name	Jimmy Kimmel
birth name	James Christian Kimmel
birth date	November 13, 1967
birth place	Brooklyn, New York, USA
medium	Radio, television, film
nationality	American
active	1989–present
genre	Observational comedy,Current events, Insult comedy
subject	American culture, Everyday life, Celebrities
influences	David Letterman, Howard Stern
spouse	Gina Kimmel (1988–2003) (divorced); 2 children
domesticpartner	Sarah Silverman (2002–2007; 2008–2009) Molly McNearney (2009–present)
notable work	Creator and Host of ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' (ABC) Creator and Co-Host of ''The Man Show''co-host of ''Win Ben Stein's Money'' (Comedy Central)co-host of ''Crank Yankers''

}} James Christian "Jimmy" Kimmel (born November 13, 1967) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, voice artist, television host, and comedian.. He is the host of ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', a late-night talk show that airs on ABC. Prior to that, Kimmel was best known as the co-host of Comedy Central's ''The Man Show'' and ''Win Ben Stein's Money''. Kimmel is also a television producer, having produced shows such as ''Crank Yankers'', ''Sports Show with Norm Macdonald'', and ''The Andy Milonakis Show''.

Early life

Kimmel was born in the Mill Basin neighborhood of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, the eldest of three children of Joann (née Iacono), a homemaker, and James Kimmel, an IBM executive. He is Roman Catholic and, as a child, served as an altar boy. Kimmel is of German and Irish descent on his father’s side and Italian descent on his mother’s side. His uncle, Frank Potenza, appeared on ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' as a regular from 2003 until his death in 2011.

The family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, when he was nine years old. He graduated from Ed W. Clark High School and then attended University of Nevada, Las Vegas for one year before attending Arizona State University for two years without completing a degree.

Career

Radio career

Kimmel began working in the radio industry while in high school, hosting a Sunday night interview show on UNLV's college station KUNV. While attending Arizona State University, he became a popular caller to the KZZP-FM afternoon show hosted by radio personalities Mike Elliott and Kent Voss in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1989, Kimmel landed his first paying job alongside Voss as morning drive co-host of ''The Me and Him Show'' at KZOK-FM in Seattle, Washington. Ten months later, Kimmel and Voss were fired by KZOK (for reasons unknown) and were fired again a year later at WRBQ-FM in Tampa, Florida. Kimmel went from Tampa to host his own show at KCMJ in Palm Springs, California, where Kimmel convinced a young Carson Daly to drop out of college and become his intern. After a morning stint at KRQQ In Tucson, Arizona, Kimmel landed at KROQ-FM in Los Angeles, California. He spent five years as "Jimmy The Sports Guy" for the Kevin and Bean morning show. During this time he met and befriended a struggling comedian named Adam Carolla.

Comedy Central

Kimmel began his television career as the comedic counterpart to Ben Stein on the game show ''Win Ben Stein's Money'', which began airing on Comedy Central in 1997. His quick wit and loutish everyman personality were counterpoints to Stein's monotone performing style and patrician demeanor. The combination earned the pair an Emmy award for Best Game Show Host.

In 1999, during his time with ''Win Ben Stein's Money'', Kimmel was also co-host with Adam Carolla and co-creator (with Daniel Kellison) of Comedy Central's ''The Man Show''. Kimmel permanently left ''Win Ben Stein's Money'' in 2001, replaced by comedian Nancy Pimental, who was eventually replaced by Kimmel's cousin Sal Iacono. ''The Man Show'''s success allowed Kimmel, Carolla and Kellison to create and produce, under the banner Jackhole Industries, ''Crank Yankers'' for Comedy Central (on which Kimmel plays the characters "Elmer Higgins", "Terrence Catheter", "The Nudge", "Karl Malone" and himself), and later ''The Andy Milonakis Show'' for MTV2. Kimmel also produced and co-wrote the feature film ''Windy City Heat'', which won the Comedia Award for Best Film at the Montreal Comedy Festival.

''Jimmy Kimmel Live!''

In January 2003, Kimmel permanently left ''The Man Show'' to host his own late-night talk show, ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' on ABC. ''Jimmy Kimmel Live'' was briefly also broadcast on Irish digital TV channel 3e. In the April 2007 issue of Stuffmagazine.com, Kimmel was named the "biggest badass on TV". Kimmel said it was an honor but clearly a mistake.

Since the show's second season, it has not actually been broadcast live. This is due to an incident during the 2004 NBA Finals in Detroit, when Kimmel appeared on ABC's halftime show to make an on-air plug for his show. He suggested that if the Detroit Pistons defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, "they're gonna burn the city of Detroit down ... and it's not worth it." Officials with Detroit's ABC affiliate, WXYZ-TV, immediately announced that night's show would not air on the station. Hours later, ABC officials pulled that night's show from the entire network. Kimmel later apologized. The incident led ABC officials to force Kimmel to tape his show an hour before it airs in most of the country to check for offending content.

Kimmel usually ends his show with, "My apologies to Matt Damon, we ran out of time." When Matt Damon did actually appear on the show to be interviewed, he walked in and sat down only to be told just a few seconds later by Kimmel, "Sorry, but once again we are completely out of time." Damon seemed to become angry.

In February 2008 Kimmel showed a mock music video with a panoply of stars called, "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck", as "revenge" after his then-girlfriend Sarah Silverman and Matt Damon recorded a similar video, "I'm Fucking Matt Damon". Silverman's video originally aired on ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', and became an "instant YouTube sensation." Kimmel's "revenge" video featured himself, Ben Affleck, and a large lineup of stars, particularly in scenes spoofing the 1985 "We Are the World" video: Brad Pitt, Don Cheadle, Cameron Diaz, Robin Williams, Harrison Ford, Dominic Monaghan, Benji Madden and Joel Madden from Good Charlotte, Lance Bass, Macy Gray, Josh Groban, Huey Lewis, Perry Farrell, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Pete Wentz, Meat Loaf, Rebecca Romijn, Christina Applegate, Dom Joly, Mike Shinoda, Lauren Conrad and Joan Jett, among others. After this Jimmy's sidekick, Guillermo, appeared in a spoof of The Bourne Ultimatum, which starred Damon. He was then chased down by Damon as Matt cursed about Kimmel being behind all this. Guillermo also stopped Damon on the red carpet one time and before he could finish the interview he said, "Sorry we are out of time." The most recent encounter was titled "The Handsome Men's Club" which featured Kimmel, along with other "Handsome Men" including Matthew McConaughey, Rob Lowe, Lenny Kravitz, and many more, speaking about being handsome and all the jobs that come with it. At the end of the skit Kimmel has a door slammed in his face by none other than Matt Damon, stating that they had run out of time and then Damon continues with a sinister laugh.

As a tradition, celebrities voted off ''Dancing with the Stars'' appear on ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', causing Kimmel to describe himself as "the three-headed dog the stars must pass on their way to No-Dancing Hell". In the 2008 season of his show, Kimmel started another tradition of ceremonially burning the dancers' shoes after they were voted off ''DWTS''.

Other television work

In Spring 1996, Kimmel appeared as "Jimmy the Fox Guy" in promos on the Fox network.

Kimmel's other television work included being the on-air football prognosticator for ''Fox NFL Sunday'' for four years. He has had numerous appearances on other talk shows including, but not limited to, ''Live with Regis and Kelly'', ''The Howard Stern Show'', ''The Ellen DeGeneres Show'', and ''The Late Show with David Letterman''. Kimmel has appeared on ''The Late Show'' five times, most recently on April 21, 2008. Kimmel served as roastmaster for the New York Friars' Club Roast of Hugh Hefner and Comedy Central Roasts of ''Pamela Anderson''. He has appeared on ABC's Dancing with the Stars, along with his parking lot security guard Guillermo.

In August 2006, ABC announced that Jimmy Kimmel would be the host of their new game show ''Set for Life''. The show debuted on July 20, 2007. On April 6, 2007, Kimmel filled in for Larry King on ''Larry King Live''. That particular show was about the paparazzi and Kimmel reproached Emily Gould, an editor from Gawker.com, about the web site's alleged stalking of celebrities. On July 8, 2007, Kimmel managed the National League in the 2007 Taco Bell All-Star Legends and Celebrity Softball Game in San Francisco. He played in the game in 2004 and 2006 (Houston and Pittsburgh). On July 11, 2007, Kimmel along with basketball player LeBron James, hosted the 2007 ''ESPY Awards''. The show aired on ESPN on July 15, 2007. Kimmel hosted the American Music Awards on ABC four times, in 2004, 2006, 2007, and 2008.

Kimmel guest hosted ''Live with Regis and Kelly'' during the week of October 22, 2007 – October 26, 2007, commuting every day between New York and Los Angeles. In the process, he broke the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest distance () travelled in one work week.

Kimmel has performed in several animated films, often voicing dogs. His voice appeared in ''Garfield'' and ''Road Trip'', and he portrayed Death's Dog in the ''Family Guy'' episode "Mr. Saturday Knight"; ''Family Guy'' creator Seth McFarlane later presented Kimmel with a figurine of his character on ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!''. Kimmel also did voice work for ''Robot Chicken''. Kimmel's cousin "Sal" (Sal Iacono) has accepted and won a wrestling match with WWE superstar Santino Marella. On January 14, 2010, in the midst of the 2010 Tonight Show host and time slot conflict, Kimmel was the special guest of Jay Leno on ''The Jay Leno Show'''s "10 at 10" segment. Kimmel derided Leno in front of a live studio audience for taking back the 11:35 pm time slot from Conan O'Brien, and repeatedly insulted Leno. He ended the segment with a plea that Leno "leave our shows alone," as Kimmel and O'Brien had "kids" while Leno only had "cars".

