Profile of Stewart Lee on Famous Like Me

Stewart Lee (born April 5, 1968) is a British comedian, writer and director probably best known for being one half of the 1990s comedy duo Lee and Herring and for co-writing and directing the hugely successful stage show Jerry Springer - The Opera. He grew up in Solihull in the West Midlands, where he attended Solihull School.

Professional Work

He wrote and performed comedy at Oxford University in the 1980's in a revue group called The Seven Raymonds with Richard Herring, Emma Kennedy Michael Cosgrave and Tim Richardson.

With Herring, Lee wrote material for Chris Morris's On the Hour (1991). In 1992 and 1993, he and Herring wrote and performed Lionel Nimrod's Inexplicable World for BBC Radio 4. For BBC Radio 1, they wrote and performed one series of Fist of Fun (1993), then three series of shows mixing sketches with live links and music in a more conventional Radio 1 format (1994-1995).

Fist of Fun moved to television for two BBC 2 series, and was followed in 1997 by This Morning With Richard Not Judy, in a similar vein but notable for being broadcast live in a Sunday morning slot. A change in BBC management after the second series of the latter effectively brought his partnership with Herring to an end (at least, for the time being). Throughout the late nineties he has collaborated with Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding of the Mighty Boosh. He helped at their first show, and directed many of their subsequent shows.

In 2001, Lee published his first novel, The Perfect Fool.

In 2002 Lee played the role of Carey in the Doctor Who Webcast Real Time, together with Richard Herring as Renchard and Colin Baker as the Doctor.

Since cordially ending his informal partnership with Herring, Lee has directed Attention Scum! for Simon Munnery and the BBC, worked as a script editor for Harry Hill as well as for Al Murray's sitcom Time Gentlemen Please, performed one-man shows, and written music review columns for the Sunday Times. In Spring 2001 he joined composer Richard Thomas's project Jerry Springer - The Opera as co-writer/director. Notoriously he said that the co-writer Richard Thomas brought "knowledge of Jerry Springer, and knowledge of Opera. And I brought ... ignorance."

Returning to stand-up in 2004 at the Edinburgh fringe festival he won a Tapwater Award, and followed this with his 2005 show Stewart Lee - 90s Comedian.

Stewart Lee is noted for his diverse musical taste. He once said that the only band he liked that anyone else has heard of was REM. He has also written music reviews for The Sunday Times since 1995.

Lee is also a regular presenter on Resonance FM 104.4

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