Paul is a 2011 British-American science fiction comedy film directed by Greg Mottola, written by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and starring Pegg, Frost, and the voice of Seth Rogen as the title character. The film contains numerous references to other science fiction films, especially those of Steven Spielberg, as well as to general science fiction fandom.

Plot[link]

Graeme Willy and Clive Gollings (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) are two English comic book enthusiasts and best friends who have traveled to the United States to attend the annual San Diego Comic-Con International and to take a road trip in their RV to visit sites of major extraterrestrial importance. When stopping for something to eat they meet two rednecks and when Graeme laughs with them they start tormenting him. They leave quickly and dent the rednecks' car. At night, along the highway, they notice lights following them. Wrongly thinking the lights to be from the rednecks' dented car they speed up, but the car passes them and then crashes. They investigate the damaged car, and discover an alien named Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen), who is in desperate need of help. Although shocked by the appearance of Paul, Graeme agrees to give Paul a ride, but Clive (who fainted after seeing Paul) is displeased about not being consulted about the idea. Later, United States Secret Service Agent Lorenzo Zoil (Jason Bateman) arrives at the site of the crashed car and informs his mysterious female superior, called the "Big Guy", over the radio that he is closing in on Paul, and she recommends using local law enforcement as back-up. She then recruits two inept rookie agents, Haggard (Bill Hader) and O'Reilly (Joe Lo Truglio), to aid in his mission, without informing them about the nature of their target. Zoil assures the Big Guy he can handle the problem himself, but the rookies are employed anyway.

Graeme, Clive and Paul pull into an RV park run by Ruth Buggs (Kristen Wiig), a Christian fundamentalist, and her over-bearing father, Moses (John Carroll Lynch). The trio bond around their camp grill and Paul reveals that since he was captured by the government, he had been advising them in all manner of scientific and sociological achievements. Having divulged everything that he knows, Paul has outlived his usefulness as a receptacle of knowledge, thus his captors intended to surgically remove Paul's brain and harvest his stem cells, in an attempt to harness his physical abilities (Paul had previously demonstrated both invisibility and healing powers). With the help from a friend inside Area 51, Paul sent an SOS to his home planet and was escaping to rendezvous with them. The next morning, Paul intentionally reveals himself to Ruth during a theological discussion, and the trio are forced to kidnap her and make a hasty escape. Moses sees Paul while the alien is trying to collect Clive's passport (that he left with Ruth after parking), and, believing him to be a demon, grabs his shotgun and chases after them in his truck. Paul shatters Ruth's faith by sharing his knowledge of the universe via telepathic link; at first horrified, Ruth suddenly becomes eager to sin, which her father had raised her to fear doing. She initially does not trust Paul, but he heals her left eye, which she lost her vision in at the age of four.

When the foursome stop at a bar to rest, Ruth tries to make a phone call to her dad, but Zoil answers, as part of the operation to capture Paul. At the end of the phone call in which Ruth gave no information, she runs into the rednecks, who show an interest in raping her. She evades them, and informs Graeme and Clive they need to leave. At this point, the rednecks run into the men again, and a fight starts. Moses is also at the bar, and he sees Ruth, but notices her eye. As he is so stunned, he fails to react and loses track of the trio as they dash for the RV. The rednecks chase them down, but Paul appears outside the RV. The two rednecks faint and they drive away. Later that night, Paul, Graeme, Ruth and Clive sit down together near an RV park. Ruth falls asleep but goes back to the RV. In the morning, Graeme and Clive find it difficult to hide Paul from a busy town. Paul goes into a comic book with Clive as Graeme goes to pick up Ruth. Paul has to pose a statue there while they wait.

Meanwhile, Ruth was asked questions by Agent Zoil, but lied and said she knew nothing of a one-eyed girl or two British "nerds". She and Graeme drove into town to pick up Clive and Paul, but Paul had been exposed after he was caught by O'Reilly. Clive and Paul jump into the RV, and Haggard and O'Reilly report to Zoil. The rookies are asked to return to the base, but they want to catch the alien themselves. Moses is also in town, still trying to steal Ruth back, so he chases the RV. Clive and Graeme stop to buy fireworks at a shop but end up stealing them.

