Look up skinny in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Skinny can mean:

• Skinny (band), defunct British electronica/rock band
• SKINNY (directing team)
• Skinny Client Control Protocol
• Emaciation, underweight

See also[link]

• The Skinny (disambiguation)
• Steve Felton (Mushroomhead drummer)
• Club Skinny, a mid-1990s clubnight which gave birth to the Romo movement

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.

Bryan Cranston
Bryan Cranston in 2010
Born	Bryan Lee Cranston (1956-03-07) March 7, 1956 (age 56) Canoga Park, California, United States
Occupation	Actor, voice actor, screenwriter, film director
Years active	1982—
Spouse	Mickey Middleton (1980s to late 1980s; divorced) Robin Dearden (1989— )

Bryan Lee Cranston (born March 7, 1956) is an American actor. He is also a voice actor, writer and director. He is best known for his roles as Hal, the father in the Fox situation comedy Malcolm in the Middle and Walter White in the AMC drama series Breaking Bad, for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series three consecutive times. Since earning critical acclaim while starring in these television series, he has gone on to perform in many feature films.

Early life[link]

Cranston was born in Canoga Park, California, to Peggy Sell, a radio actress, and Joseph L. "Joe" Cranston, an actor and Hollywood producer.^[1][2] His great-grandmother was from County Clare, Ireland.^[3] Cranston grew up in the Los Angeles area, graduated from Canoga Park High School, and earned an associate degree in police science from Los Angeles Valley College.^[4]

Career[link]

Cranston performed as a youth, but his show business parents had mixed feelings about their son being involved in the profession, so he did not continue until years later.^[2]

1982–1999[link]

He began his acting career after college in local and regional theatres, getting his start at the Granada Theatre in the San Fernando Valley. Cranston has worked regularly since the late 1980s, mostly in minor roles. His advertising work includes commercials for Lay's potato chips, Excedrin, Honda Accord, and Coffee-Mate. His voice acting includes English dubbing of Japanese anime, under the name "Lee Stone". He was an original cast member of the ABC soap opera Loving, where he played Douglas (Doug) Donovan from 1983 to 1985.^[2] Cranston also starred in the short-lived series Raising Miranda in 1988.

His largest role prior to Malcolm in the Middle was as astronaut Buzz Aldrin in the HBO series From the Earth to the Moon. Cranston has also played astronaut Gus Grissom in the film That Thing You Do!.

In 1998, he appeared in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan as a one-armed military officer.

From 1994 through 1997, Cranston appeared in the recurring role of Dr. Tim Whatley, Jerry's dentist, on Seinfeld. Several episodes focused upon his relationship with Jerry and his paranoia about the dentist, in bizarre situations such as when he becomes obsessed with the notion that Tim and his female assistant were molesting him while he was unconscious during dental surgery, or when Whatley converts to Judaism and starts telling Jewish jokes while retaining the right to tell Catholic jokes as well (according to Jerry, Tim needs only Polish citizenship for "total joke-telling immunity").

1999 marked his second appearance for a recurring role, on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens as Doug Heffernan's annoying neighbor, Tim Sacksky. He works in marketing then in a later episode as a water purifier salesman and recruits Doug to sell them as well.

2000–present[link]

In 2000, Cranston landed a role on the series Malcolm in the Middle. He would eventually direct several episodes of the series, and received three Emmy nominations for his performance on the show.^[5] Cranston reprised his role in a cutaway gag in the Family Guy episode "I Take Thee Quagmire", killing Lois with a refrigerator door because of her incessant babbling, thus "freeing" himself and the kids.

Cranston wrote and directed the 1999 movie Last Chance.^[6]

Cranston has guest-starred in many television series, including The Flash where he plays a white-collar criminal searching for his estranged wife and daughter; Sabrina the Teenage Witch in which he was a lawyer attempting to free Sabrina from a contract; the sixth season episode of The X-Files, "Drive", playing a bigoted man who is being driven insane by high-pitched sonar waves; and Babylon 5 as Ericsson, the captain of a White Star vessel ordered into a suicide mission to plant misinformation within the enemy ranks. He also had a guest role in late 2006 on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, playing main character Ted's obnoxious co-worker and former boss Hammond Druthers. He more recently had a role as Lucifer in the ABC Family miniseries, Fallen.

He appeared as Nick Wrigley, the irresponsible uncle who steals Santa's sleigh to have a crazy ride to practically destroy Christmas in 'Twas the Night, a Disney Channel Original Movie that was released in the winter of 2001.

He appeared in 2007 Academy Award Best Picture nominee Little Miss Sunshine as the more successful business colleague of Greg Kinnear's character.

He has done voice acting for English dubbed anime series, including Royal Space Force – The Wings of Honneamise, Macross Plus, and Armitage III Polymatrix. In September 2008, Cranston narrated a pre-teen adventure/fantasy audiobook called Adventures with Kazmir the Flying Camel.^[7] More recent voice work includes the voice of Jim Gordon in the animated Batman: Year One.

