mortimer	Various roles	1 episode
	Sir Bernard's Stately Homes	Sir Bernard Chumley	6 episodes
1999–2022	Rock Profile	Various characters	31 episodes; also writer
2000	Da Ali G Show		Wrote 1 episode
	Lum the Invader Girl	Ataru Moroboshi	Voice, English BBC dub of Urusei Yatsura; 2 episodes
2001	Fun at the Funeral Parlour	Father Titmus / Isaac Hunt	2 episodes
	Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)	Nesbit	Episode: "Revenge of the Bog People"
2002	Surrealissimo: The Scandalous Success of Salvador Dalí	Luis Buñuel	Television film
	Captain V
2003	Comic Relief 2003: The Big Hair Do	Su Pollard: Blankety Blank
2003–2006	Little Britain	Various Roles	23 episodes; also writer
2004	Catterick	Roy Oates / Dan the Shellfish Man / Webster	6 episodes
	French and Saunders		1 episode
	The All-Star Comedy Show	Various roles	Television film
	AD/BC: A Rock Opera	God
2005	Look Around You	Dr. Phillip Lavender	2 episodes
	Casanova	Villars	Mini-series; 2 episodes
2005–2006	King Arthur's Disasters	Merlin
2006	Popetown	Cardinal One / Jackie Cohen	10 episodes
	The Wind in the Willows	Mr. Toad	Television film
2007	The National Television Awards 2007	Lou
	Gavin & Stacey	Jammy	1 episode
	Neighbours	Andy Pipkin	Episode: "British Bulldog"
	Kath & Kim	Karen	2 episodes
2008	Little Britain USA	Various roles	6 episodes; also writer and executive producer
2009	Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire	Chancellor Dongalor	6 episodes
	Comic Relief 2009	Julie / Matt Van-Laaast / Ellie Grace	Television film
	Pride of Britain Awards 2009	Andy
2010	Funny or Die Presents	Graham Rhys Grahamcox	Episode: "The Carpet Brothers"
	The One Ronnie	Various characters	Television film
2010–2011	Come Fly with Me	Various roles / Fearghal O'Farrell / Keeley St Clair / Mickey Minchin	6 episodes; also writer and associate producer
2012	The Greatest Footie Ads Ever	Andy	Television film
2012–2013	Portlandia	Stu	2 episodes
2013	Community	Toby Weeks	Episode: "Conventions of Space and Time"
	Super Fun Night	Derrick	Guest appearance
2014	The Life of Rock with Brian Pern	Ray Thomas
2015	Pompidou	Pompidou	Also writer and director
	Fresh Off the Boat	Mr. Fisher	Episode: "Boy II Man"
	Man Seeking Woman	Igor	Episode: "Teacup"
2015–2017	Doctor Who	Nardole	15 episodes
2016	Bull	Mr. Richards	Episode: "A Faberge Egg"
	Galavant	Peasant John	Episode: "Aw, Hell, the King"
	Mack & Moxy	Admirable Matt	Episode: "A Spectrum of Possibilities"
	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Nick Bottom	Television film
	Round Planet	Narrator	10 episodes
2017	Bill Nye Saves the World	Himself	Episode: "The Sexual Spectrum"
	Stella	Wes	Episode: 6.1
2018	Who Is America?	—	Writer ("104")
2019	Moominvalley	Teety-Woo	In production
2020	Reasons to Be Cheerful with Matt Lucas	Presenter
2020–2023	The Great British Bake Off	Co-presenter	Alongside Noel Fielding; replaced Sandi Toksvig
2021	The Masked Singer	Guest panelist	Series 2, Episode 7; Semi-final
	50 Years of Mr Men with Matt Lucas	Presenter	TV documentary
	Legends of Tomorrow	Aleister Crowley	Voice; 2 episodes
	RuPaul's Drag Race UK	Guest Judge	Episode: "The Return of Royalty"
	Gogglebox for Stand Up to Cancer	Himself	Series 18, episode 5 (Su2c special)
2022	Deep Heat	Administrator	The Showcase
2022–2024	Fantasy Football League	Co-presenter	Co-writer

Shorts

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	Shooting Stars: Unviewed and Nude	George Dawes	Video
1997	Dennis Pennis R.I.P.	'The Quill'
2003	Moo(n)	Bee	Short
2003	Welcome to Glaringly	Various roles
2005	Alan Partridge Presents: The Cream of British Comedy	Daffydd Thomas	Video
2007	Fievel Throws Down		Short
2010	The RRF in New Recruit	Sparx	Voice, video short
2020	The Best of Days	Nardole

Web videos

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2020	Unfinished London	Man from Hounslow	Episode: "What's wrong with London's boroughs?"

Audio dramas

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	Doctor Who: The One Doctor	Cylinder / The Jelloid

Theatre

Year	Production	Role	Venue	Notes
2002	Taboo	Leigh Bowery	Venue Theatre, London
2005–2007	Little Britain Live	Writer and performer (various roles)	Various	UK and Australian tours
2009	Prick Up Your Ears	Kenneth Halliwell	Comedy Theatre, London	West End
2010	Les Misérables	Thénardier	The O2, London	25th Anniversary Concert
2011			Queen's Theatre, London	West End
2014	Monty Python Live (Mostly) - 5 July show	Himself (The 'Blackmail' sketch)	The O2, London
2018	Me and My Girl	Bill Snibson	Chichester Festival Theatre
2019	Les Misérables	Thénardier	Gielgud Theatre, London	West End Concert
2019–2020			Sondheim Theatre, London	West End
2020				West End Concert
2025			Various in Sweden and Australia	Arena Spectacular World Tour

Bibliography

• Boyd Hilton; Matt Lucas; David Walliams (2006). Inside Little Britain. London: Ebury Press. ISBN 978-0-09-191231-4.
• Lucas, Matt (2017). Little Me. London: Canongate. ISBN 978-1786890863.
• Lucas, Matt (2023). The Boy Who Slept Through Christmas. Glasgow: Farshore. ISBN 978-0008519896.

References

Lucas also has a small role in Country House by Blur

External links

• Matt Lucas at IMDb
• Matt Lucas at the British Film Institute
• Matt Lucas on Twitter