Paul eventually reveals his intention to return to Tara Walton (Blythe Danner), the girl whose dog he crashed his ship on in 1947 and who subsequently saved his life, who is now an old woman. After spending her life being ridiculed for what she said she saw, Tara is grateful to see that Paul exists. She turns her gas cooker on to make tea, but is interrupted by Haggard and O'Reilly on one side of the house, and Zoil on the other. As the motley crew escapes and drives off with Paul, O'Reilly shoots at them, and the gas ignites, destroying Tara's house and apparently killing O'Reilly. A winded Zoil attempts to follow, but Haggard takes off first, shooting at Moses, running him off the road and catching up to the RV. However, due to an error in judgement, Haggard accidentally drives off a cliff and is killed, leaving Zoil as the last remaining agent in pursuit. He reassures the Big Guy that he will have Paul within an hour, but she declares herself tired of waiting, and informs Zoil that she has ordered a military response.

When Paul, Graeme, Clive, Ruth and Tara arrive at the rendezvous, they set off a signal and wait. Eventually, eerie orange lights show up over the surrounding trees, and everyone believes that it is Paul's rescue ship. However, it is an army helicopter, with the Big Guy (Sigourney Weaver) on board. As she and three troops move to shoot Paul, Zoil arrives, and it is revealed that he was Paul's inside contact who helped him to escape. Zoil disarms the men, but is shot in the shoulder by the Big Guy. Tara punches out the Big Guy, but Moses appears with his shotgun and mortally wounds Graeme while aiming at Paul. Paul heals him and collapses, briefly appearing to be dead before he quickly recovers; Moses proclaims this to be a miracle from God. The Big Guy regains consciousness, but is immediately crushed by the arriving alien ship. Paul begins to depart and informs Tara that she is coming with him to live a better life. He bids farewell to his friends, hoping to meet them again one day. Two years later, Graeme, Clive, Ruth and even O'Reilly are shown again at the Comic-Con convention, where Graeme and Clive are promoting Paul, their new hit novel.

Cast[link]

Seth Rogen provides the voice and motion capture work for Paul.

• Simon Pegg as Graeme Willy
• Nick Frost as Clive Gollings
• Seth Rogen as Paul (voice)^[4]
• Jason Bateman as Special Agent Lorenzo Zoil. Bateman described his character as an "exaggerated nasty guy". Bateman also stated he based Zoil on Yaphet Kotto in Midnight Run and Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive.^[5]
• Kristen Wiig as Ruth Buggs
• Bill Hader as Agent Haggard
• Blythe Danner^[6] as Tara Walton
• Joe Lo Truglio^[6] as Agent O'Reilly
• John Carroll Lynch as Moses Buggs, Ruth's father
• Jane Lynch as Pat Stevenson
• David Koechner as Gus, a hilbilly Graeme and Clive first encounter in a Nevada gas station.
• Jesse Plemons as Jake, Gus's friend.
• Sigourney Weaver as "The Big Guy".^[6] Weaver described the role as "a dream come true". In an interview with Graham Norton, Weaver stated: 'It's a love letter to sci-fi fans. I jumped at the chance to be in it. To find a comedy that also pays homage to sci-fi is a dream come true'.^[7]

• Jeffrey Tambor as Adam Shadowchild, a famous science fiction writer

In an interview for the DVD release of Paul, Pegg and Frost made the film to demonstrate their love for Steven Spielberg's films Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, as well as their favorite science fiction films.^[8] After they mentioned the project to Spielberg, he suggested he might make a cameo appearance, and a scene was added to include him as a voice on a speakerphone in 1980 discussing ideas with Paul for his soon to become box office hit E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.^[9][10] According to Robert Kirkman, he, along with Invincible co-creator Cory Walker and current Invincible artist Ryan Ottley, had a cameo in the film as The Big Guy's henchmen.^[11]

