Eddie Izzard

Eddie Izzard (born 7.2.1962)

Eddie Izzard is a British comedian and actor. He is known for his transvestism and he often dresses in women's clothes and wears make-up for his stand-up shows.

Eddie Izzard: Childhood

Eddie Izzard was born in Yemen, to Dorothy and Harold Izzard. His mother was a nurse and his father an accountant. At the time of Eddie's birth, his father was working for BP.

The Izzard family then moved to Bangor in Northern Ireland. When Eddie was six, his mother died of cancer. Eddie's brother Mark was eight at the time.

Eddie Izzard was educated at St. Bede's Preparatory School and Eastbourne College. He then attended Sheffield University, where he began performing as a stand-up comic. When he was ejected from his accountancy degree, he began working on his stand-up routines in earnest, as a means of earning a living.

Eddie Izzard: Career

Eddie Izzard began his career as a street performer in the US and Europe. He later returned to the UK and began performing in venues such as The Comedy Store where his popularity grew throughout the 1980s and 1990s. His rambling, stream-of-consciousness style has often been compared to the Monty Python comedians. He is also known for his impressions, often using the voice of James Mason to portray God as an inadequate figure of authority, or the use of Sean Connery's voice to portray the Biblical figure of Noah.

In 1993, Izzard won a British Comedy Award for his Live at the Ambassadors show. The next year, he performed as part of 'Filth', which was a fundraiser for the Terence Higgins Trust, involving a group of left-wing comedians.

In 1996, Izzard won another British Comedy Award for his Definite Article show, which he toured around the UK and overseas. The following year, he produced a surreal sitcom for Channel 4 entitled Cows. The show was a live-action sitcom, with actors dressed up in cow suits.

Despite a successful run in New York with Definite Article, it was not until his Dress To Kill show came about that Eddie Izzard really became a success in the United States. The Dress To Kill show was shown n the popular HBO channel and the increase in his public stature and popularity earned him two Emmy Awards in 2000.

Shortly after Dress To Kill was aired, Izzard also played a supporting role in Mystery Men, a comic book adaptation starring Ben Stiller and William H. Macy.

Eddie Izzard was chosen, in 2005, to provide the voiceover for the UK government's recycling campaign. The following year, the US TV network FX commissioned a drama series entitled The Riches, which was co-written by Eddie Izzard. Izzard starred in the drama alongside Minnie Driver.

During the Edinburgh leg of the Live 8 concerts, Eddie Izzard performed onstage with Midge Ure of Ultravox, playing the piano part for 'Vienna'.

Izzard used parts of his Stripped tour in 2008 to mock the self-referential style of Wikipedia and often read articles from the site out loud on his iPhone during the show.

Eddie Izzard has also performed in a number of theatrical plays, including David Mamet's The Cryptogram (alongside Lyndsay Duncan), Christopher Marlowe's Edward II (in which he played the title role), Julian Barry's Lenny Bruce biopic, Lenny (again taking the title role) and also replacing Clive Owen in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, alongside Victoria Hamilton.

Izzard starred in Valkyrie in 2008. He played the role of General Erich Fellgiebel, opposite Tom Cruise's Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg. The film was based on the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler during World War II.

In 2009, Eddie Izzard embarked upon a month-long fundraiser for the Sport Relief charity, in which he ran 30 marathons in 30 days.