Career
The League of Gentlemen initially began as a stage act in 1995, transferred to BBC Radio 4 as On the Town with The League of Gentlemen]] in 1997 and then arrived on television on BBC Two in 1999. The latter saw Shearsmith and his colleagues awarded a British Academy Television Award, a Royal Television Society Award and the prestigious Golden Rose of Montreux.
He has appeared in other comedy projects including Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere as well as playing the insane villain Tony in the Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer comedy Catterick. He also appeared in two episodes of the award-winning pop-culture comedy Spaced as robot-wars obsessed TA soldier Dexter, and played neurotic doctor Flynn in the BBC Two sitcom TLC which was written by The Weakest Link creator Fintan Coyle. His ability for talking 'gibberish' lends itself to playing his more macabre characters like Papa Lazarou.
From March 2006 to January 2007, he appeared in the West End as Leo Bloom in The Producers.
In the 2008 English language DVD release of the cult 2006 Norwegian animated film Free Jimmy, Shearsmith voiced the character of "Ante", a heavy-set, bizarrely-dressed biker member of the "Lappish Mafia". In this his voice is used along with the other actors of League of Gentlemen such as Steve Pemberton and Mark Gatiss. The dialogue was written by Simon Pegg and other actors.
Psychoville aired June 2009 and marked his return to BBC2. It was co-written by Shearsmith and his League of Gentlemen cohort Steve Pemberton. Both Shearsmith and Pemberton star in the series and play numerous characters. In 2010 Shearsmith appeared in John Landis' black comedy Burke and Hare.
In 2010 Shearsmith played the lead character in Ghost Stories, written and directed by Jeremy Dyson and magician Andy Nyman.
In April 2011, Cameron Mackintosh's new musical Betty Blue Eyes opened in the west end, in which he plays downtrodden husband Gilbert Chilvers (a chiropodist) alongside Sarah Lancashire.
In May 2011 Psychoville returned to TV with a second series, where once again he starred beside Pemberton and numerous other names including Imelda Staunton.
In 2012 he starred in Bad Sugar, a comedy series written by Sam Bain & Jesse Armstrong, along with Olivia Colman and Julia Davis.
Read more about this topic: Reece Shearsmith
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