Production[link]

The premise for Paul came from Pegg and Frost in 2003, while they were filming Shaun of the Dead.^[1]

To help with the script, Pegg and Frost went on their own road trip across America and used ideas from it to add to the script.^[12]

According to Mottola, the film was given the green-light shortly before the late-2000s recession; if it had been delayed, "they probably wouldn’t have made the movie."^[1] The budget for the film was around $40 million, which included about $15 million for 550 effects shots from Double Negative.^[1]

Principal photography, including 50 days in the New Mexico desert,^[1] wrapped on September 9, 2009,^[13] with additional scenes filmed in July 2010 at the Albuquerque Convention Center, which was designed to look like the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con.^[14] After obtaining permission to use the Comic-Con brand, the settings had to be changed to avoid crowds, and extras were used to portray attendees since there had been some issues regarding filming inside San Diego's actual convention center. As a result, only exterior shots of the San Diego Convention Center were filmed on the streets of downtown San Diego.^{[citation needed]}

During filming, Joe Lo Truglio was a stand-in for the character Paul, the only character who was created by CGI. Seth Rogen did some motion capture in pre-production and voice work during post-production.^[15]

The cover art for the fictional comic book Encounter Briefs was drawn by alternative comics artist Daniel Clowes.^[16]

Numerous scenes throughout the film deal with the controversy of Darwin and Evolution vs. Religion and Creationism, with the character of Paul the alien being the proverbial 'fly-in-the-ointment' of conservative Judeo/Christian/Islamic doctrine. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who are atheists,^[17] have alluded in BBC Radio interviews they had wished to delve deeper into the controversy but cut several scenes short in favor of flow and timing on film.^{[citation needed]}

Release[link]

A teaser trailer was released on October 18, 2010.^[18] The teaser trailer featured the song "Just the Two of Us" by Grover Washington, Jr. and "Run With the Wolves" by The Prodigy. It was shown before certain screenings of Vampires Suck, Let Me In, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, Burke and Hare, The Green Hornet and The Social Network in the United Kingdom.^{[citation needed]}

The American trailer featured "It Came Out of the Sky" by Creedence Clearwater Revival, "Human Rocket" by Devo, and "All Over the World" by the Electric Light Orchestra.^{[citation needed]}

The film had its world premiere in London on February 7, 2011.^[19]

Reception[link]

As of September 2011, the film has received generally positive reviews; Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 72% based on 184 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3 out of 10; it fared less well among 36 of that website's "top critics", scoring a 58% (21 fresh reviews and 15 rotten).^[20]

Empire rated the film "excellent" (four stars out of five) stating, "Broader and more accessible than either Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, Paul is pure Pegg and Frost – clever, cheeky and very, very funny. You'll never look at E.T. in the same way again."^[21] SFX also gives the film four stars out of five, saying "the film veers dangerously close to alienating (no pun intended) all but its geek core audience, [though] the more obvious concessions to a mainstream crowd [are] never enough to derail the film's laugh-a-minute ride"; SFX also calls it a "triumph of visual effects, convincing characterisation and bad taste humour."^[22]

Peter Bradshaw gave the film two stars out of five and called it a "goofy, amiable piece of silliness" exhibiting "self-indulgence" and possessing a "distinct shortage of real gags".^[23] On the same scale Nigel Andrews gave the film only one star, calling it a "faltering extraterrestrial knockabout".^[19] The Independent grades the film two stars out of five, saying "Pegg is likeable as usual, Frost more doltish than usual, and Kristen Wiig an appealing convert from Bible thumper to ladette", and notes that "from time to time, clever ideas rear their heads – like the idea that 'Paul' has been the brains behind all science fiction and UFO initiatives for the last 30 years, including Close Encounters and The X-Files – but they soon return to the film's default setting of laddish japes and a conviction that the word 'cocksucker' will always get a laugh."^[24] Common Sense Media gave the film three stars and an iffy rating for ages 16–17. Saying "Cheerfully dumb sci-fi comedy has sex, drug humor."^[25] IGN also gave the film three stars, stating "Simon Pegg and Nick Frost send up everything from Star Wars to E.T. in this sci-fi comedy."^{[citation needed]}