Kimmel also made a brief appearance in the TV commercial "There's A Soldier In All Of Us" promoting the 2010 video game ''Call of Duty: Black Ops'', along with Kobe Bryant. He is seen taking cover from bullets, then firing an RPG-7 with the words ''PROUD N00b'' on it, with the aftershock from the weapon sending him tumbling backwards.

Personal life

Kimmel and his then fiancée, Gina, married in June 1988. They have two children, Katie (born 1991) and Kevin (born 1993). Katie Kimmel is an art student in Chicago. The marriage ended in separation in early 2002. Kimmel then dated comedian Sarah Silverman for five years, splitting with her in March 2009. He started dating current girlfriend, Molly McNearney, in October 2009. McNearney is also a co-head writer for ''Jimmy Kimmel Live''.

Kimmel plays the bass clarinet. He got a chance to showcase his talent during a July 20, 2008, concert in Costa Mesa, California, featuring the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, when he took the stage and played bass clarinet on their hit song "The Impression That I Get."

Kimmel has spoken publicly of being a narcoleptic.

Kimmel co-founded the annual LA Feast of San Gennaro, which celebrates Italian culture through entertainment, music and cuisine. The festival also honors outstanding members of the Los Angeles community and raises funds to aid needy children and families in the city. He hosted Los Angeles' eighth annual feast of San Gennaro from September 28 to 30, 2009. Kimmel served as Master of Ceremonies for the National Italian American Foundation's 34th Anniversary Gala in Washington, D.C., on October 24, 2009.

He resides across the street from actor John Krasinski (known for his role as Jim Halpert on ''The Office'') and his wife, actress Emily Blunt.

Awards

References

External links

ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live website

JimmyKimmel.Net

Jimmy Kimmel appears on Michael Eisner's talkshow on CNBC

Jimmy Kimmel interview

Appearance on HGTV's ''Designer's Challenge''

Jimmy is Maxim's #2 Dudeliest Dude 2007

Category:1967 births Category:Actors from New York City Category:American comedians Category:American film actors Category:American game show hosts Category:American radio personalities Category:American television actors Category:American television producers Category:American television writers Category:American television talk show hosts Category:American people of German descent Category:American people of Italian descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:Living people Category:People from Brooklyn Category:Radio personalities from the Las Vegas metropolitan area Category:University of Nevada, Las Vegas alumni

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name	Bear Grylls
birth name	Edward Michael Grylls
birth date	June 07, 1974
birth place	United Kingdom
residence	A barge moored by Battersea Bridge on the River Thames, England An island on Llŷn Peninsula, Abersoch, North Wales
occupation	Chief ScoutAdventurerExplorerAuthorMotivational speakerTelevision presenter
spouse	Shara Cannings Knight
children	Jesse, Marmaduke, and Huckleberry
parents	Sir Michael GryllsLady Grylls (née Sarah Ford)
website	BearGrylls.com
footnotes	}}

Bear Grylls (born Edward Michael Grylls, 7 June 1974) is an English adventurer, writer and television presenter. He is best known for his television series ''Man vs. Wild'', known as ''Born Survivor'' in the United Kingdom. He was the youngest Briton to climb Mount Everest, doing so at age 23. In July 2009, Grylls was appointed the youngest ever Chief Scout at the age of 35.

Personal life

Grylls grew up in Donaghadee, Northern Ireland and Bembridge on the Isle of Wight. He is the son of the late Conservative party politician Sir Michael Grylls and Lady Grylls (née Sarah Ford). His maternal grandparents were Patricia Ford, an Ulster Unionist Party MP and Neville Ford who played first-class cricket. He has one sibling—an elder sister, Lara Fawcett, a cardio-tennis coach who originally gave him the nickname 'Bear' when he was a week old.

Grylls was educated at Eaton House, Ludgrove School, Eton College, where he helped start its first mountaineering club, and Birkbeck, University of London, where he graduated with a degree, obtained part-time, in Hispanic studies in 2002. From an early age, he learned to climb as well as sail from his father, who was a member of the prestigious Royal Yacht Squadron. As a teenager, he learned to skydive and also earned a second dan black belt in Shotokan karate. He now practices Yoga and Ninjutsu. He also became involved in Scouting, beginning at age eight, as a Cub Scout. He speaks English, Spanish, and French. Grylls is a Christian, describing his faith as the "backbone" in his life.

Although Grylls was christened 'Edward' he has legally changed his forename to 'Bear'. Grylls married Shara Grylls (née Cannings Knight) in 2000. They have three sons: Jesse, Marmaduke, and Huckleberry (born 15 January 2009 via natural childbirth on his houseboat).

Military service

After leaving school, Grylls considered joining the Indian Army and spent a few months hiking in the Himalayan mountains of Sikkim and West Bengal, Assam. He then briefly attended the University of the West of England where he was a member of the Officer Training Corps. In March 1997, he joined the British Army and after passing on his second attempt United Kingdom Special Forces Selection (where he claims he was one of four to have passed out of his group of 180), from 1994-1997, he served in the part-time United Kingdom Special Forces Reserve, with 21 Regiment Special Air Service, 21 SAS(R), as a trooper, survival instructor and Patrol Medic.

In 1996, he suffered a freefall parachuting accident in Zambia. His canopy ripped at , partially opening, causing him to fall and land on his parachute pack on his back, which partially crushed three vertebrae. Grylls later said: "I should have cut the main parachute and gone to the reserve but thought there was time to resolve the problem". According to his surgeon, Grylls came "within a whisker" of being paralysed for life and at first it was questionable whether he would ever walk again. Grylls spent the next 18 months in and out of military rehabilitation at Headley Court before being discharged and directing his efforts into trying to get well enough to fulfil his childhood dream of climbing Mount Everest.

In 2004, Grylls was awarded the honorary rank of Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Naval Reserve.

Everest

On 16 May 1998, Grylls achieved his childhood dream (an ambition since his father gave him a picture of Everest when he was eight) and entered the ''Guinness Book of Records'', as the youngest Briton, at 23, to summit Mount Everest, just eighteen months after injuring his back. However, James Allen, an Australian/British climber who ascended Everest in 1995 with an Australian team, but who has dual citizenship, beat him to the summit at age 22. The feat has since been surpassed by Jake Meyer and, at age 19, by Rob Gauntlett.

To prepare for climbing at such high altitudes in the Himalayas, in 1997, Grylls became the youngest Briton to climb Ama Dablam, a peak described by Sir Edmund Hillary as "unclimbable". Grylls' Everest expedition involved nearly four months on the mountain's southeast face. On his first reconnaissance climb he fell into a deep crevasse and was knocked unconscious. The following weeks of acclimatisation involved climbs up and down the south face, negotiating the Khumbu Icefall (a frozen river), the Western Cwm glacier, and a wall of ice called the Lhotse face, before he made the ascent with the ex-SAS soldier Neil Laughton.

Other expeditions

Circumnavigation of the UK

In 2000, Grylls, led the first team to circumnavigate the UK on a personal watercraft or jet ski, taking about 30 days, to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). He also rowed naked for 22 miles in a homemade bathtub along the Thames to raise funds for a friend who lost his legs in a climbing accident.

Crossing the North Atlantic

Three years later, he led a team of five, including his childhood friend, SAS colleague, and Mount Everest climbing partner Mick Crosthwaite, on the first unassisted crossing of the north Atlantic Arctic Ocean, in an open rigid inflatable boat. Suffering weeks of frozen spray and icebergs, battling force 8 gale winds, hypothermia, and storms in an eleven-metre-long boat through some of the most treacherous stretches of water in the world including the Labrador Sea, the Denmark Strait, and the stretch made famous by ''The Perfect Storm'', Grylls and his team were just barely able to finish the journey from Halifax, Nova Scotia to John o' Groats, Scotland.

Paramotoring over Angel Falls

In 2005, Grylls led the first team ever to attempt to paramotor over the remote jungle plateau of the Angel Falls in Venezuela, the world's highest waterfall. The team was attempting to reach the highest, most remote tepuis.

Dinner party at altitude

In 2005, alongside the balloonist and mountaineer David Hempleman-Adams and Lieutenant Commander Alan Veal, leader of the Royal Navy Freefall Parachute Display Team, Grylls created a world record for the highest open-air formal dinner party, which they did under a hot-air balloon at , dressed in full mess dress and oxygen masks. To train for the event, he made over 200 parachute jumps. This was in aid of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award and The Prince's Trust.

Paramotoring over the Himalayas

In 2007, Grylls claimed to have broken a new world record by flying a Parajet paramotor over the Himalayas, higher than Mount Everest. Grylls took off from , 8 miles south of the mountain. Grylls reported looking down on the summit during his ascent and coping with temperatures of . He endured dangerously low oxygen levels and eventually reached , almost higher than the previous record of . The feat was filmed for Discovery Channel worldwide as well as Channel 4 in the UK.

While Grylls initially planned to cross over Everest itself, the permit was only to fly to the south of Everest, and he did not traverse Everest out of risk of violating Chinese airspace.

Journey Antarctica 2008

In 2008, Bear lead a team of four to climb one of the most remote unclimbed peaks in the world in Antarctica. This was raising funds for Global Angels kids charity and awareness for the potential of alternative energies. During this mission the team also aimed to explore the coast of Antarctica by inflatable boat and jetski, part powered by bioethanol, and then to travel across some of the vast ice desert by wind-powered kite-ski and electric powered paramotor. However, the expedition was cut short after Grylls suffered a broken shoulder while kite skiing across a stretch of ice. Travelling at speeds up to 50 km/h (30 mph), a ski caught on the ice, launching him in the air and breaking his shoulder when he came down. He had to be medically evacuated.

