Ricky Grover

Ricky Grover is a British performer, born in the East End of London. His stepfather was an armed robber and his mother a hairdresser.cite web |url=http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/features/Oi-watch-my-show.2351272.jp|title= Scotsman, 11th August 2002| accessdate=2008-04-16] He himself became a ladies' hairdresser and a boxer, before becoming a stand-up comedian, actor and occasional TV presenter.

Career

He has appeared in various television programmes including "Red Dwarf", "Fist of Fun", "'Orrible",cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/southampton/going_out/rickygrover.shtml|title= BBC website, 18th September 2002| accessdate=2008-04-16] "The 11 O'Clock Show", "Honky Sausages" and "Black Books". He also provided the voice acting for the character of Yangus in the English language version of the Playstation 2 game "Dragon Quest VIII".

His 1996 short film "Punch' won the Silver Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.cite web |url=http://www.phuketgazette.com/bulletins/index.asp?Id=1234|title= Phuket Gazette, 25th January 2008| accessdate=2008-04-16]

In 2000, he won the Best Actor award at the Brest European Short Film Festival for his performance in "Hungry" (1998) [cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245161/awards|title=IMDB list of awards for "Hungry" | accessdate=2007-09-23]

One of his most regular characters is "Bulla", a violent offender who originally featured on "The 11 O'Clock Show". Many elements of this character were adapted for the short lived and poorly received" 'Orrible".

Ricky writes a highly popular article for the monthly Loaded (magazine) under the title Raging Bulla; he's been writing for them since July 2003. He has also appeared as a Mexican Bandit in a Virgin Mobile advert.

In 2006, Ricky Grover presented the documentry "F*** Off I'm Fat" as part of BBC Three's first Body Image season. In 2007, on ITV1, he presented a peaktime "Tonight With Trevor McDonald" report on obesity and a BBC Two episode of "Grandad's Back in Business" in which he mentored two stand-up comedians.

Filmography

*"Punch" (1996)
*"Bring Me the Head of Mavis Davis" (1997)
*"Hungry" (1998)
*"Love, Honour and Obey" (2000)
*"Revolver" (2005)
*"Cargo" (2006)

References

Books

* "Sit-Down Comedy" (contributor to anthology, ed Malcolm Hardee & John Fleming) Ebury Press/Random House, 2003. ISBN 0-09-188924-3.

External links

*imdb name|id=0344038
* [http://www.rickygrover.com Ricky Grover's website]
*http://www.mirthcontrol.org.uk/artist-ricky-grover.htm
*http://www.bullasworld.com Ricky's alias' website