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| Birth Name(s) : Paul Mackenzie Crook |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
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Partner:
Lindsay Crook |
| Profession:
N/A |
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Full Mackenzie Crook Biography
Paul Mackenzie Crook (born September 29, 1971) is an English actor best known for playing Gareth Keenan in The Office and Ragetti in Pirates of the Caribbean.
Crook was born in Maidstone, Kent, England, and grew up in Dartford. His father, Michael Crook, worked for British Airways and his mother, Sheila, was a hospital manager. He has two sisters. As a child he collected Star Wars figurines and would venture to ponds collecting amphibians which he would often take home and store in his room. When he was ten years old, he had to go on a course of growth hormones for a year due to a hormone deficiency. He went to Wilmington Grammar School for Boys, and did his first plays there.
He joined the Orchard Youth Theatre in Dartford when he was about fifteen and gained his inspiration for acting. In the summers he spent time with his uncle in Zimbabwe where he developed a love for painting and grew with an ambition to be a graphic artist. As an adolescent he even copied a painting of The Soul Of A Rose, by John William Waterhouse, on to the back of his biker's jacket and commissioned painting the album cover from Meat Loaf's Bat out of Hell on a former manager's jacket. He also greatly admired Kurt Cobain, grew his hair long and pursued starting a heavy metal band, but dropped it after deciding his voice wasn't suited for it. When he was eighteen he applied to the Kent Institute of Art & Design but failed to secure a place. He spent some time in part time jobs then turned to writing comedy sketches. He is left-handed.
Crook began his career as a standup comedian alongside Iain Lee for about eight years, in the guise of Charlie Cheese, "the cheeky chirpy chappy from Chorley". They appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the mid-90's as Chalk and Cheese. He had also often performed as a grotesque schoolteacher called Mr. Bagshaw, who is said to be based on obnoxious teachers he was tutored by while in school. Crook's first major television role was as a comedy sketch contributor on Channel 4's The Eleven O'Clock Show in 1998. He was later a member of the main cast of the BBC sketch show TV to Go in 2001. From 2001 to 2003 he played the role of Gareth Keenan in the popular mockumentary The Office. He appeared in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006), and in Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End (2007), as Ragetti, a pirate with a comically ill-fitting wooden eye. He has appeared in ads for Visa and M&Ms (as his Ragetti character in both).Mackenzie as Ragetti in Pirates of The Caribbean
He also appeared as Launcelot Gobbo in Michael Radford's 2004 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. Crook played a minor role in the 2004 film Finding Neverland as a theatre usher. Other films he starred in include The Gathering (2002), The Sex Lives of The Potato Men (2004), Churchill: The Hollywood Years (2004), and The Brothers Grimm (2005). He has also featured in an advert for MTV and another advert for Film Four.
Crook has starred in three of Tim Plester and Ben Gregor's short films: as Gary Tibbs in Ant Muzak (2002), as Servalan in Blake's Junction 7 (2004), and as Glorious George in World of Wrestling (2006). All three will be released on DVD in late 2007. He has also voiced in a television series called Modern Toss and has featured in I Want Candy (2007 film) as Mr Dulberg, a quirky University Professor. He has also performed a duet with Ricky Gervais in the Concert for Diana.
He has also voiced a main character called Rolli in an animated film from Finland called Quest For A Heart, due in December, 2007. Next Mackenzie will feature in Wyndham Price's drama Abraham's Point as Comet Snape and appear in City of Ember as Looper.
He played Billy Bibbit in the 2004 London West End production of the stage play of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and in 2006 The Exonerated at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. This year he featured in a production of The Seagull at the Royal Court Theatre as the troubled writer Konstantin.
Crook has said that his other ambitions would be to draw and write and he has recently made a deal with the book publisher Faber to illustrate and write two children's books, one about a boy who finds something strange in his garden after the hurricane of 1987. Crook has also written a film script and shown it to director Sam Mendes, about a group of gangsters in 18th century London in which he hopes to play the lead.
Crook lives in Muswell Hill, North London in Peter Sellers' old semi-detached house with his wife, Lindsay (married in April 2001), and his four-year-old son, Jude (born on 17 January 2003). His hobbies include gardening and breeding fish. He has said he and his wife are very passionate about the environment and have been maintaining an organic lifestyle. |
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