Longest indoor freefall

Grylls, along with the double amputee Al Hodgson and the Scotsman Freddy MacDonald, set a Guinness world record in 2008 for the longest continuous indoor freefall. The previous record was 1 hr 36 mins by a US team. Grylls, Hodgson, and MacDonald, using a vertical wind tunnel in Milton Keynes, broke the record by a few seconds. The attempt was in support of the charity Global Angels.

Northwest Passage expedition

In August 2010 Grylls lead a team of five to take an ice-breaking rigid-inflatable boat (RIB) through of the ice strewn Northwest Passage. The expedition intended to raise awareness of the effects of global warming and to raise money for children's charity Global Angels.

Media

Grylls entered television work with an appearance in an advertisement for Sure deodorant, featuring his ascent of Mount Everest. Bear was also used by the UK Ministry of Defence to head the Army's anti-drugs TV campaign, and featured in the first ever major advertising campaign for the world renowned shop: Harrods. Grylls has been a guest on television programs, including ''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross'', ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'', ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'', ''Attack of the Show'', ''The Late Show with David Letterman'', ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' and ''Harry Hill's TV Burp''. Grylls recorded two advertisements for Post's Trail Mix Crunch Cereal, which aired in the US from January 2009. He also appeared as a distinguished instructor in Dos Equis' Most Interesting Academy in a webisode named "Survival in the Modern Era". He appeared in a five-part web series that demonstrates urban survival techniques and features Grylls going from bush to bash. He also has marketed the Alpha Course, a course on the basics of the Christian faith. Warner Bros. had asked Grylls to appear in its remake of the film ''Clash of the Titans''

Grylls is a bestselling author. Grylls' first book, titled ''Facing Up'', went into the UK top 10 best-seller list, and was launched in the USA entitled ''The Kid Who Climbed Everest''. About his expedition and achievements climbing to the summit of Mount Everest. Grylls' second book ''Facing the Frozen Ocean'' was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award 2004. His third book was written to accompany the series ''Born Survivor: Bear Grylls''. (Released in America in April 2008 to the ''Man vs. Wild'' Discovery television show) It features survival skills learned from some of the world's most hostile places. This book reached the ''Sunday Times'' Top 10 best-seller list. His also wrote an extreme guide to outdoor pursuits, titled ''Bear Grylls Outdoor Adventures.''

He has a series of children's adventure survival books titled: ''Mission Survival: Gold of the Gods'', ''Mission Survival: Way of the Wolf'', ''Mission Survival: Sands of the Scorpion'' and ''Mission Survival: Tracks of the Tiger''.

''Escape to the Legion''

Grylls filmed a four-part TV show in 2005, called ''Escape to the Legion'', which followed Grylls and eleven other "recruits" as they took part in a shortened re-creation of the French Foreign Legion's basic desert training in the Sahara. The show was broadcast in the UK on Channel 4, and in the USA on the Military Channel. In 2008, it was repeated in the UK on the History Channel.

''Born Survivor / Man vs. Wild''

Grylls hosts a series titled ''Born Survivor: Bear Grylls'' for the British Channel 4 and broadcast as ''Man vs. Wild'' in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the U.S.A., and as ''Ultimate Survival'' on the Discovery Channel in Europe, Asia, and Africa. The series features Grylls dropped into inhospitable places, showing viewers how to survive. Man Vs Wild debuted in 2006 and went on to become the number one cable show in all of America and now reaches a global audience of over 1.2 billion viewers. The second season premièred in the US on 15 June 2007, the third in November 2007, and the fourth in May 2008.

The show has featured stunts including Grylls climbing cliffs, parachuting from helicopters, balloons, and planes, paragliding, ice climbing, running through a forest fire, wading rapids, eating snakes, wrapping his urine-soaked t-shirt around his head to help stave off the desert heat, drinking urine saved in a rattlesnake skin, drinking fecal liquid from elephant dung, eating deer droppings, wrestling alligators, field dressing a camel carcass and drinking water from it, eating various "creepy crawlies" [insects], utilizing the corpse of a sheep as a sleeping bag and flotation device, free climbing waterfalls and using a bird guano/water enema for hydration. Grylls also regales the viewer with tales of adventurers stranded or killed in the wilderness.

In some of the earlier episodes, ''Man vs. Wild / Born Survivor'' was criticized by some sources for misleading viewers about some of the situations in which Grylls finds himself. Discovery and Channel 4 television subsequently pledged production and editing transparency and clarification related to the criticism.

''Worst Case Scenario''

Grylls' latest project is titled ''Worst Case Scenario'' and airs on Discovery in the USA. It is based on the popular books of the same name.

Chief Scout

On 17 May 2009, The Scout Association announced Grylls would be appointed Chief Scout following the end of Peter Duncan's five year term in July 2009. He was officially made Chief Scout at Gilwell 24 on 11 July 2009 in a handover event featuring Peter Duncan in front of a crowd of over 3,000 Explorer Scouts. He is the tenth person to hold the position and the youngest Chief Scout since the role was created for Robert Baden-Powell in 1920.

Charities

Many of Grylls' expeditions and stunts have raised money for charitable organisations. Grylls is an ambassador for The Prince's Trust, an organisation which provides training, financial, and practical support to young people in the United Kingdom. He is also vice president for The JoLt Trust, a small charity that takes disabled, disadvantaged, abused or neglected young people on challenging month-long expeditions.

Global Angels, a UK charity which seeks to aid children around the world, were the beneficiaries of his 2007 accomplishment of taking a powered para-glider higher than Mount Everest. Grylls's held the highest ever dinner party at in aid of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, and launched the 50th anniversary of the Awards. His successfully circumnavigating Britain on jet skis raised money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Grylls' Everest climb was in aid of SSAFA Forces Help, a British-based charitable organization set up to help former, and serving members of the British Armed Forces, and their families and dependents. His 2003 Arctic expedition detailed in the book ''Facing the Frozen Ocean'' was in aid of The Prince's Trust. His 2005 attempt to para-motor over the Angel Falls was in aid of the charity Hope and Homes for Children. In August 2010, Grylls continued his fund-raising work for Global Angels by undertaking an expedition through the Northwest Passage in a rigid inflatable boat. Many of his expeditions also support environmental causes such as his Antarctica expedition and his circumnavigation of Britain which tested a pioneering new fuel made from rubbish.

In 2011, Grylls was in New Zealand during the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. Following the incident, he appeared on New Zealand advertisements encouraging people to donate money to help rebuild the city.

Other work

Outside of TV, Grylls works as a motivational speaker, giving speeches worldwide to corporations, churches, schools, and other organizations. He is also a spokesperson for and owner of a Juice Plus franchise. Grylls has his own outdoor survival clothing range produced by British manufacturer Craghoppers as well as a knife manufactured by Gerber.

See also

Ranulph Fiennes, British adventurer and a hero of Grylls' growing up

Bruce Parry, British adventurer and TV presenter

Les Hiddins, Australian survival expert and TV presenter

Les Stroud, Canadian survival expert and TV presenter

Ray Mears, English survival expert and TV presenter

References

External links

North West Passage Fundraising Page

Video for North West Passage

Journey Details for North West Passage

Official Born Survivor website

BearGrylls.com official website

Video of Bear Grylls confirming that he will be the new Chief Scout for the UK

Video from the Gilwell 24 event showing the investiture of Bear Grylls as Chief Scout for the UK, by the previous incumbant Blue peter presenter Peter Duncan

Adventurer Bear Grylls' battle with back pain and high cholesterol

Category:English Christians Category:Living people Category:1974 births Category:Old Etonians Category:Old Ludgrovians Category:Alumni of Birkbeck, University of London Category:English explorers Category:English mountain climbers Category:English non-fiction writers Category:English motivational speakers Category:English television presenters Category:British karateka Category:English people of Northern Ireland descent Category:British summiters of Mount Everest Category:Special Air Service soldiers Category:Artists' Rifles soldiers Category:The Scout Association Category:Survivalists

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birth name	Gary Leonard Oldman
birth date	March 21, 1958
birth place	New Cross, London, UK
spouse	Lesley Manville (1987–90)Uma Thurman (1990–92)Donya Fiorentino (1997–2001) Alexandra Edenborough (2008–present)
years active	1978–present
occupation	Actor, filmmaker, musician }}

Gary Leonard Oldman (born 21 March 1958) is an English actor, voice actor, and musician. A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence in the mid-to-late 1980s with a string of performances that prompted pre-eminent film critic, Roger Ebert, to describe him as "the best young British actor around". He portrayed Sid Vicious in his acclaimed first leading role in ''Sid and Nancy'' (1986), and earned a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actor for his second real-life portrayal, Joe Orton, in ''Prick Up Your Ears'' (1987). Oldman's role in ''Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead'' (1990) brought him an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actor, while his performance as a violent gunman for an Irish American gang in ''State of Grace'' (1990) earned him greater notice and critical acclaim in the United States. His international breakthrough came with his portrayals of Lee Harvey Oswald in ''JFK'' (1991), and Count Dracula in ''Dracula'' (1992)—the latter bringing him the Saturn Award for Best Actor. Oldman also attracted media attention for his marriage to actress Uma Thurman in the early 1990s. He went on to play the villain of a number of popular films in the 1990s, including ''True Romance'' (1993), ''Léon'' (1994) and ''The Fifth Element'' (1997). His performance as a zealous Republican congressman in ''The Contender'' (2000) earned him Screen Actors Guild- and Independent Spirit Award nominations in the Best Supporting Actor category.