Upon its U.S. release, Roger Ebert gave Paul a mixed review of two and a half stars out of four, saying it's a "movie that teeters on the edge of being really pretty good and loses its way. I'm not sure quite what goes wrong, but you can see that it might have gone right."^[26] According to Manohla Dargis, "As genial, foolish and demographically engineered as it sounds (hailing all fan boys and girls), Paul is at once a buddy flick and a classic American road movie of self- (and other) discovery, interspersed with buckets of expletives and some startling (especially for a big-studio release) pokes at Christian fundamentalism....The movie has its attractions, notably Mr. Pegg and Mr. Frost (and of course Mr. Bateman), whose ductile, (noncomputer) animated and open faces were made for comedy....Paul proves the weak link. One problem is that Mr. Rogen, however comically inclined, has become overexposed, and there’s just something too familiar and predictable about this voice coming out of that body. Yet while Paul seems great conceptually, he’s not particularly interesting or surprising, despite a funny recap of what he’s been doing on his time on Earth. With his vibe and vocabulary, shorts and weed, juvenilia and sentimentality, Paul turns out to be not much different from a lot of guys who have wreaked comedy havoc on American screens lately, even if this one only wants to beam up, not knock up."^[27]

Box office[link]

In North America, Paul opened in March 2011 at #5, with $13,043,310 behind Limitless, Rango, Battle: Los Angeles, and The Lincoln Lawyer.^[28] The film closed after 63 days in theaters, grossing $37,412,945 domestically, just below its $40 million budget. The film grossed $60,571,070 international, with a total of $97,984,015 worldwide. ^[29]

Home media[link]

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on 13 June 2011 and was for released in North America on 9 August 2011. There are three versions of the film.^{[citation needed]}

The DVD release features an audio commentary with director Greg Mottola, stars Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Bill Hader, and producer Nira Park; 2 featurettes; "Simon's Silly Faces"; photo galleries; storyboards and posters; and a blooper reel. The US Blu-ray release features all the DVD supplements with nine more featurettes and a digital copy.^[30]

Soundtrack[link]

Paul: Music From The Original Motion Picture was released on February 21, 2011 by Universal Music.^[31] It intersperses David Arnold's score with the rock songs appearing in the film.

All songs written and composed by David Arnold, except as noted. 

Potential sequel[link]

Simon Pegg has stated that he would like to film a sequel to Paul called Pauls ^[32], however, the time and expense it would take means it is unlikely to happen^[33] in 2013.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Paul at the Internet Movie Database
• Paul at AllRovi
• Paul at Box Office Mojo
• Paul at Rotten Tomatoes
• Paul at Metacritic

Paul may refer to:

• Paul (name), a given name or surname (includes a list of people with that name)

People[link]

Christianity[link]

• Paul the Apostle (c. 5 – c. 67), also known as Paul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Christian missionary and author of much of the New Testament
• Saint Paul (disambiguation), multiple other people and locations named "Saint Paul"
• Pope Paul (disambiguation), multiple Popes of the Roman Catholic Church

Roman and Byzantine empire[link]

• Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus (c. 229 BC – 160 BC), Roman general
• Julius Paulus Prudentissimus (fl. 2nd century AD), Roman jurist
• Paulus Catena (died 362), Roman notary
• Paulus Alexandrinus (4th century), Hellenistic astrologer
• Paul of Aegina or Paulus Aegineta (c. 625 – c. 690), Greek surgeon

Royals[link]

• Paul I of Russia (1754–1801), Tsar of Russia
• Paul of Greece (1901–1964), King of Greece

Other people[link]

• Paolo Giovio or Paulus Jovius (1483–1552), Italian bishop
• Paul the Deacon or Paulus Diaconus (c. 720 – c. 799), Italian Benedictine monk

