Nigel Planer

Planer's father's Hungarian-Romanian family left Germany in 1933 and settled in Mortlake, London.

He established a company, which pioneered technology in controlled-rate freezers, IVF and stem cell research.

Nigel has two brothers, and attended King's House School in Richmond and Westminster School in central London, where he wrote a satirical play about the school with fellow pupil Stephen Poliakoff.

He began a degree course in African and Asian Studies at the University of Sussex, but dropped out to study acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Planer was a founding member of the London Comedy Store and The Comic Strip – pioneers of the alternative comedy movement in the United Kingdom.

Planer appeared with Peter Richardson as part of the double act "The Outer Limits".

Planer and Richardson also wrote the That's Life! parody on Not the Nine O'Clock News.

Nigel George Planer (born 22 February 1953) is a British actor, writer and musician.

He played Neil in the BBC comedy The Young Ones and Ralph Filthy in Filthy Rich & Catflap.

He has appeared in many West End musicals, including original casts of Evita, Chicago, We Will Rock You, Wicked, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

He has also appeared in Hairspray.

Planer played Den Dennis, one of the four members of the 1980s spoof rock band Bad News, which made two albums produced by Brian May.

The 1981 Show at the Royal Festival Hall, London, and in 2022 in Nicholas Craig's Podcom''.

Planer is also the author of several books, plays, radio plays, and TV scripts as well as a small volume of poetry.

Planer is best known for his role as Neil, the hippie housemate in the BBC comedy The Young Ones, which ran for two series broadcast in 1982 and 1984.

He has starred in The Comic Strip Presents..., a series of short films broadcast from 1982 onwards, on Channel 4.

He won a BRIT award in 1984 and has been nominated for Olivier, TMA, WhatsOnStage and BAFTA awards.

In 1990, he replaced Michael Gambon in Alan Ayckbourn's Man of the Moment in the West End.

Leading roles followed in other productions at the Bush Theatre, the Lyric Theatre, the Traverse, the Young Vic, the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Regent's Park Open-Air Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre, Plymouth Drum and the Hampstead Theatre.

Planer was in the original cast for the 1997 London revival of Chicago as Amos Hart.

He was a member of the original West End cast of his co-star Ben Elton's Queen musical, We Will Rock You as Pop.

In 2003, Planer played Professor Dumbledore in a Harry Potter parody, Harry Potter and the Secret Chamber Pot of Azerbaijan.

In 2006, he played the part of the narrator in The Rocky Horror Show. He then starred as The Wizard in the original West End production of Wicked alongside Idina Menzel.

The show opened at the Apollo Victoria Theatre on 27 September 2006.

He appeared on a BBC4 programme in the guise of Nicholas Craig in 2007, in which he was interviewed by Mark Lawson.

He took over the role of Wilbur, opposite Michael Ball, in the West End production of Hairspray on 2 February 2009.

He also featured in Doctor Who: Live touring the UK, as Vorgenson The Inter-Galactic Showman, before appearing in Pantomime as Captain Hook at the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield.

Planer guest-starred in "The Pale Horse", a 2010 episode of Agatha Christie's Marple.

With Christopher Douglas, he created the spoof actor character "Nicholas Craig", who appears in book, radio, TV and articles as well as live; including, in 2011, in Stewart Lee's ''At Last!

He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Arts degree from Edinburgh Napier University in June 2011.

In 2011's The Hunt for Tony Blair, he played Peter Mandelson.

Leading roles on television include Shine on Harvey Moon, The Young Ones, Filthy Rich and Catflap, The Grimleys, King and Castle, Bonjour La Classe and Roll Over, Beethoven.

He also starred in Michael Palin's Number 27, Simon Gray's Two Lumps of Ice, Emma Tennant's Frankenstein's Baby, Blackeyes by Dennis Potter, Marcella, Cockroaches, Ratburger, and Loaded.

Planer's guest appearances include programmes such as Inside No. 9, The Bill, French and Saunders, Jonathan Creek, Blackadder III, The Last Detective, The Paul Merton Show, The Lenny Henry Show, Death in Paradise, Songs from the Shows, This is Jinsy, Boomers, Father Brown, M.I. High, Grantchester, and There She Goes.

He played Matt LeBlanc's lawyer in the TV series, Episodes.

His first break in the theatre was understudying David Essex as Che Guevara in the original West End run of Evita.

Planer went on to star as Grandpa Joe in the original production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which opened in London's West End in 2013 for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award for best supporting actor in a musical.

From September 2018 to November 2018, Planer toured with Ade Edmondson in a play that they wrote together called Vulcan 7.

In 2020 he took on the role of Grandpa in the arena tour of David Walliams' Grandpa's Great Escape.

Planer has appeared in films, including Flood, Virgin Territory, Bright Young Things, Hogfather, The Colour of Magic, The Wind in the Willows, The Land Girls, Clockwork Mice, Carry On Columbus, Brazil, The Supergrass, I Give It a Year, Burn, Burn, Burn, The List and Yellowbeard.