Since the turn of the millennium, Oldman has gained notoriety in heroic roles, such as Sirius Black in the ''Harry Potter'' film series, Jim Gordon in Christopher Nolan's ''Batman'' film trilogy and George Smiley in ''Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy''. In addition to leading and central supporting roles in big-budget films, he has frequently acted in independent films, and television shows such as ''Fallen Angels'' and ''Friends''—his performance in the latter bringing him an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 2001. He is also known for providing the voice of Viktor Reznov in the popular ''Call of Duty'' video game series. Oldman has been cited as an influence by a number of successful actors, and has been described as one of the greatest actors never nominated for an Academy Award. Aside from acting, he has served as a producer on several films, and directed, wrote and co-produced ''Nil by Mouth'' (1997), a film partially based on his own childhood, for which he was nominated for the 1997 Palme d'Or and won two BAFTA Awards. In 2011, ''Empire'' readers voted Oldman an "Icon of Film", in recognition of his contributions to cinema.

Early life

Gary Oldman was born in London, the son of Kathleen (née Cheriton; b. 28 November 1919), a housewife, and Leonard Bertram Oldman (21 May 1921 October 1985), a former sailor who worked as a welder. Oldman has said that his father was an abusive alcoholic who left his family when Oldman was seven. Oldman was an accomplished singer and pianist as a child, but gave up music to pursue an acting career. His inspiration was Malcolm McDowell's performance in 1970 film ''The Raging Moon''. In a 1995 interview with Charlie Rose, Oldman said: "Something about Malcolm [McDowell] just arrested me, and I connected, and I said 'I wanna do ''that'''." Oldman retained his love for music, however, and can be seen singing and playing piano in the 1988 film ''Track 29'', and tracing over pre-recorded versions of Beethoven's music in ''Immortal Beloved''. Oldman attended the South East London Boys' School on Creek Road in Deptford, leaving school at 16.

Film career

''Sid & Nancy'' and foray into American cinema

After graduating with a BA in Acting from Rose Bruford College in Sidcup, Kent in 1978, Oldman spent almost eight years in theatre, winning a number of awards. During this time he appeared in several films such as ''Remembrance'' (1982) and ''Meantime'' (1984) and would have made his screen debut in Don Boyd's ''Gossip'' (1982) if that film had not collapsed. In 1986 he won his first starring role as the Sex Pistols' ill-fated bassist Sid Vicious in the 1986 motion picture ''Sid & Nancy''. The role launched Oldman's career and paved the way for work in Hollywood. Oldman's performance was highly regarded by many, perhaps most notably ex-Sex Pistols vocalist John Lydon, who despite questioning the authenticity of some parts of the film, said of Oldman in his biography: "The chap who played Sid, Gary Oldman, I thought was quite good", and later called him a "bloody good actor". Oldman reportedly lost considerable weight for the role and was briefly hospitalised. His performance was ranked #62 in ''Premiere'' magazine's "100 Greatest Performances of All Time" and #8 in ''Uncut'' magazine's "10 Best actors in rockin' roles", the latter describing his portrayal as a "hugely sympathetic reading of the punk figurehead as a lost and bewildered manchild." After coming to prominence for his portrayal of Vicious, Oldman increased his profile during the mid-to-late 1980s and early 1990s via starring roles in cult films such as ''Prick Up Your Ears'' (in which he played his second real-life portrayal: troubled playwright Joe Orton), ''Criminal Law'' (which marked Oldman's first use of an American accent), ''The Firm'', ''Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead'' and ''State of Grace'', with Janet Maslin referring to his work as "phenomenal" and Roger Ebert calling him "the best young British actor around." In late 1988, he starred opposite long-time hero Alan Bates in ''We Think the World of You'', and alongside Dennis Hopper and Frances McDormand in ''Chattahoochee'' (1989). Oldman moved to the United States in the early 1990s, where he has since lived. Oldman and other young British actors of the 1980s who were becoming established Hollywood film actors, such as Tim Roth, Bruce Payne, Colin Firth and Paul McGann, were dubbed the 'Brit Pack'.

Mainstream success in the 1990s

In 1991, Oldman starred in what was at that point the most significant role of his career as Lee Harvey Oswald in Oliver Stone's ''JFK''. The following year, he starred as Count Dracula in Francis Ford Coppola's romance-horror ''Dracula''. A commercially successful film adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, it was a box office success worldwide. Oldman's performance is regarded by many as a staple of the horror genre, and was recognised by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films as the best male performance of 1992, who awarded Oldman the prestigious Best Actor award. Oldman would later become a popular portrayer of villains, he playing a violent pimp in ''True Romance'' (1993), corrupt DEA officer Norman Stansfield in ''Léon'' (1994) (ranked #43 in the Online Film Critics Society's "Top 100 Villains of All Time" in 2002) a sadistic prison warden in ''Murder in the First'' (1995) and a futuristic corporate tyrant in ''The Fifth Element'' (1997). Oldman also displayed a skill for world accents; along with the Transylvanian Count Dracula, Oldman played German-born Viennese composer Ludwig van Beethoven in ''Immortal Beloved'', and Russian terrorist Ivan Korshunov in the 1997 blockbuster ''Air Force One''. He also appeared as the Devil in the 1993 promo video to the Guns N' Roses single "Since I Don't Have You". Oldman also served as a Member of Jury at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.

Since 2000

Oldman appeared opposite Jeff Bridges as zealous Republican congressman Sheldon Runyon in ''The Contender'' (2000), in which he was also credited as a producer. He received a Screen Actors Guild award nomination for his performance. In 2001, he starred opposite Anthony Hopkins in ''Hannibal'', as Mason Verger, the only surviving victim of Hannibal Lecter. Oldman reportedly spent six hours per day in the make-up room to achieve the character's hideously disfigured appearance. It marked the second time Oldman had appeared opposite Hopkins, a personal friend who was part of the supporting cast of ''Dracula''. Oldman is uncredited in the film, reportedly over a dispute regarding top billing, which was going to co-star Anthony Hopkins and Julianne Moore. Oldman received an Emmy Award nomination for two guest appearances in ''Friends'' in 2001, appearing in the two-part episode "The One With Chandler and Monica's Wedding" as Richard Crosby, a pedantic actor who insists that "real" actors spit on one another when they enunciate, leading to the famous spitting scene between Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc) and himself. Oldman agreed to appear in the series after meeting LeBlanc on the set of ''Lost in Space'' in 1998.

Oldman later landed a major role in the ''Harry Potter'' film series, playing Harry Potter's godfather Sirius Black. Oldman and star Daniel Radcliffe reportedly became very close during the filming of the series. In 2005, Oldman starred as James Gordon in Christopher Nolan's commercially and critically acclaimed ''Batman Begins'', a role he reprised in the even more successful sequel ''The Dark Knight'' (2008) and will reprise again in the upcoming installment ''The Dark Knight Rises'' (2012). Oldman co-starred with Jim Carrey in the 2009 version of ''A Christmas Carol'' in which Oldman played three roles. He had a starring role in David Goyer's supernatural thriller ''The Unborn'', released in 2009. In 2010, Oldman co-starred with Denzel Washington in ''The Book of Eli''. He also played a lead role in Catherine Hardwicke's ''Red Riding Hood''. Oldman voiced the role of villain Lord Shen in ''Kung Fu Panda 2''.

Oldman will appear as George Smiley in the 2011 re-adaptation of the John le Carré novel ''Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy'', directed by Tomas Alfredson, also starring Colin Firth, Mark Strong and Tom Hardy.

He has also participated in the creation of ''The Legend of Spyro'' games produced by Sierra Entertainment, providing the voice to the Fire Guardian, Ignitus. He also voices Sergeant Reznov in the award-winning video games ''Call of Duty: World at War'' and ''Call of Duty: Black Ops'', the latter of which he also voiced a British scientist by the name of Daniel Clarke.

Other ventures

Filmmaking

In 1997, Oldman directed, produced, and wrote the award-winning ''Nil by Mouth'', a movie partially based on his own childhood. ''Nil By Mouth'' went on to win the BAFTA Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film (shared with Douglas Urbanski) and also the BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay, the Channel 4 Director's Award, and an ''Empire'' Award, and was declared by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts as one of the one hundred best films of all time. Recently, ''Nil By Mouth'' was listed by ''Time Out'' as number two of the top 50 best British films ever.

Oldman and producing partner Douglas Urbanski formed the SE8 GROUP to produce ''Nil By Mouth''. The company also produced ''The Contender'', which also starred Oldman. He was also credited as a producer. Some media outlets reported that Oldman was unhappy with the finished product and felt that DreamWorks had heavily edited the film to reflect their pro-Democratic leanings. These claims were later debunked; Oldman, not a U.S. citizen, was described as "so uninvolved in politics, he has never even declared a party affiliation". Oldman has finished his latest screenplay, ''Chang & Eng'', co-written with Darin Strauss, based on the author's book of the same name; SE8 Group will produce. In September 2006, Nokia Nseries Studio released the Oldman-directed short film ''Donut'', with music by Tor Hyams. The film was shot with an N93 in order to promote the phone. Oldman also directed the music video for "Red Rover", a song from Jewish rap group Chutzpah's second CD ''Hip Hop Fantasy'', shot entirely on the N93. Juliet Landau made a 25-minute documentary about the making of the video. In 2011, he directed a music video for Alex Eden's first single "Kiss Me Like the Woman You Loved" for Side Tracked Records.