Since 2008, Cranston has appeared in the starring role on AMC's original series Breaking Bad in which he plays Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. His character teams up with former student Jesse Pinkman, played by Aaron Paul, to manufacture methamphetamine. For his work on the series, Cranston has won the Emmy Award^[8] for lead actor in a drama series in each of the first three seasons of the show, becoming just the second person to win the award three consecutive times. The fourth season began airing in July, which was past the May 31 deadline for eligibility in the 2011 Emmy Awards. For the fourth season Cranston also became a producer for the series.

His 2010s work includes a supporting role in the drama The Lincoln Lawyer, and supporting roles in successful thrillers such as Drive and the Steven Soderbergh film Contagion. He has upcoming supporting roles in John Carter and Rock of Ages, and major roles in the Ben Affleck Iranian hostage drama Argo and the Total Recall remake, in which he plays the villain, who is the corrupted president of a fictional United States known as Euroamerica. He also participated in several episodes of the animated series Robot Chicken.^[9]

Personal life[link]

Cranston and wife Robin Dearden, September 2008

Cranston is married to Robin Dearden, whom he met on the set of the show Airwolf (1984). He was playing the villain of the week, and she played his hostage (held at gunpoint). They have a daughter, Taylor Dearden Cranston (born February 12, 1993). Cranston was previously married to Mickey Middleton, a writer.

Cranston played baseball when he was a student.^[2] He is a collector of baseball memorabilia and an avid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. In accepting his third Emmy as best lead actor in a drama series, he thanked his wife and daughter and told them that he loves them "more than baseball".

He resides in Albuquerque, New Mexico.^[10]

Filmography[link]

Film[link]

Television[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Bryan Cranston at the Internet Movie Database
• Bryan Cranston discusses Breaking Bad at AMCtv.com
• Bryan Cranston at Emmys.com

Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Background information
Birth name	Edward Christopher Sheeran
Born	(1991-02-17) 17 February 1991 (age 21)
Origin	Halifax, England
Genres	Folk, acoustic, hip hop, grime
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, producer, rapper, beatboxer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, BOSS Loop Pedal RC-30
Years active	2005–present
Labels	Asylum, Atlantic Records
Associated acts	Yelawolf, Devlin, Wiley, Ghetts, P Money, Wretch 32, Sway DaSafo, Jamie Woon, Yasmin, Amy Wadge[1]
Website	edsheeran.com

Edward Christopher "Ed" Sheeran (born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter who is currently signed to Asylum / Atlantic Records.^[2] Sheeran broke through commercially in June 2011, when his debut single "The A Team" debuted at number 3 on the UK chart.^[3]

Life and career[link]

1991–2011: Early life and career beginnings[link]

Sheeran was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire to Irish^[4] and English^[5] parents, before moving to Framlingham, Suffolk; he is a cousin of TV journalist and presenter Gordon Burns.^[6] He learned guitar at a very young age, and began writing songs during his time at Thomas Mills High School in Framlingham.^[7] His early childhood memories, referred to in a interview on the Zane Lowe show, included listening to Van Morrison on his countless trips to London with his parents and going to an intimate gig with Damien Rice in Ireland when he was 11.^[8] He also opened for Nizlopi in Norwich in April 2008 after being one of their guitar technicians.^[7] Sheeran began recording in 2005, which led to the release of his first EP, The Orange Room EP. Sheeran also released 2 albums, a self-titled one in 2006 and Want Some? in 2007. He moved to London in 2008 to play gigs, starting off in very small venues, playing every day, to as little as five people. In 2008, he auditioned for the ITV series Britannia High.^[9]

In 2009, Sheeran played 312 gigs. He said that he read an interview with James Morrison that said that Morrison had done 200 gigs in a year, and Sheeran wanted to beat him on this number.^[10] Also in 2009, he released another EP, You Need Me, just before going on tour with Just Jack. He also did a few collaborations with Leddra Chapman, including Cee Lo Green's Fuck You. In February 2010 Sheeran posted a video through SB.TV, which led to mainstream rapper Example asking Sheeran to tour with him. Also in February 2010 he released his critically acclaimed Loose Change EP, which featured his later debut single "The A Team".

In April 2010, after leaving his old management company, Sheeran bought a ticket to Los Angeles, with no contacts other than one poetry night. He played open mic nights all over the city, before his talent was spotted at The Foxxhole by Jamie Foxx, who was so impressed that he offered Sheeran the use of his recording studio and the run of his Hollywood home for the rest of his stay. Throughout 2010, Sheeran began to be seen by more people over the internet through YouTube and his fan-base grew, with him also getting credit from The Independent newspaper, England football captain Rio Ferdinand and Elton John.^[11] Sheeran also self-released two other EPs in 2010; Ed Sheeran: Live at the Bedford and Songs I Wrote With Amy, which is a collection of love songs he wrote in Wales with fellow singer songwriter Amy Wadge.

Sheeran at Academy 1, Manchester Dot to Dot Festival on Monday 30 May 2011

On 8 January 2011, Sheeran released his final independent EP, No. 5 Collaborations Project featuring appearances by grime artists including Wiley, JME, Devlin, Sway and Ghetts.^[2] With this EP, Sheeran gained mainstream attention for reaching number 2 in the iTunes chart without any promotion or label, selling over 7,000 copies in its first week.^[12] Three months later, Sheeran put on a free show to fans at the Barfly in Camden. Over 1,000 fans turned up to see the show, so Sheeran ended up playing four different shows to make sure everyone saw a gig, including a gig outside on the street after the venue had closed. Later that month, Sheeran was signed to Asylum / Atlantic Records.

