Crook's first jobs included working at a Pizza Hut restaurant and at Halfords where he felt he was "waiting for real life to start".[7]
After moving to London when he was in his early twenties, Crook worked on the comedy circuit, appearing as two characters he created, Mr Bagshawe and Charlie Cheese.[5] He went on to appear in shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, where he was spotted by Bob Mortimer.[5]
Career
Film and television career
One of Crook's earliest television appearances was in the 1998 Channel 4 sketch show Barking as grotesque schoolteacher Mr. Bagshaw, said to be based on a variety of obnoxious overbearing science teachers Crook had in school.[8]
Crook was offered his first major television role as a comedy sketch contributor on Channel 4's The Eleven O'Clock Show in 1998, from which he was later dropped.[8] He was later a member of the main cast of the BBC sketch show TV to Go in 2001.[8]
In late 1999, he hosted the short-lived ITV1 show Comedy Café as his Charlie Cheese character. The show, made by Channel X for ITV1, had Cheese interviewing celebrities about their latest live tour, book, album or film release.[9]
Crook has appeared in adverts as the character for Visa and M&Ms. He has also been heard as himself in adverts for MTV and Film4, and as a voiceover artiste for motor insurance company Green Flag in 2007. In 2010 he narrated an advertisement for electrical retailer Currys.[importance?]
He has starred in three of Tim Plester and Ben Gregor's short films: as Gary Tibbs in Ant Muzak (2002), as Servalan in Blake's Junction 7 (2004), and as Glorious George in World of Wrestling (2006), all released on DVD. He has done voice-over in the TV series Modern Toss, was featured in I Want Candy as Mr Dulberg, a quirky university professor; and voiced Rolli Bobbler in the English version of an animated film from Finland called Quest for a Heart (original Finnish name Röllin Sydän).[citation needed] He also performed a duet with Ricky Gervais in the 2007 Concert for Diana.[14]
Crook starred in Wyndham Price's drama Abraham's Point as Comet Snape and appeared in City of Ember as Looper, and on TV was featured in the documentary Tattoos: A Scarred History (2009). He also appeared in Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack and the ITV drama Demons (originally titled The Last Van Helsing) as the vampire Gladiolus Hadilus Tradius Thrip. In January 2009, Crook assisted in the second and third episodes of the third series of the E4 teen drama Skins, where he played psychotic Bristol gangster Johnny White.[citation needed] In September 2009, he appeared in Merlin, for the first episode of the second season, as Cedric.[16]
In November 2010, Crook starred in A Reluctant Tragic Hero, a comic play by Anton Chekhov, on the Sky Arts channel, which also starred Johnny Vegas, with whom he also starred in 2004's Sex Lives of the Potato Men, a film about the sexual antics of a group of potato delivery men in Birmingham. Crook played Corporal Buckley, a brutal career soldier, in Jimmy McGovern's Accused, broadcast on BBC1 in November 2010.[17] During the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con it was announced that Crook would play the role of Orell in the third season of Game of Thrones.[18]
Crook also wrote, directed and starred in the television comedy series Detectorists, which was first broadcast on BBC Four on 2 October 2014. Filmed in the countryside of Suffolk and the market town of Framlingham,[19] the show is a gently humorous and affectionate portrayal of a pair of metal-detecting enthusiasts, Andy (Crook) and Lance (Toby Jones), and their colleagues in the fictional Danebury Metal Detecting Club.[20] In 2015, Crook won a British Academy Television Craft Award for Best Writing in a Comedy Series for the show, whilst the series won the British Academy Television Award for Best Situation Comedy. A second series was broadcast in the UK in October/November 2015. A Christmas special was broadcast on 23 December 2015. In 2017 the third and final series of Detectorists was broadcast.[21] A final special episode was released for Christmas 2022.[22]
Crook played the role of Nestor of Maddox in the television fantasy-comedy series Yonderland, broadcast on Sky One, which starred and was written by the cast of the educational historical comedy series Horrible Histories. He plays the father of the main character Debbie, played by Martha Howe-Douglas, and appears in three episodes of series 2: episodes 1, 2 and 4.[citation needed]
From 15 July to 15 August 2009 Crook appeared at the Royal Court Theatre in Jez Butterworth's Jerusalem.[24] He and the play received positive reviews and it was transferred to the West End's Apollo Theatre in February 2010. In May 2011 he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play, for his role in the Broadway transfer of the show[25] and also appeared in the 2011 London revival. Another revival of the play ran in 2022 at the Apollo Theatre,[26] featuring the creative team from the first production as well as Mark Rylance and Crook in their original roles as Johnny "Rooster" Byron and Ginger.[27]
On 18 April 2010, Crook took part in the fund raising event We Are One, a celebration of tribal peoples, in aid of indigenous rights organisation Survival International, at the Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue. The evening was a performance of tribal prose and poetry from some of the UK and Hollywood's leading actors and musicians. The event was created and directed by Mark Rylance.[28] Crook appeared as Jasper in The Aliens at the Bush Theatre in October 2010.[29] In early 2012 he played Sergeant Kite in The Recruiting Officer at the Donmar Warehouse.[30]
Other work
Crook has directed a music video for the London electro band Paw Paw (his sister Zoe is one of the band members). The stop motion animation video accompanies the band's debut single 'Wired OK', released on 16 July 2007 on Albino Recordings.[31][non-primary source needed]
Crook appeared as a postman in the music video for Paul McCartney's single "Dance Tonight" alongside actress Natalie Portman. The video for the song was directed by Michel Gondry and was posted exclusively on YouTube on 22 May 2007.[citation needed]
Crook has a deal with publisher Faber to illustrate and write a children's book.[11] His first one, The Windvale Sprites, was released in November 2011. It was announced on 8 February 2012, that Crook's book was nominated for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, in the 5–12-year-old category.[32] The book contains references to a storm in 1987 which hit Dartford and surrounding areas.[33]
Crook has written two children's books; The Windvale Sprites and The Lost Journals of Benjamin Tooth. His first book written for adults, If Nick Drake Came To My House, was set for release in November 2024.[38][39]
Personal life
Crook is an atheist.[40] He and his wife Lindsay, a former advertising executive, live in Muswell Hill, London.[41] They were married in April 2001 and have a son and a daughter.[7]
^"I don't believe in life after death. I'm a staunch atheist and I know when I die that will be it, I'll just blink out of existence. It's not an incredibly comforting thought but I'm completely at peace with that idea and it just makes me appreciate this life all the more. It's almost a panic to get as much done and to have as much experience as possible." Mackenzie Crook interviewed by Teddy Jamieson, The Herald (Glasgow), April 19, 2008, Magazine, Pg. 12.