Theatre

Oldman won a scholarship to the Rose Bruford College, where he received a BA in Theatre Arts in 1979. He had initially applied for enrolment into the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, but was refused entry. Oldman told Charlie Rose in 1995 that he was told to "find something else to do for a living". Rose, surprised, asked jokingly, "Have you reminded them of this?", to which Oldman replied that "the work speaks for itself." Following his graduation from Rose Bruford College, he later studied with the Greenwich Young People's Theatre and went on to appear in a number of stage plays including ''The Pope's Wedding'', for which he received ''Time Out'''s Fringe Award for Best Newcomer of 1985–1986 and the British Theatre Association's Drama Magazine Award as Best Actor of 1985. He was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company during their 1985–86 London season, appearing in small-scale productions at the Pit and Almeida theatres.

Music

Oldman has had a keen interest in music from an early age. He is a proficient pianist and stated in a 1995 interview with Charlie Rose that he would rather be a musician than an actor. Oldman sang several tracks on the ''Sid and Nancy'' soundtrack, and sang and played live piano in the 1988 movie ''Track 29''. He traced over Beethoven compositions in 1994's ''Immortal Beloved''. He also tutored ''Harry Potter'' star Daniel Radcliffe on bass guitar. Oldman appeared on Reeves Gabrels' album ''The Sacred Squall of Now'', performing a vocal duet with David Bowie on the track "You've Been Around".

Popularity and influence

Oldman has long established a cult following among film fans. He is known for playing the primary antagonist in a number of popular motion pictures, which has seen him referenced in popular culture. MTV's ''Celebrity Deathmatch'' aired a match between Oldman and Christopher Walken, citing their portrayals of many memorable Hollywood villains. Oldman's portrayal of Count Dracula was also spoofed by Jim Carrey on Fox comedy series ''In Living Color''. In 1993, Oldman had a cameo role as the Devil in the promo video to the Guns N' Roses single "Since I Don't Have You"—he also played the Devil in the 2002 BMW short ''Beat The Devil'', alongside Clive Owen, James Brown and Marilyn Manson. He was drafted in to appear on the first ever cover of ''Loaded'' in 1994. On YouTube, Oldman is the subject of a number of tribute videos. In contrast to his often dark on-screen roles, Oldman's affable real-life demeanour has been noted, and he was named as one of ''Empire'' magazine's "100 Sexiest Stars in Film History" in 2007.

Allmovie has described Oldman as "capable of portraying almost any type of character", and as having "consistently amazed viewers with his ability to completely disappear into his roles." His performances during his career have provided inspiration for younger actors who would go on to enjoy successful Hollywood careers. Brad Pitt has described Oldman as his foremost acting "god", while Daniel Radcliffe has cited Oldman as the actor whose career he would most like to emulate. Ryan Gosling has named Oldman as his favourite actor. Other actors who have been influenced by Oldman include: Shia LaBeouf, Christian Bale, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben Foster, Johnny Depp, Chris Pine, and Jason Isaacs. ''Dracula'' and ''Hannibal'' co-star, Anthony Hopkins, has described Oldman as "multi-talented", and as possessing "a great genius and flair for creativity." Oldman has garnered critical acclaim for his diverse performances and portrayals of real-life historical figures and is noted for his avoidance of the Hollywood celebrity scene, often being referred to as an "actor's actor". Oldman's performances have gained the admiration of prominent film critics: Roger Ebert has hailed him as "one of the great actors, able to play high, low, crass, noble", while Janet Maslin has called him a "phenomenal" actor who "since ''Sid and Nancy'' has taken on a string of new accents and dramatic identities with stunning ease." Oldman's portrayals of eccentric villains have occasionally polarized critics. He has recently stated, however, that he seeks to play more reserved roles at this stage in his career.

As of 15 December 2009, motion pictures starring Oldman as leading actor or supporting co-star have grossed over $2.5 billion at the United States box office, and over $6 billion worldwide.

Personal life

Despite numerous lead and supporting roles in major Hollywood productions, Oldman is intensely private with his personal life and is known for his stance on celebrity and the ideals of Hollywood, once stating that "being famous, that's a whole other career. And I haven't got any energy for it." Oldman was born and brought up in London, England, but moved to the United States in the early 1990s. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his young family.

Alcohol and legal problems

His problems with alcohol were well known during the early 1990s. After a string of alcohol-fuelled debacles he checked himself into Marworth treatment facility in Waverly Township, Pennsylvania, for alcoholism treatment in 1993. In subsequent interviews Oldman acknowledged his problems with alcohol, and called himself a recovering alcoholic on a 2001 interview with Charlie Rose. In 2001, former wife Donya Fiorentino claimed that Oldman had a drug habit and abused her, a claim which was investigated by the family courts, child custody evaluator, the police, and Los Angeles city attorney. Oldman was awarded legal custody of their children; Fiorentino was granted short court-monitored visits. Today, Oldman lives a teetotal lifestyle and attributes his success in beating his addiction to Alcoholics Anonymous, and has since publicly praised the organisation.

Marriages and family

On 31 December 2008, Oldman married singer Alexandra Edenborough in Santa Barbara, California in a private, formal ceremony.

Oldman has been married four times in total:

Lesley Manville (1987–1990)

Uma Thurman (1990–1992)

Donya Fiorentino (1997–2001)

Alexandra Edenborough (2008–present)

He has four sons: Alfie (b. 1988), from his marriage to Manville, Roberto, adopted with ex-girlfriend ''Isabella Rossellini'', and Gulliver Flynn (b. 20 August 1997) and Charlie John (b. 11 February 1999), from his marriage to Fiorentino. His sister, Laila Morse, is also an actress, best known as Mo Harris in the BBC's long-running series ''EastEnders''; she also had a role in Oldman's directorial debut, ''Nil by Mouth''. Oldman supports South East London football team Millwall.

Filmography

Films

+ Films
! Year !! Title !! Role !! Notes
1982	''Remembrance''	Daniel
1984		Coxy the Skinhead	TV
1984	''Morgan's Boy''	Colin	TV
1985	''Honest, Decent & True''	Derek Bates	TV
1986	''Sid and Nancy''	Sid Vicious
1987	''Prick Up Your Ears''	Joe Orton
1988	''Track 29''	Martin
1988		Ben Chase
1988		Johnny
1988		Clive "Bex" Bissell	TV
1989		Emmett Foley
1990
1990		Jackie Flannery
1990	''Henry & June''	Pop	Credited as Maurice Escargot
1991		Lee Harvey Oswald
1991	''Heading Home''	Ian Tyson	TV
1992		Count Dracula
1993	''True Romance''	Drexl Spivey
1993	''Romeo Is Bleeding''	Jack Grimaldi
1994		Norman Stansfield	Released as ''The Professional'' in the US
1994		Ludwig van Beethoven
1995	''Murder in the First''	Milton Glenn
1995		Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale
1996		Albert Milo
1997	''The Fifth Element''	Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg
1997		Ivan Korshunov
1998		Dr. Zachary Smith
1998	''Quest for Camelot''	Sir Ruber	Voice
1999		Pontius Pilate	TV
2000		Rep. Sheldon Runyon	Also executive producer
2000	''Monsignor Renard''	Unlisted	TV, uncredited
2001	''Nobody's Baby''	Buford Hill	Also producer
2001		Mason Verger
2001	''Friends''	Richard Crosby	TV (2 episodes)
2002	''Interstate 60''	O. W. Grant
2002	''The Hire: Beat the Devil''	The Devil	Short subject
2002	''Greg the Bunny''	Himself	TV (1 episode)
2003	''Tiptoes''	Rolfe
2003	''Sin''	Charlie Strom
2004	''Dead Fish''	Lynch
2004		Sirius Black
2004	''Who's Kyle?''	Scouse
2005	''Batman Begins''
2005		Sirius Black
2006	''The Backwoods''	Paul
2007		Sirius Black
2008
2009		Rabbi Joseph Sendak
2009	''Rain Fall''	Holtzer
2009			Voice
2009	''Planet 51''	General Grawl	Voice
2010	''The Book of Eli''	Carnegie
2011		Father Soloman
2011	''Kung Fu Panda 2''	Lord Shen	Voice
2011	''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2	Sirius Black
2011		George Smiley
2011	''Guns, Girls and Gambling''	Elvis	''Filming''
2012	''The Wettest County in the World''	Floyd Banner	''Filming''
2012	''The Dark Knight Rises''		''Filming''

Video games

+ Video games
! Year !! Title !! Role !! Notes
1998		Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg	Voice
2003	''Medal of Honor: Allied Assault''	Sgt. Jack Barnes	Voice
2003	''True Crime: Streets of LA''	Rasputin "Rocky" KuznetskovAgent Masterson	Voice
2006	''The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning''		Voice
2007	''The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night''		Voice
2008	''The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon''		Voice
2008	''Call of Duty: World at War''	Sgt. Viktor Reznov	Voice
2010	''Call of Duty: Black Ops''	Captain. Viktor ReznovDr. Daniel Clarke	Voice

