| Chucky Venice | |
|---|---|
| Born | 24 June 1973 Kilburn, London, England |
Chucky Venn (formerly Venice) (born 24 June 1973, Kilburn, London, England) is an English actor, best known for two television roles, in both of which he played footballers: Curtis Alexander in Sky One's Dream Team and Tremaine Gidigbi in Footballers' Wives.
Born Charles Venn, he grew up on the tough Mozart Estate, which was at the time a notorious inner-London sink estate.[1] As a boy his passion was for athletics, and he didn't catch the acting bug until he was eighteen. He took a variety of roles as a jobbing actor, using the surname Venice. He got his big break in 2003 when he was cast as Curtis Alexander in the footballing drama Dream Team on the satellite channel Sky One. Initially only contracted to appear in two episodes, he became part of the regular cast, appearing in 98 episodes in all until the character was killed off in 2005.
Venice moved to another football drama the following year, appearing as the cuckolded 'alpha male' Tremaine Gidigbi in the final season of Footballers Wives.
In late 2006 Venice landed a role in the horror movie sequel Return to House on Haunted Hill as Warren. He also had a small roles in Bourne Ultimatum, as Agent Hammond, and The Dark Knight, as bodyguards of one of the film's main villains, Gambol. He can also be seen in the music video "Twisted" by Fredi Kruga.
Venice guest starred in an episode of the series Little Miss Jocelyn, which aired in January 2008. Chucky was also seen on an episode in the third season of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List where Kathy visits the UK and the pair go on a date. His on-screen time lasted just over a minute, and he was subtitled throughout when the episode aired 17 July 2007. Prior to the Hull City-Tottenham Hotspur game on Setanta Sports on 23 February, Venice performed a strange monologu.
Venn is noted for having a muscular physique, and regularly works out, citing sex and running as his favourite cardio-vascular activities. He also states he puts in extra time at the gym for roles which require a degree of nudity.[2]
Chucky has recently changed his stage name from 'Venice' back to 'Venn', insisting on being addressed by his real surname from here on. He has signed himself 'Chucky Venn (formerly Venice)' on his Myspace page.[3] However he has continued to make acting appearances under the surname Venice.
He appeared in the play The Brothers by Angie Le Mar at the Hackney Empire for several short runs from 2005. It was televised by MTV Base in March 2009 with Venn, MC Harvey and Jason Barrett in the line-up.[4]
Chucky will join the cast of BBC One soap Eastenders in the role of 'Ray' the father of Morgan Jackson-King in January 2012.