Places[link]

• Paul, Cornwall, United Kingdom
• Paul, Idaho, United States
• Paul, Cape Verde

Other uses[link]

• Paul (bakery), bakery franchise based in France
• Paul (film), 2011 film with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost
• Paul (play), play by Howard Brenton
• "Paul" (song), by the German punk band Die Ärzte
• Paul (Pokémon), fictional character
• St. Paul (oratorio), work by Felix Mendelssohn originally entitled 'Paulus' (in its German version)
• Hurricane Paul (1982)
• Hurricane Paul (2006)
• Paul is dead, conspiracy theory about Paul McCartney
• Paul the Octopus (2008–2010), an octopus that correctly guessed results in the 2010 World Cup
  • Paul II (octopus), the successor of Paul the Octopus
• Poker Face Paul, a Game Gear video game that comes in blackjack and poker versions

See also[link]

• Paula (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Simon Pegg
Pegg at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2010.
Born	Simon John Beckingham (1970-02-14) 14 February 1970 (age 42) Brockworth, Gloucestershire, England
Other names	The Fresh Pegg
Occupation	Actor, comedian, writer, producer, singer, director
Years active	1995–present
Spouse	Maureen McCann (2005–present)
Children	Daughter
Website
www.peggster.net

Simon Pegg (born Simon John Beckingham; 14 February 1970) is an English actor, comedian, writer, film producer, and director. He is best known for having co-written and starred in various Edgar Wright features, mainly Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the comedy series Spaced.

He also portrayed Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the 2009 Star Trek film, Benji Dunn in Mission: Impossible III and its sequel Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, and Thompson in The Adventures of Tintin. Much of his major work has been in collaboration with some combination of Wright, Nick Frost, Jessica Hynes, and Dylan Moran. He also starred in and co-wrote Paul (with Frost) and Run Fatboy Run (with Michael Ian Black).

Early life[link]

Pegg was born in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, England, the son of Gillian Rosemary (née Smith), a civil servant, and John Henry Beckingham, a jazz musician and keyboard salesman.^[1] His parents divorced when he was seven and he took on the surname "Pegg" after his mother re-married.^[2][3] He attended many schools, including Castle Hill Primary School;^{[citation needed]} Brockworth Comprehensive Secondary School;^{[citation needed]} The King's School, Gloucester;^[4] and later Stratford-upon-Avon College to study English literature and Theatre.^[5]He studied drama at the University of Bristol and wrote his undergraduate thesis on "A Marxist overview of popular 1970s cinema and hegemonic discourses".^[3] At Bristol he appeared in a Drama Society production of Howard Barker's Victory alongside Sarah Kane and David Greig.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

Early appearances in TV series and films include Asylum, Six Pairs of Pants, Faith in the Future, Big Train and Hippies. Between 1998 and 2004, Pegg was regularly featured on BBC Radio 4's The 99p Challenge. In 1999, he created and co-wrote the Channel 4 sitcom Spaced with Jessica Stevenson. For this project Pegg brought in Nick Frost. For his performance in this series, Pegg was nominated for a British Comedy Award as Best Male Comedy Newcomer. Pegg co-wrote (with Spaced director Edgar Wright) and starred in the "romantic zombie comedy" film Shaun of the Dead, released in April 2004. At George A. Romero's invitation, Pegg and Wright made cameo appearances in Romero's film, Land of the Dead. In 2004, Pegg also starred in a spin-off of the television show Danger! 50,000 Volts! called Danger! 50,000 Zombies!, in which he played a zombie hunter named Dr. Russel Fell.

Pegg at a premiere for Star Trek in April 2009

Pegg's other credits include the World War II mini-series Band of Brothers, guest appearances on Black Books, Brass Eye Special, I'm Alan Partridge, The Parole Officer and in the Factory Records story 24 Hour Party People. He also played the mutant bounty hunter Johnny Alpha, the Strontium Dog, in a series of Big Finish Productions audio plays based on the character from British comic 2000 AD and featured in Guest House Paradiso, a film based on the sitcom Bottom.