Awards and nominations

! Year !! Group !! Award !! Film/Show !! Result
		Most Promising Newcomer	''Sid and Nancy''
BAFTA Awards	Best Actor	''Prick Up Your Ears''
1988		ALFS Award for Actor of the Year	''Sid and Nancy''
1990	Independent Spirit Award	Best Leading Male	''Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead''
1992	Saturn Awards	Best Actor	rowspan=2
1993	MTV Movie Awards	Best Kiss (shared with Winona Ryder)
1995	Golden Raspberry Awards	Worst Screen Couple (shared with Demi Moore)
			rowspan="7"
	Best British Director of an Independent Film
Best Original Screenplay by a British Writer of a Produced Independent Film
Edinburgh International Film Festival	Channel 4 Director's Award
	Palme d'Or
	Empire Awards	Best Debut
	Favorite Supporting Actor – Action/Adventure	rowspan="3"
MTV Movie Awards	Best Fight (shared with Harrison Ford)
MTV Movie Awards	Best Villain
1999	Saturn Awards	Best Supporting Actor
	Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards	Alan J. Pakula Award	rowspan="3"
Independent Spirit Award	Best Supporting Male
Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Emmy Awards	Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series	''Friends''
USA Film Festival	Master Screen Artist Tribute Award
2003	DVD Exclusive Awards	Best Supporting Actor	''Interstate 60''
2005	Saturn Awards	Best Supporting Actor	''Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban''
2008	Scream Awards	Best Supporting Actor	rowspan=2
2009	People's Choice Awards	Best Cast (w/ Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal)
2011	Empire Awards	Film Icon

References

External links

Interview with Gary Oldman on his directorial debut – Nil by Mouth

Category:Alumni of Rose Bruford College Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:English voice actors Category:English video game actors Category:English film actors Category:English film directors Category:English screenwriters Category:English stage actors Category:English television actors Category:People from Deptford Category:People self-identifying as alcoholics Category:Saturn Award winners Category:English expatriates in the United States Category:1958 births Category:Living people

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Sal Iacono (born July 5, 1971) is an American comedian, writer and game show host best known as "Cousin Sal" on ''The Man Show'' and the late night television show ''Jimmy Kimmel Live''.

Biography

Iacono was born in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated from John Glenn High School in 1989 and attended State University of New York at Oswego, earning a degree in Public Justice in 1993. He went on to study law at Touro Law School in Huntington Long Island receiving his Juris Doctorate in 1996. In 1997, Iacono moved from Long Island to Hollywood to pursue a career in television.

Family

Iacono currently resides near Los Angeles with his wife, two sons and the family dog Carlos.

Career

Television Writing to Hosting

Iacono's first foray into television writing was on the Fox Sports Net program ''Sports Geniuses'', a sports-themed game show starring Matt Vasgersian on which Sal also appeared nightly in a trivia challenge. From there, he joined the writing staff of Comedy Central's ''The Man Show'' starring Adam Carolla and Iacono's cousin Jimmy Kimmel. In 2002, Iacono joined Kimmel during his weekly prognostication sketches on ''Fox NFL Sunday''. Iacono wrote for the puppet show ''Crank Yankers''.

When ''Win Ben Stein's Money'' co-host Nancy Pimental left the show in 2002, Iacono replaced her, becoming Ben Stein's co-host and comic tormentor. Iacono was the co-host through the rest of the run of the series and was nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Game Show Host category.

''Jimmy Kimmel Live''

Iacono has been a permanent member of the Jimmy Kimmel Live writing staff since 2003. He also appears frequently on the show in comedy sketches. These comedy bits are often shot using a hidden camera, and "Cousin Sal" pretends to be a store employee or delivery person who is incredibly inept or annoying. Cousin Sal's victims are invariably dumbfounded or become extremely infuriated, much to the delight of the viewing audience.

WWE

On ''Jimmy Kimmel Live'' on May 16, 2008, Iacono had a birthday cake delivered to Kimmel on air by his favorite wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper. He and Piper were confronted by Santino Marella, who had the cake thrown on him and was attacked by Iacono. The following Monday, Marella (dressed as Piper) brought Iacono to the ring on ''Monday Night Raw'' to "apologize" to "Cousin Sal". The real Piper entered the ring and Marella got his own apology cake thrown on him and on his way back to the locker room, he challenged Iacono to a wrestling match, which Piper accepted on Iacono's behalf. The match took place at the ''Friday Night SmackDown!'' tapings in Los Angeles on June 3, 2008. Sal was accompanied to the ring by Kimmel and Piper, and won the match.

Podcasts

Iacono is a regular guest on the podcast The B. S. Report by Bill Simmons. "Cousin Sal" picks the lines for the next weeks NFL games, defends the Dallas Cowboys, and talks about sports and sports betting with Bill. In addition Sal also joins the Adam Carolla Podcast on Mondays during the 2010 NFL season to discuss the previous Sunday's NFL action.

References

External links

Jimmy Kimmel Live website

IMDB entry

Category:American comedians Category:American game show hosts Category:Living people Category:1971 births Category:American people of Italian descent Category:People from Brooklyn Category:People from the Greater Los Angeles Area

The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups. Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a role so that relatively dark skinned people can be classified as white if they fulfill other social criteria of whiteness and relatively light skinned people can be classified as black if they fulfill the social criteria for blackness. As a biological phenotype being "black" is often associated with the very dark skin colors of some people who are classified as 'black'. But, particularly in the United States, the racial classification also refers to people with all possible kinds of skin pigmentation from the darkest through to the very lightest skin colors, including albinos, if they are believed by others to have African ancestry and exhibit cultural traits associated with being "African-American". Therefore, the term 'black people' is not an indicator of skin color but of racial classification.

Some definitions of the term include only people of relatively recent Sub Saharan African descent (see African diaspora). Among the members of this group, dark skin is most often accompanied by the expression of natural afro-hair texture (recent scientific study notes that human skin color diversity is highest in sub-Saharan African populations). Other definitions of the term "black people" extend to other populations characterized by dark skin, including some indigenous to Oceania and Southeast Asia.

Physiological traits

Dark skin

The evolution of dark skin is linked intrinsically to the loss of body hair in humans. By 1.2 million years ago, all people having descendants today had the same receptor protein of today's Africans; their skin was dark, and the intense sun lowered the chance of survival of those with lighter skin that resulted from mutational variation in the receptor protein. This is significantly earlier than the speciation of ''Homo sapiens'' from ''Homo erectus'' some 250,000 years ago.

Skin cancer as a result of ultraviolet light radiation causing mutations in the skin is less common among people with dark skin than it is among those with light skin. Furthermore, dark skin prevents an essential B vitamin, folate, from being destroyed. Therefore, in the absence of modern medicine and diet, a person with dark skin in the tropics would live longer, be healthier and more likely to reproduce than a person with light skin. White Australians have some of the highest rates of skin cancer as evidence of this expectation. Conversely, as dark skin prevents sunlight from penetrating the skin it hinders the production of vitamin D₃. Hence when humans migrated to less sun-intensive regions in the north, low vitamin D₃ levels became a problem and lighter skin colors started appearing. White people of Europe, who have low levels of melanin, naturally have an almost colorless skin pigmentation, especially when untanned. This low level of pigmentation allows the blood vessels to become visible which gives the characteristic pale pink color of white people. The loss of melanin in white people is now thought to have been caused by a mutation in just one letter out of 3.1 billion letters of DNA.

Hair

The texture of hair in people of Sub-Saharan African ancestry is noticeably different from that of Eurasian populations, as was already noted by Herodotus, who described the peoples of Libya (the "western Ethiopians") as ''wooly-haired''.

Such "afro-hair" texture is denser than its straight counterparts. Due to this, it is often referred to as 'thick', 'bushy', or 'woolly'. For several reasons, possibly including its relatively flat cross section (among other factors), this hair type conveys a dry or matte appearance. It is also very coarse, and its unique shape renders it very prone to breakage when combed or brushed.

The specific characteristics of the natural afro-hair form are unique among all mammals. The texture likely predates the evolution of dark skin. It evolved when, as pre-human Australopithecines lost most of their fur to enable perspiration, the need to protect the newly exposed pale skin underneath this body hair was crucial (see in light of Rogers and others., 2004 and Harding and others., 2000). The trait ceased to be essential to survival at the equator upon the evolution of hairless dark skin. Yet it has continued to be expressed vestigially among most Melanesians, Andaman Islanders, and sub-Saharan Africans.

Africa

North Africa

Sub-Saharan

Sub-Saharan Africa is a common, if imprecise term that encompasses African countries located south of the Sahara Desert. It is commonly used to differentiate the region culturally, ecologically, politically and, more controversially, racially, from North Africa, which has historically been part of the Mediterranean sphere. Because the indigenous people of this region are primarily dark-skinned, it is alternatively called "Black Africa". Some criticize the use of the term, because, having become in many quarters synonymous with ''Black Africa'', it can leave the mistaken impression that there are not indigenous Black populations in North Africa. Furthermore, the Sahara cuts across countries such as Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, and South Sudan, leaving some parts of them in North Africa and some in sub-Saharan Africa.

Owen 'Alik Shahadah argues that the term sub-Saharan Africa has racist overtones:

However, some Black Africans prefer to be culturally distinguished from those who live in the north of the continent.

Cultural ideas of a black race

South Africa

In South Africa during the apartheid era, the population was classified into four main racial groups: ''Black'', ''White'', ''Asian'' (mostly Indian), and ''Coloured''. The Coloured group included people of mixed Bantu, Khoisan, and European descent (with some Malay ancestry, especially in the Western Cape). The Coloured definition occupied an intermediary position between the Black and White definitions in South Africa.

The apartheid bureaucracy devised complex (and often arbitrary) criteria in the Population Registration Act to determine who belonged in which group. Minor officials administered tests to enforce the classifications. When it was unclear from a person's physical appearance whether a person was to be considered Colored or Black, the "pencil test" was employed. This involved inserting a pencil in a person's hair to determine if the hair was kinky enough for the pencil to get stuck.

During the apartheid era, those classed as 'Coloured' were oppressed and discriminated against. However, they did have limited rights and overall had slightly better socioeconomic conditions than those classed as 'Black'.

