Actor Of The Day: SIMON PEGG
SIMON PEGG
What he’s in: STAR TREK coming out in May 8, 2009
His Character: Montgomery “Scotty” Scott
Why we like him:Who doesn’t like Scotty? In the hands of Simon Pegg, he will surely bring welcome comic relief to the movie.
Biography:
Simon Pegg Pegg was born in Gloucester, England, the son of Gillian Rosemary (née Smith), a civil servant, and John Henry Beckingham, a jazz musician and keyboard salesman. He attended many schools including Dene Magna Secondary School and Brockworth Comprehensive Secondary School and later Stratford-upon-Avon College to study English Literature and Performance Studies. Pegg finally studied drama at the University of Bristol and wrote his undergraduate thesis on “A Marxist overview of popular Seventies cinema and hegemonic discourses”.
In 1993 he moved to London and performed on the stand-up comedy circuit. In 1995 he took his acclaimed one-man show to the Edinburgh Festival, which led to his being invited to perform at festivals in Adelaide and Melbourne in Australia and Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in New Zealand, which he did in 1996 and 1997.
His work as a stand up attracted the attention of several TV producers, leading to appearances in Asylum, Six Pairs of Pants, Faith in the Future, Big Train and Hippies. From 1998 to 2004, Pegg regularly featured on BBC Radio 4’s The 99p Challenge. In 1999, he created and co-wrote the Channel 4 sitcom Spaced with Jessica Stevenson. For this project Pegg brought in Nick Frost, his best friend. For his performance in this series, Pegg was nominated for a British Comedy Award as Best Male Comedy Newcomer.
Pegg co-wrote (with Spaced director Edgar Wright) and starred in the “romantic zombie comedy” film (or “RomZomCom”) Shaun of the Dead, released in April 2004. At George A. Romero’s invitation, Pegg and Wright made cameo appearances in Romero’s film, Land of the Dead. In 2004 Pegg also starred in a spin-off of the television show Danger! 50,000 Volts! called Danger! 50,000 Zombies!, in which he played a zombie hunter named Dr. Russel Fell.
In 2006, Pegg and Wright completed their second film, Hot Fuzz, released in February 2007. The film is a police-action movie homage and also stars Nick Frost. Pegg plays Nicholas Angel, a London policeman who is transferred to rural Sandford, where grisly events take place.
In 2007, Pegg starred in The Good Night (directed by Jake Paltrow) and Run, Fat Boy, Run directed by David Schwimmer and co-starring Thandie Newton and Hank Azaria.
Pegg will play the part of engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in a new film adaptation of Star Trek, now due to be released May 8, 2009.
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