Pegg appeared in the Big Finish Productions Doctor Who audio story Invaders From Mars as Don Chaney, and portrayed the Editor in the 2005 Doctor Who episode "The Long Game". He also narrated the first series of the documentary series Doctor Who Confidential.

Upon completion of Shaun of the Dead, Pegg was questioned on whether he would be abandoning the British film industry for bigger and better things, to which he replied "It's not like I'm going to run off and do Mission: Impossible III!" However, he then went on to play Benji Dunn, an I.M.F. technician who assists Tom Cruise's character, Ethan Hunt.^[6] In 2006 he played an American character, Gus, in Big Nothing alongside David Schwimmer.

In 2006, Pegg and Wright completed their second film, Hot Fuzz, released in February 2007. The film is a police-action movie homage and also stars Nick Frost. Pegg plays Nicholas Angel, a London policeman who is transferred to rural Sandford, a fictional village situated in Pegg's home county of Gloucestershire, where grisly events take place.

In 2007, Pegg starred in The Good Night (directed by Jake Paltrow) and Run Fatboy Run directed by David Schwimmer and co-starring Thandie Newton and Hank Azaria.

In 2008, Pegg wrote the dialogue for an English language re-release of the cult 2006 animated Norwegian film, Free Jimmy. Pegg received screenwriting credit for this, and Pegg also voiced one of the main characters in the English language version, which has an international range of actors including Woody Harrelson.

Pegg co-wrote and starred with Frost in the film Paul, about two young men who encounter a comedic extraterrestrial alien during a road trip across the US.^[7][8] The completed script appeared on the 2008 Black List, a film-industry-compiled list of the best unproduced screenplays. Paul received two votes.^[9]

Pegg also announced that he and Wright had the idea for "the concluding part in what we are calling 'The Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy" (the first two being Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz). It is provisionally called The World Ends.^[10]

In those films and in Spaced, Pegg typically plays the leading hero while Frost plays the sidekick. However, he has revealed that Paul will reverse this dynamic.^[11]

Pegg in New York City

Pegg played engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the eleventh Star Trek film,^[12] released 8 May 2009. In 2010 he appeared as William Burke in Burke and Hare, a film directed by John Landis about the Ulster men who were notorious murderers and bodysnatchers in early 19th-century Edinburgh. His likeness was also used for the character of Wee Hughie in the comic book series The Boys; while this was done without Pegg's permission, he quickly became a fan of the title, and even wrote the introduction to the first bound volume.^[13] He also voiced Reepicheep, the heroic mouse in Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader.^[14]

Pegg reprised the role of Benji Dunn in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, making him the third actor in the film series, after Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames, to appear in more than one of the films.^[15] Despite having a minor role in his first appareance, Pegg became a member of the main cast in this film.

Personal life[link]

Pegg married Maureen McCann on 23 July 2005.^[16] On 21 February 2009, Pegg announced his wife was five months pregnant with the couple's first child.^[16] Their daughter Matilda^[17] was born circa early July, 2009.^[18] Pegg has stated on his personal Twitter feed that he is an atheist.^[19]

Along with Jonny Buckland, Pegg is godfather to Apple, daughter of close friends Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow^[20] in return Martin is godfather to Pegg's daughter.^[21] Pegg's parents and sister briefly appeared in Spaced while his mother alone appeared in both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

Pegg was awarded an honorary fellowship by the University of Gloucestershire on 4 December 2008.^[22]

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

Film[link]

Video games[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Simon Pegg

• Official website
• Simon Pegg at the Internet Movie Database
• Simon Pegg at AllRovi
• Simon Pegg at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Simon Pegg in Gloucestershire
• BBC Radio Gloucestershire interview with Simon and John Beckingham (his father) – from the set of Run Fatboy Run