In the post-apartheid era, the ANC government's laws in support of their affirmative action policies define 'Black' people to include "Africans", "Coloureds" and "Asians". Their affirmative action policies have also favored 'Africans' over 'Coloureds'. Some South Africans categorized as 'African Black' openly state that 'Coloureds' did not suffer as much as they did during apartheid. The popular saying by 'Coloured' South Africans to illustrate their dilemma is:

In 2008, the High Court in South Africa ruled that Chinese South Africans who were residents during the apartheid era (and their descendents) are to be reclassified as "Black people" solely for the purposes of accessing affirmative action benefits, because they were also "disadvantaged" by racial discrimination. Chinese people who arrived in the country after the end of apartheid do not qualify.

Other than by appearance, 'Coloureds' can usually be distinguished from 'Blacks' by language. Most speak Afrikaans or English as a first language, as opposed to Bantu languages such as Zulu or Xhosa. They also tend to have more European-sounding names than Bantu names.

In the Middle East

Arab world

Black African and Near Eastern peoples have interacted since prehistoric times. Some historians estimate that as many as 14 million black slaves crossed the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Sahara Desert in the Arab slave trade from 650 to 1900 CE. The Moroccan Sultan Moulay Ismail "the Bloodthirsty" (1672–1727) raised a corps of 150,000 black slaves, called his Black Guard, who coerced the country into submission.

In more recent times, about 1000 CE, interactions between black people and Arabs resulted in the incorporation of extensive Arabic vocabulary into Swahili, which became a useful ''lingua franca'' for merchants. Some of this linguistic exchange occurred as part of the slave trade; the history of Islam and slavery shows that the major juristic schools traditionally accepted the institution of slavery. As a result, Arab influence spread along the east coast of Africa and to some extent into the interior (see Swahili people). Timbuktu was a trading outpost that linked West Africa with Berber, Arab, and Jewish traders throughout the Arab World. As a result of these interactions, some female-mediated gene flow into the Middle East from Sub-Saharan Africa can be observed in certain populations.

According to Dr. Carlos Moore, resident scholar at Brazil's University of the state of Bahia, Afro-multiracials in the Arab world self-identify in ways that resemble Latin America. He claims that black-looking Arabs, much like black-looking Latin Americans, consider themselves white because they have some distant white ancestry. Moore also claims that a film about Egyptian President Anwar Sadat had to be canceled when Sadat discovered that an African-American had been cast to play him. In fact, the 1983 television movie ''Sadat'', starring Louis Gossett, Jr., was not canceled. The Egyptian government refused to let the drama air in Egypt, partially on the grounds of the casting of Gossett.

Sadat's mother was a dark-skinned Sudanese woman and his father was a lighter-skinned Egyptian. In response to an advertisement for an acting position he remarked, "I am not white but I am not exactly black either. My blackness is tending to reddish".

Fathia Nkrumah was another Egyptian with ties to Black Africa. She was the late wife of Ghanaian revolutionary Kwame Nkrumah, whose marriage was seen as helping plant the seeds of cooperation between Egypt and other African countries as they struggled for independence from European colonization, which in turn helped advance the formation of the African Union.

Because of the patriarchal nature of Arab society, Arab men had more use of black female slaves than black male slaves, more black women were enslaved than men, and, because the Qur'an was interpreted to permit sexual relations between a male master and his female slave outside of marriage, many mixed race children resulted. When an enslaved woman became pregnant with her Arab captor's child, she became “umm walad” or “mother of a child”, a status that granted her privileged rights. The child would have prospered from the wealth of the father and been given rights of inheritance. Because of patrilineality, the children were born free and sometimes even became successors to their ruling fathers, as was the case with Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur, (whose mother was a Fulani concubine), who ruled Morocco from 1578 to 1608. Such tolerance, however, was not extended to wholly black persons, even when technically "free," and the notion that to be black meant to be a slave became a common belief. The term "abd", (,) "slave," remains a common term for black people in the Middle East, often though not always derogatory.

Turkey

Beginning several centuries ago, a number of sub-Saharan Africans were brought by slave traders during the Ottoman Empire to plantations between Antalya and Istanbul in modern-day Turkey. Some of their descendants remain, mixed with the rest of the population in these areas, and many migrated to larger cities. Some came from the island of Crete following the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923.

Israel

About 150,000 black people live in Israel, amounting to just over 2% of the nation's population. The vast majority of these, some 120,000, are Beta Israel, most of whom came during the 1980s and 1990s. In addition, Israel is home to over 5,000 members of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem movement who reside mainly in a distinct neighborhood in the Negev town of Dimona. Unknown numbers of black converts to Judaism reside in Israel, most of then converts from the UK, Canada, and the United States. Thousands of mixed-race individuals with non-black Jewish relatives also live in Israel.

In the Americas

Approximately 12 million Africans were shipped to the Americas during the Atlantic slave trade from 1492 to 1888. Today their descendants number approximately 150 million, most of whom live in the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America, including Brazil. Many have a multiracial background of African, Amerindian, European and Asian ancestry. The various regions developed complex social conventions with which their multi-ethnic populations were classified.

United States

In the first 200 years that black people had been in the United States, they commonly referred to themselves as Africans. In Africa, people primarily identified themselves by ethnic group (closely allied to language) and not by skin color. Individuals would be Ashanti, Igbo, Bakongo or Wolof. But when Africans were brought to the Americas they were forced to give up their ethnic affiliations for fear of uprisings. The result was the Africans had to intermingle with other Africans from different ethnic groups. This is significant as Africans came from a vast geographic region, the West African coastline stretching from Senegal to Angola and in some cases from the south east coast such as Mozambique. A new identity and culture was born that incorporated elements of the various ethnic groups and of European cultural heritage, resulting in fusions such as the Black church and Black English. This new identity was now based on skin color and African ancestry rather than any one ethnic group.

In March 1807, Britain, which largely controlled the Atlantic, declared the trans-atlantic slave trade illegal, as did the United States. (The latter prohibition took effect January 1, 1808, the earliest date on which Congress had the power to do so under Article I, Section 9 of the United States Constitution.)

By that time, the majority of black people were U.S.-born, so use of the term "African" became problematic. Though initially a source of pride, many blacks feared its continued use would be a hindrance to their fight for full citizenship in the US. They also felt that it would give ammunition to those who were advocating repatriating black people back to Africa. In 1835 black leaders called upon black Americans to remove the title of "African" from their institutions and replace it with "Negro" or "Colored American". A few institutions however elected to keep their historical names such as African Methodist Episcopal Church. "Negro" and "colored" remained the popular terms until the late 1960s.

The term ''black'' was used throughout but not frequently as it carried a certain stigma. In his 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. uses the terms ''Negro'' 15 times and ''black'' 4 times. Each time he uses ''black'' it is in parallel construction with ''white'' (for example,, black men and white men). With the successes of the civil rights movement a new term was needed to break from the past and help shed the reminders of legalized discrimination. In place of ''Negro'', ''black'' was promoted as standing for racial pride, militancy and power. Some of the turning points included the use of the term "Black Power" by Kwame Toure (Stokely Carmichael) and the release of James Brown's song "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud". In 1988 Jesse Jackson urged Americans to use the term African American because the term has a historical cultural base. Since then African American and black have essentially a coequal status. There is still much controversy over which term is more appropriate. Some such as Maulana Karenga and Owen Alik Shahadah argue African-American is more appropriate because it accurately articulates geography and historical origin. Others have argued that "Black" is a better term because "African" suggests foreignness, despite the long presence of Black people in the US. Still others believe the term black is inaccurate because African Americans have a variety of skin tones. Surveys show that the majority of Black Americans have no preference for whether "African American" or "Black" is employed to describe them, although they also show that there is a slight preference for "Black" in personal settings and "African American" in more formal settings. The appropriateness of the term "African American" is further confused, however, by increases in the number of immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America. The more recent African immigrants may sometimes view themselves, and be viewed, as culturally distinct from native descendants of African slaves.

The U.S. census race definitions says a black is a person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. It includes people who indicate their race as "Black, African Am., or Negro," or who provide written entries such as African American, Afro American, Kenyan, Nigerian, or Haitian. However, the Census Bureau notes that these classifications are socio-political constructs and should not be interpreted as scientific or anthropological.

A considerable portion of the U.S. population identified as ''black'' actually have some Native American or White ancestry. For instance, genetic studies of African American people show an ancestry that is on average 17–18% European.

One drop rule

Historically, the United States used a colloquial term, the ''one-drop rule'', to designate a black person as any person with any known African ancestry. Legally the definition varied from state to state. Thomas Jefferson had slaves who were legally white (less than 25% Black) and legally slaves (mother was a slave). Outside of the US, some other countries have adopted the practice, but the definition of who is black and the extent to which the one drop "rule" applies varies from country to country.

The one drop rule may have originated as a means of increasing the number of black slaves and been maintained as an attempt to keep the white race pure. One of the results of the one drop rule was uniting the African American community and preserving an African identity. Some of the most prominent civil rights activists were multiracial, and advocated equality for all.

Blackness

thumb|upright|right|Barack Obama, the first black president of the United States, was throughout his campaign criticized as being either "too black" or "not black enough".The concept of blackness in the United States has been described as the degree to which one associates themselves with mainstream African American culture and values. To a certain extent, this concept is not so much about race but more about culture and behavior. Blackness can be contrasted with "acting white" where black Americans are said to behave with assumed characteristics of stereotypical white Americans, with regard to fashion, dialect, taste in music, and possibly, from the perspective of a significant number of Black youth, academic achievement.

