Paul Mackenzie Crook (born 29 September 1971) is an English actor and comedian. He is best-known for playing Gareth Keenan in The Office and Ragetti in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.
Early life
Crook was born in Maidstone, Kent, England, and grew up in Dartford. His father, Michael Jim Crook, worked for British Airways and his mother, Sheila Singh, was a hospital manager, teacher and antiquarian. He has two sisters, Zoe and Stephanie, and one step-brother, Frank. As a child he collected stamps, Toby jugs and Star Wars figurines and would venture to ponds and lakes collecting amphibians and vegetation which he would often take home, store in his room, and paint. He would then release the animals back into the wild, and replant whatever he had picked, so as not to be reprimanded by his strict grandmother, Ethel. One of his schoolteachers once described him as "A small, caring child with a great interest in the natural world. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up running his own zoo, as he seems so comfortable with animals, especially birds and mice". When he was ten years old, he was put on a course of hormone therapy for 3 years due to a growth hormone deficiency. He went to Wilmington Grammar School for Boys, and did his first seven plays there.
Crook joined the Orchard Youth Theatre in Dartford when he was about 15 years old and gained his inspiration for acting, song and painting. In the summers he spent time with his uncle at his tobacco farm in Northern Zimbabwe where he developed his love for painting and grew with an ambition to be a graphic artist. As an adolescent he copied a painting of The Soul Of A Rose , by John William Waterhouse, onto his bedroom wall, desk and the back of his biker's jacket and commissioned a painting of 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, adopted a beard and earrings, wore ripped jeans and started a heavy metal band called Up and Over. He dropped this project after deciding his voice was too high, even though his keyboard and guitar performances earned him critical acclaim. He is quoted as saying "People thought I was Aled Jones' shorter thinner brother". Even as a teenager, he was still small for his age due to his growth hormone deficiency; accessing pubs and adult-rated films with his friends and family was a difficult task as he was often not believed to be over 16 or 18 years old. Fortunately his friends were able to sneak in beer and vodka to his house for secret drinking sessions, to the dismay of his tee-total parents.
When Crook was 18 years old, he applied to the Kent Institute of Art & Design three times but failed to secure a place on each attempt. He spent a while doing part-time jobs in a publishers, a library, a hospital, a fruit stall, a chicken factory, a brewery, a florist, a chimney sweep, Halfords and Pizza Hut. He then turned to environmentalism and writing comedy sketches.
Film and TV roles
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 Charlie from Chorley". They appeared at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the mid-90's as Chalk and Cheese. He has also performed as a grotesque schoolteacher called Mr. Bagshaw, who is said to be based on a variety of obnoxious, overbearing Science teachers he was tutored by while in school. In 1996 Crook appeared in his first 3 short films: The Man who Fell in Love with a Traffic Cone , The Crayon, the Cabbage and the Smelly Shirt and The Happy Life of the Deodorant Doctors . There is very little information on these. 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 , a role which earned him two nominations.
Crook was featured 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, the Green Party and M&Ms (as his Ragetti character in all 3). He has also featured in an advert for MTV, Film Four and another he narrated for the motor insurance company Green Flag in 2007.
Crook also appeared as Launcelot Gobbo in Michael Radford's 2004 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and had a minor role in the 2004 film Finding Neverland as a theatre usher. Other films he has appeared in include The Gathering (2002), Sex Lives of the Potato Men (2004), Churchill: The Hollywood Years (2004), and The Brothers Grimm (2005).
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 of these films have been released on DVD. 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 and voiced a character called Rolli Bobbler in an animated film from Finland called Quest For A Heart . He also performed a duet with Ricky Gervais in the Concert for Diana .
Crook played the leading role of Paul Callow in the British comedy Three and Out, released on 25 April 2008. On 10 May 2008 he appeared in an episode of the BBC1 comedy/drama "Love Soup" playing the character Marty Cady and appeared in an episode of Andrew Davies' 2008 BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit . He also provides his voice and movements to a character in Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn , which began filming in January 2009 and will be released in 2011.
Crook will star in Wyndham Price's drama Abraham's Point as Comet Snape and appeared in City of Ember as Looper, and on TV will also be featured in the upcoming documentary Tattoos: A Scarred History (2009). He also did Big Brother Celebrity Hijack and recently appeared in an ITV drama "Demons" (originally called "The Last Van Helsing") as a vampire named Dr. Gladiolus Hadilus Tradius Thrip. In January 2009, Crook featured in the second and third episodes of the third series of the E4 hit teen cult drama Skins. In the show Crook played psychotic Bristol gangster Johnny White. He has appeard in Merlin, for the first two episodes of the second season, as a man named Cedric, who tries to take Merlin's job as Arthur's right-hand man.
Theatre and other work
From July 15 through to August 15, 2009 Mackenzie is appearing at the Royal Court Theatre in London in Jez Butterworth's "Jerusalem". The play has received rave reviews.
Crook 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 he appeared in The Exonerated at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. In February/March 2007 he was featured in a production of The Seagull (for which he earned a nomination from The Evening Standard Theatre Awards) at the Royal Court Theatre as the troubled writer Konstantin. In December 2008 he finished the Broadway run of The Seagull at the Walter Kerr Theatre.
Crook made his directorial debut with a pop video for the London electro band Paw Paw. The stop motion animation video accompanies the band's debut single 'Wired OK', released on 16 July 2007 on Albino Recordings. The video has been posted on Paw Paw's myspace page - PawPawMusic
Crook appeared as a postman in the music video for Paul McCartney's single "Dance Tonight" alongside Golden Globe award-winning actress Natalie Portman. The video for the song was directed by Michel Gondry and was posted exclusively on YouTube on 22 May 2007.
Crook said that his other ambitions would be to draw, dance, write, sing and further encourage protection of the environment. He has made a deal with the book publisher Faber to illustrate and write a children's book. His first one, Fairy Tale , is due for release in October 2009. His second book will be Ragetti's Secret Diary which will also be released in 2009. (It has recently been taken off Amazon, indicating that it will be released much later than the expected date)
Crook teamed up with the writers of Modern Toss and footwear giant Kickers in 2009 to provide voiceovers for a new series of comedy cartoons called Random Bandits, which are featured online at the Kickers MySpace.
Personal life
Mr. Crook and his wife Lindsay, a former chef and advertising executive, reside in the North London suburb of Highgate, in Peter Sellers' former semi-detached house. He and his wife were married in April 2001, and have a son, Jude Michael, born 17 January 2003, and daughter, Scout Elizabeth, born 24 December 2007. His hobbies include gardening and breeding chelonians.
He has written several articles about his hobbies and his experiences with his 8-acre piece of Essex woodland and heath, which he purchased in 2008.
References
- ^ Mackenzie Crook - Awards
- ^ Jay A. Fernandez, Borys Kit (2009-01-27). "Daniel Craig to star in "Tintin"". The Hollywood Reporter . http://ww
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