Nick Frost
Frost at the San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2010.
Born	Nicholas John Frost (1972-03-28) 28 March 1972 (age 40) Dagenham, East London, England
Other names	Cutmaster Frost
Occupation	Actor, Comedian
Years active	1989–present
Spouse	Christina Frost

Nicholas John "Nick" Frost (born 28 March 1972) is an English actor, comedian and screenwriter. He is best known for his work with Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg in the role of Mike Watt in the television comedy Spaced, as well as the film characters Ed in Shaun of the Dead, PC/Sgt. Danny Butterman in Hot Fuzz, Clive Gollings in Paul, and drug-dealer Ron in Attack the Block. He is also well known for his various roles in the sketch show Man Stroke Woman.

Early life and career[link]

Frost was born in Dagenham, Essex, the son of office furniture designers.^[1] Frost attended Beal High School.

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (August 2010)

He worked as a waiter and appeared in corporate training video clips such as 'Chris Carter and The Coverplan Challenge', a Dixons Group sales video, before gaining fame as Tim's Army-obsessed best friend Mike in the British comedy Spaced, which was written by Pegg and Jessica Hynes and aired on Channel 4 for two series. In 2001, Frost played a small role in a one-off episode of Victoria Wood's Acorn Antiques. This was a specially written episode shown during the series, "The Sketch Show Story" that Victoria narrated, in which Frost played an armed robber who 'shot dead' Acorn Antiques' most lovable character, Mrs Overall (Julie Walters).

In 2002, Frost wrote and presented Danger! 50,000 Volts!, a spoof of the outdoors survival genre in which SAS experts or the like demonstrated how to improvise solutions to dangerous problems. In 2002, Frost also co-wrote and starred in The Sofa of Time with Matt King. In 2004, Frost appeared in Shaun of the Dead, a 'rom-zom-com' (romantic zombie comedy), written once again by Pegg along with Spaced director Edgar Wright. The film follows the life of Shaun, a disaffected store clerk who tries to win back his girlfriend in the midst of a zombie outbreak. Frost played Ed, the lovable oaf and best friend of Shaun. In late 2005 he starred in the comedy sketch show Man Stroke Woman, which aired on BBC Three. A second series of Man Stroke Woman was aired on BBC Three during February/March 2007. In early 2006, Frost played the lead character, Commander Henderson, in two series of the BBC Two science fiction sitcom, Hyperdrive. Also in 2006, he acted in a second feature film, Kinky Boots. Frost had a small appearance in the British comedy Look Around You, a parody of 1970s/80s era technology, and schools programming, parodying the format of programmes like Tomorrow's World, as a member of the crowd during a 'live' broadcast, as well as a caveman in the "music" episode in the first series.

Frost and Pegg appeared in a second Pegg-Wright feature, Hot Fuzz, an action and cop genre homage, set in Gloucestershire (actually filmed in and around Wells, Somerset, England). Frost plays bumbling Constable Danny Butterman, who partners up with Pegg's dynamic Nicholas Angel after the latter is transferred from metropolitan London. The pair teamed up again for the 2011 sci-fi movie Paul whose storyline concerned a fugitive alien. The two also starred in Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn as Thomson and Thompson.

Frost narrates UK's Channel 4 reality show Supernanny, and has made fleeting appearances in the Channel 4 TV surreal medical comedy series Green Wing, as "Just a Man" in pub scenes (when asked by Boyce who he is when talking to Dr. Guy Secretan, he responds, "Just a man.").

Personal life[link]

He is a good friend of fellow actor Simon Pegg. He currently resides with his half-Swedish wife, production executive Christina^[2] Frost,^[3] in St Margarets, London.^[4] He previously lived in Finsbury Park,^[5] which was also the filming location for Shaun of the Dead. In a 2005 interview, Frost stated that he was raised Catholic and is now an atheist.^[6] He is a supporter of West Ham United F.C., as well as being a rugby player, formerly playing for Barking RFC. On 22 June 2011, Frost's wife gave birth to a son.^[7]

Filmography[link]

Television[link]