[edit] 2011–present: + and commercial success

On 26 April, Sheeran appeared on the TV music show Later... with Jools Holland – where he performed his debut single "The A Team". Six weeks later, "The A Team" was released as a digital download in the UK. The release served as the lead single from Sheeran's debut studio album, entitled +. "The A Team" entered the UK Singles Chart at number three, selling over 58,000 copies in the first week. It was congratulated on being the best selling debut single and the overall eight best selling single of 2011, shifting 801,000 copies.^[13] The lead single also became a top ten hit in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway and the Netherlands. During a headline set in the BBC Introducing tent at Glastonbury Festival 2011, Sheeran announced that "You Need Me, I Don't Need You" would be released on 28 August as the second single from the album. The second single peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart.^[14]

Sheeran's debut album + was released on 12 September 2011. + received generally favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 65, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".^[15] + debuted number one on the UK Albums Chart, selling 102,000 copies in its first week.^[16] It became the second best selling debut album and the ninth biggest-selling album of 2011 in the UK, shifting 791,000 copies.^[17] The album climbed back up to number one on the UK Albums Chart on 1 January 2012, fifteen weeks after it last peaked at the top. The album has been certified triple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry for shipments of 900,000 units.^[18] As of March 2012, the album had sold 1,021,072 copies in the UK.^[19] The album also reached the top ten on the Australian Albums Chart, Flanders Belgian Albums Chart,^[20] Dutch Albums Chart,^[21] Irish Albums Chart,^[22] New Zealand Albums Chart^[23] and the Swiss Albums Chart.^[24]

On 11 November 2011, soul ballad "Lego House" was released as the third single lifted from the debut studio album +.^[25] It received its first radio play on BBC Radio 1 on 8 September 2011.^[26][27] It entered the UK Singles Chart at number five, on 17 November. "Lego House" also reached the top ten on Australian, Irish, Scottish, New Zealand Singles Charts, Flemish Ultratop 50 and the Wallonian Ultratip. "Drunk" was released on 19 February 2012 as the fourth single lifted from +.^[28] "Drunk" became the Sheeran's fourth consecutive top ten single in the UK, when it peaked at number nine.^[29] "Small Bump" is scheduled for a release in late May 2012 as the fifth single.^[30]

The song "Moments" on the debut album by boy band One Direction was co-written by Sheeran.^[31] On 21 February 2012, Sheeran attended the 2012 Brit Awards, he received the Brit Award for Best British Male Solo Artist, and British Breaktrough of the Year.^[32][33]

On 10 January 2012, it was announced Sheeran would support Snow Patrol on their United States tour from late March until May. On the band's Fallen Empires Tour.^[34]

His song "Give Me Love" was featured in the episode "Dangerous Liaisons" of The Vampire Diaries.^[35][36] At the 2012 Ivor Novello Awards in May 2012, Sheeran's "The A Team" beat Adele's "Rolling In The Deep" and Florence and the Machine's "Shake It Out", winning the award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.^[37]

Philanthropy[link]

Sheeran will perform a gig in Bristol, which has raised £40,000 for a charity that reaches out to street sex workers. Sheeran agreed to the event after one of the women One25 helps contacted him. "It's good to show insight that these people are real people with real emotions and they deserve the same charity work as anyone else," Sheeran said. "There's a lot more popular charities that get a lot of attention. And with certain subjects like this they're often washed over and people don't necessarily give them the attention they deserve." Tickets were available to those taking part in the charity's Give it up for One25 campaign by giving something up for 125 hours and hitting the £125 fundraising mark. Louise Willott, who organised the event at The Fleece, said of Sheeran: "He had volunteered in Crisis in London. which is a homeless shelter, and he had met a woman who told him her story. Her name was Angel. "He then went and did some more research about the issues and obviously he must have been moved and inspired to have written The A Team." Willott added: "The Fleece is quite a small venue - it only holds about 400, which makes it extra exciting as it's really intimate and Ed's not playing those size venues anymore. In total this has raised about £40,000 for the project. Its just going to give us such a boost. This is a difficult time for any charity. There's less money available and there's more competition for it, so to have one event raise £40,000 is just incredible."^[38]

Discography[link]

Album[link]

• + (2011)

Tour[link]

Opening act

• Fallen Empires Tour (North American select dates) (2012)

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

[edit] BRIT Awards

[edit] BT Digital Music Awards

[edit] Ivor Novello Awards

[edit] MOBO Awards

[edit] Q Awards

[edit] UK Music Video Awards

See also[link]

• List of Official Subscription Plays Chart number-one songs from the 2010s

References[link]

External links[link]

• Interview
• Official website
• Ed Sheeran on Myspace
• Ed Sheeran on Facebook
• Ed Sheeran on Twitter
• Ed Sheeran's channel on YouTube