The notion of blackness can also be extended to non-black people. Toni Morrison once described Bill Clinton as the first black president, because of his warm relations with African Americans, his poor upbringing and also because he is a jazz musician. Christopher Hitchens was offended by the notion of Clinton as the first black president noting "we can still define blackness by the following symptoms: alcoholic mothers, under-the-bridge habits...the tendency to sexual predation and shameless perjury about the same" Some black activists were also offended, claiming Clinton used his knowledge of black culture to exploit black people like no other president before for political gain, while not serving black interests. They note his lack of action during the Rwanda genocide and his welfare reform which some claim led to the worst child poverty since the 1960s along with the fact that the number of black people in jail increased during his administration.

The question of blackness also arose in Democrat Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign. Commentators have questioned whether Obama, who was elected the first black President of the United States, is black enough, as his mother was white American, and his father was a black Kenyan immigrant. Obama refers to himself interchangeably as black and African American.

Brazil

The topic of race in Brazil is a complex and diverse one. A Brazilian child was never automatically identified with the racial type of one or both parents, nor were there only two categories to choose from. Between a pure black and a very light mulatto over a dozen racial categories would be recognized in conformity with the combinations of hair color, hair texture, eye color, and skin color. These types grade into each other like the colors of the spectrum, and no one category stands significantly isolated from the rest. That is, race referred to appearance, not heredity.

There is some disagreement among scholars over the effects of social status on racial classifications in Brazil. It is generally believed that upward mobility and education results in reclassification of individuals into lighter skinned categories. The popular claim is that in Brazil poor whites are considered black and wealthy blacks are considered white. Some scholars disagree arguing that whitening of one's social status may be open to people of mixed race, but a typically black person will consistently be identified as black regardless of wealth or social status.

Statistics

+Demographics of Brazil
Year!! White !! Pardo!! Black
1835	24.4%	18.2%	51.4%
2000	53.7%	38.5%

From the year 1500 to 1850 an estimated 3.5 million Africans were forcibly shipped to Brazil. An estimated 80 million Brazilians, almost half the population, are at least in part descendants of these Africans. Brazil has the largest population of Afro-descendants outside of Africa. In contrast to the US there were no segregation or anti-miscegenation laws in Brazil and as a result intermarriage has affected a large majority of the Brazilian population. Even much of the white population has either African or Amerindian blood. According to the last census 54% identified themselves as white, 6.2% identified themselves as black and 39.5% identified themselves as Pardo (brown)- a broad multiracial category.

A philosophy of whitening emerged in Brazil in the 19th century. Until recently the government did not keep data on race. However, statisticians estimate that in 1835 half the population was black, one fifth was Pardo (brown) and one fourth white. By 2000 the black population had fallen to only 6.2% and the Pardo had increased to 40% and white to 55%. Essentially most of the black population was absorbed into the multiracial category by intermarriage. A recent study found that at least 29% of the middle class white Brazilian population had some recent African ancestry.

Race relations in Brazil

Because of the ideology of miscegenation, Brazil has avoided the polarization of society into black and white. The bitter and sometimes violent racial tensions that divide the US are notably absent in Brazil.

However, the philosophy of the racial democracy in Brazil has drawn criticism from some quarters. Brazil has one of the largest gaps in income distribution in the world. The richest 10% of the population earn 28 times the average income of the bottom 40%. The richest 10 percent is almost exclusively white. One-third of the population lives under the poverty line, with blacks and other non-whites accounting for 70 percent of the poor.

In the US, black people earn 75% of what white people earn. In Brazil, non-whites earn less than 50% of what whites earn. Some have posited that Brazil does in fact practice the one drop rule when social economic factors are considered. This is because the gap in income between blacks and other non-whites is relatively small compared to the large gap between whites and non-whites. Other factors such as illiteracy and education level show the same patterns. Unlike in the US where African Americans were united in the civil rights struggle, in Brazil the philosophy of whitening has helped divide blacks from other non-whites and prevented a more active civil rights movement.

Though Afro-Brazilians make up half the population there are very few black politicians. The city of Salvador, Bahia for instance is 80% Afro-Brazilian but has never had a black mayor. Critics indicate that US cities that have a black majority, such as Detroit and New Orleans, have never had white mayors since first electing black mayors in the 1970s.

Non-white people also have limited media visibility. The Latin American media, in particular the Brazilian media, has been accused of hiding its black and indigenous population. For example the telenovelas or soaps are said to be a hotbed of white, largely blonde and blue/green-eyed actors who resemble Scandinavians or other northern Europeans more than they resemble the typical whites of Brazil, who are mostly of Southern European descent.

These patterns of discrimination against non-whites have led some to advocate for the use of the Portuguese term 'negro' to encompass non-whites so as to renew a black consciousness and identity, in effect an African descent rule.

In Asia and Australasia

China

As of August, 2008, ''The Migration Information Source'' article noted that "A Nigerian Embassy spokesman estimated that Nigerians possibly make up the largest group of Black Africans in China, with about 2,000 to 3,000 Nigerians in Guangdong in 2006. Most businessmen only stay temporarily."

India and Southeast Asia

The Great Andamanese are one of five Afro Asian ethnic groups (Adivasi or tribal) native to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; they are among the first inhabitants of what is now India, arriving over 70,000 years ago. They are facing extinction. The other four ethnic groups are the Jangil, Jarawa, Onge and Sentinelese. By their external physical appearance (phenotype) such people resemble Black Africans with dark skin and sometimes tightly coiled hair. There have been suggestions of a Black African origin. However, in the case of the Andamanese people, a study conducted by the NCBI indicated that the Andamanese people possessed closer affinities with the Southeast Asian population than with the Black African population.

In South India there are also several communities of Black African descent, such as the Sheedis/Siddis, specifically the Siddis of Karnataka, who descend from Zanj (Black African) slaves. In Pakistan, Zanj descendants are known as the Makrani.

Other black people of Southeast Asia, collectively known as Negritos, include the Aeta people of Luzon and the Ati of Panay in the Philippines.

Melanesia

There are several groups of dark-skinned people who live in various parts of Asia, Australia and Oceania who sometimes are referred to as black people. They include the Indigenous Australians, the Melanesians (now divided into Austronesian-speaking populations and Papuans, and including the great genetic diversity of New Guinea), the Semang people of the Malay peninsula, and indigenous first nation Fijians.

In Europe

United Kingdom

According to the Office for National Statistics, as of the 2001 census, there are over a million black people in the United Kingdom; 1% of the total population describe themselves as "Black Caribbean", 0.8% as "Black African", and 0.2% as "Black other". Britain encouraged the immigration of workers from the Caribbean after World War II; the first symbolic movement was those who came on the ship the ''Empire Windrush''. The preferred official umbrella term is "black and minority ethnic" (BME), but sometimes the term "black" is used on its own, to express unified opposition to racism, as in the Southall Black Sisters, which started with a mainly British Asian constituency.

France

France is an ethnically diverse nation, with about 2.5 – 5 million black people.

Balkans

Due to the Ottoman slave trade that had flourished in the Balkans, the coastal town of Ulcinj in Montenegro had its own black community. As a consequence of the slave trade and privateer activity, a considerable number of Ulcinj inhabitants until 1878 were black. The Ottoman Army also sent an estimated 30,000 Black African troops and cavalrymen to its expedition in Hungary during the Austro-Turkish War of 1716–18.

Eastern Europe

As African states became independent in the 1960s, the Soviet Union offered many of their citizens the chance to study in Russia. Over a period of 40 years, about 400,000 African students from various countries moved to Russia to pursue higher studies, including many Black Africans. This extended beyond the Soviet Union to many countries of the Eastern bloc.

Debates on race

In Afrocentrism

A controversy over the skin color and ethnic origins of the ancient Egyptians was sparked as part of the Afrocentric debate. Afrocentrist scholars such as Cheikh Anta Diop contend that ancient Egypt was primarily a "black civilization". One source cited in support of their argument is Herodotus, who wrote around 450 B.C. that "Colchians, Ethiopians and Egyptians have thick lips, broad nose, woolly hair and they are burnt of skin." However, Classical scholar Frank Snowden, Jr. cautions against the reliance on accounts by ancient writers to describe the physical characteristics of other ancient peoples, as they held different connotations from those of modern-day terminology in the West. He also points out that other ancient writers clearly distinguished between Egyptians and Ethiopians.

Keita and Boyce confront this issue in a 1996 article entitled, "The Geographical Origins and Population Relationships of Early Ancient Egyptians". As anthropologists, they point out the danger in relying on ancient interpretation to reveal for us the biological make up of a population. In any case they contend, the relevant data indicates greater similarity between Egyptians and Ethiopians than the former group with the Ancient Greeks.

Ancient Egyptians are often portrayed in modern media as Caucasians. Afrocentrists, in particular, have been critical of this. According to Egyptologists, ancient Egypt was a multicultural society of Middle Eastern, Northeast African, and Saharan influences. Afrocentrists argue that anthropological and archaeological evidence shows that what they term an ''Africoid'' element was evident in ancient Egypt, which they argue was predominant in Abydos in the First dynasty of Egypt.

See also

African-American

African diaspora

African Jews

Afro-Europeans

Afro-Asian

Afro Asians (African Asians)

Afro-Latino

Afro-Trinbagonian

Black British

Black Canadians

Black Hispanic and Latino Americans

Black Indians

Black Jews

Black nationalism

Black Power

Black pride

Black separatism

Black supremacy

Creole peoples

List of topics related to the Black Diaspora

Mulatto

Negritos

Stereotypes of black people

Sub-Saharan Africa

''The Minds of Marginalized Black Men'' (book)

Footnotes

Category:Latin American caste system Category:Race

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