COMEDIAN

Born on August 29 1958 in Dudley, West Midlands to a Jamaican family, Lenworth George Henry shot to fame in 1975 aged just 17. After doing impressions to amuse his classmates as a child, Lenny won a place on the tv talent show 'New Faces', doing a Frank Spencer impersonation which lead to him winning that night. It would be safe to say that this appearance was the start to his long career in television.

Lenny was then offered numerous contracts including those he took up, The Fosters and Tiswas (1975). From there he joined the touring 'Black and White Minstrel Show' alongside 'blacked up' whites. After 5 years he left, admitting "I'd like to do anything else rather than that" and went on to star and write alongside Tracey Ullman in 'Three of a Kind' (1981), through which Lenny first met TV producer Paul Jackson who introduced him to the Comic Strip team.

He met Dawn French in 1982 and approached her to write in his latest venture 'OTT'. She snubbed him, saying that it takes her at least 6 months to write a sketch, and she didn't have the time. At the same time, Dawn thought that Lenny was rather 'loud and revolting' and 'showbizzy', who snobbishly believed that the only interesting people were in the entertainment industry. She didn't like the racial elements to his early stand up routines either, as he often told racist jokes to his predominantly white audiences. He'd wipe sweat from his forehead saying it tasted like chocolate, and threaten to move next door to hecklers if they didn't shut up, for example. Needless to say, they were both left with unpleasant opinions of each other.

Despite this, they later started seeing more of each other and found that they had a lot more in common than they first realised. They were engaged in 1983 before marrying a year later, on October 20 at St Paul's Church. There was a gospel choir of sixty, and among those attending were Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, Chris Tarrant, Tracey Ullman and Robbie Coltrane.

Meanwhile his comedy career was just as successful. He hosted the pilot 'Saturday Night Live' in 1985 which starred French and Saunders as well as Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmonson. Later that year he performed at the Edinburgh Festival and starred in the second series of 'The Lenny Henry Show'.

Lenny's impression of Steve Martin in 'Lenny, Live and Unleashed' led to interest in his comedy from across the Atlantic, and he was offered a three film deal for £1.75m from Disney which began with the film 'True Identity'. The film flopped at the box office and Lenny's contract was subsequently terminated.

Lenny spends a lot of his time helping young, black comedians start their careers, particularly through his production company Crucial Films. After creating the series 'Chef' he encouraged the producers to hire more black workers on set, and as a result the programme is made with many black crew members.




In 1992 Lenny and his wife Dawn French adopted a child, Billie.

Lenny Henry has recently won a Royal Television Society Silver Award medal for Outstanding contributions to multi-ethnic programming in the UK, through his production company Crucial Films.

Lenny Henry has worked on a great deal of charity projects, doing shows for Amnesty International, the Ethiopian Famine Appeal and Comic Relief. Lenny has worked for Comic Relief for almost 15 years, and is now a key member of their fundraising team. He has also been involved with helping those suffering from Sickle Cell Anaemia, opening the Lenny Henry Sickle Cell Clinic at King's college Hospital, London in 1989.

Lenny continues to go from strength to strength

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