| Leigh Francis | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Leigh Francis |
| Born | 30 May 1973 Leeds, West Yorkshire, England |
| Medium | Television |
| Nationality | British |
| Years active | 1999-present |
| Genres | Character comedy Impressions Parody Sketch |
| Subject(s) | Celebrity |
| Spouse | Jill Carter (m. 2003-present) |
| Notable works and roles | Bo' Selecta (2002-2006) Keith Lemon's Very Brilliant World Tour (2008) Celebrity Juice (2008-) |
Leigh Szaak Francis (born 30 May 1973)[1] is an English impressionist born in Leeds. He is best known for his work as the creator of Channel 4's Bo' Selecta!, and for his portrayal of Keith Lemon for several ITV programmes. Francis lives in Camden Town, London, and on October 31, 2003, at Allerton Castle, North Yorkshire, he married Jill Carter,[2] a beauty therapist. Their first daughter, Matilda, was born in February 2009.[3]
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Francis was born on 30 May 1973 in Leeds, West Yorkshire, and brought up on a council estate in Old Farnley, Leeds. His father died aged 47 of cancer,[4] and his mother and sister live in Spain. His grandparents were from the Burgenland area of Austria, hence his middle name, in honour of them.[3] Francis attended Farnley Park Maths & Computer College, formerly Harrington High School in Leeds. He later studied at the Leeds College of Art and received a qualification in graphic design. Before making his major television breakthrough, he was discovered and encouraged by television presenter Davina McCall, performing in-role stand up comedy in a Southern comedy club. McCall landed Francis his first television role on Dom and Kirk's Nite O Plenty, where he portrayed Bobby Stark, a man who gives tips on how to win over the ladies. The series aired on Paramount Television from January to July 1996. Francis' second television role was as Barry Gibson, a music paparazzo, featured on the early series of Channel 4's Popworld.
His major TV breakthrough occurred when Channel 4 offered him a £250,000 deal to produce a series based around his portrayal of television characters, such as his previous roles as Bobby Stark and Barry Gibson, and in 2002, Bo' Selecta! was born. The series featured Francis portraying a series of celebrities by wearing face masks to impersonate them, and well as portraying the main, non-celebrity character, Avid Merrion. The programme lasted for five series, airing between 2002 and 2006, however, the last two series were only loosely based on the original three. Season 4 was subtitled A Bear's Tail, and was based around another of his characters, The Bear. Season 5 returned to Avid Merrion and was called Bo! in the USA.
Following the axing of Bo' Selecta", Francis took one of the series characters, Keith Lemon, and created a brand new show, Keith Lemon's Very Brilliant World Tour, which aired on ITV2 in April 2008. The series was a success, and subsequently, Francis created another new show featuring Lemon, Celebrity Juice, which has aired six series to date. Lemon has also co-hosted Sing If You Can, and is due to have his own brand new ITV1 Saturday night series, The Bang Tidy Show. In November 2011, it was revealed that Lemon would make his feature film debut in Keith Lemon: The Film, with production starting later that month.[5]
Francis is known to conduct nearly every interview with the press in one of his celebrity guises, being as Avid Merrion during Bo' Selecta's run between 2002 and 2006, and as Keith Lemon ever since. In an interview given in an episode of Comedy Map of Britain, Francis, for the first time out-of-character, cs accent and dialects were inspired by his former teacher at the Leeds College of Art, Laimonis Mierins. He also pointed out that Merrion is a mis-spelling of Mierins and is nothing to do with the Merrion Centre in Leeds, which many people assume. Many people do not understand that Merrion and Lemon are fictional creations, and consequently, Francis' name means very little to the general public. He did conduct further interviews as himself for The Frank Skinner Show, Loose Women and Big Brother's Little Brother.
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