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Stephen John Fry (born August 24|24 August, 1957)
is a British comedian, author,
actor, and Film director. He is the son
of Alan and Marianne Fry.

He was educated at Stout's Hill, Uppingham School
and Queens' College, Cambridge. He lives in
Norfolk, England|Norfolk, England and New York
City. He is an erstwhile Double act|comedy
collaborator of Hugh Laurie. Rather tellingly, he
was described as being "a man with a brain the
size of Kent" in an interview with Michael
Parkinson.

In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he
was voted amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever by
fellow comedians and comedy insiders. 

==Career highlights==

Highlights of Fry's career include:

*He made an early television appearance on
University Challenge while an undergraduate at
Cambridge.
*In 1984, he rewrote the script of the stage
musical, Me and My Girl, which subsequently became
a huge West End hit.
*Very early in his West End debut (Simon Gray's
play Cell Mates), Fry suffered an attack of stage
fright so serious that he ran away, leaving only
an apology, and turning up some days later in
Belgium.
*He famously declared that he practised a celibate
lifestyle (which he has since abandoned).
*He made his debut as a film director with Bright
Young Things, an adaptation of the novel Vile
Bodies by Evelyn Waugh, in 2003.

== List of works ==

* Films (As Director)
** Bright Young Things (2003)

* Novels
** The Liar (1992)
** The Hippopotamus (1994)
** Making History (an example of alternate
history) (1997) Winner of the Sidewise Award for
Alternate History
** The Stars' Tennis Balls (as Revenge: A Novel in
the United States) (Fry's take on The Count of
Monte Cristo story (2000))

* Other books
** Paperweight (book)|Paperweight (collection of
articles) (1992)
** Moab is My Washpot: An Autobiography (1997)
** Stephen Fry's Incomplete and Utter History of
Classical Music (2004)

* TV scripts
** A Bit of Fry and Laurie (1989, 1990)
** A Bit More Fry and Laurie
** Fry & Laurie #3
** Three Bits of Fry and Laurie
** Fry & Laurie Bit No. 4
** Doctor Who - un-named episode commissioned for
2006 series

* Plays
** Latin! (or Tobacco and Boys.) (1979, included
in Paperweight). Winner of the Fringe First at the
1980 Edinburgh Festival.

* Screenplays
** Bright Young Things (2003)

* Musicals
** Me and My Girl (adapted Lupino Lane's script)
(1983)

== Performances ==


* TV programmes 
** Blackadder (Mostly Blackadder II and Blackadder
Goes Forth, with a cameo in Blackadder The Third)
** Whose Line Is It Anyway (the original UK
version)
** A Bit of Fry and Laurie (1986 pilot, 1989,
1990, 1992, 1995)
** Jeeves and Wooster (1990-1993|93)
** Common Pursuit (1992)
** Gormenghast (mini-series)|Gormenghast (2000)
** QI (2003-onwards)
** Absolute Power (2003, 2005)
** Tom Brown's Schooldays (2005)

* Films
** A Fish Called Wanda (cameo, 1988)
** Peter's Friends (1992)
** I.Q. (1994)
** Wilde (movie)|Wilde (1997)
** Spice World (1997)
** A Civil Action (1998)
** Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? (1999)
** Relative Values (2000), based on Noel Coward's
play
** Gosford Park (2001)
** The Discovery of Heaven
** Thunderpants (2002)
** The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
(movie)|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
(2005)

* Plays
** The Common Pursuit (1988)
** Cell Mates, by Simon Gray (1995)

* Radio shows
** Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Quandary
Phase: Murray Bost Henson, BBC Radio Four
** Saturday Night Fry (1998, BBC Radio Four, six
episodes)
** A Bit of Fry and Laurie (1994, BBC Radio Four,
two half-hour programmes compiled from selected
previously-seen sketches from the TV series)
** Absolute Power, BBC Radio Four
** Regular guest panelist on I'm Sorry I Haven't A
Clue, BBC Radio Four
** Regular guest panelist on Just a Minute, BBC
Radio Four
** Has a regular slot, The Incomplete and Utter
History of Classical Music on Classic FM
(UK)|Classic FM
** Played the lead, David Lander on Radio 4 series
Delve Special
** 6 episode BBC radio series called Saturday
Night Fry

Stephen Fry also narrates the UK audio versions of
the Harry Potter books (this is Jim Dale's job in
the US). He also made a guest appearance in a
special webcast version of Doctor Who in a story
called Death Comes to Time, in which he plays a
Time Lord, the Minister of Chance. He will be
writing the 11th episode of the 2006 series of
Doctor Who.

== Trivia ==
*The Stars' Tennis Balls major characters all have
names that are anagrams or other simple mutations
of their counterparts in The Count of Monte
Cristo:
:{| class="toccolours" style="border-collapse:
collapse; width: 60%; max-width: 60%;"
cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" border="1"
|- style="background: #f0f0f0;"
! Count of Monte Cristo|Monte Cristo
! The Stars' Tennis Balls|Stars' Tennis Balls
! Notes
|-
| Edmond Dantes || Ned Maddstone || anagram
|-
| Mercedes || Portia || pun: Mercedes-Benz →
Porsche
|-
| de Villefort || Oliver Delft || anagram
|-
| the Abbe (Faria) || the Babe (Fraser) || partial
anagram
|-
| Fernand Mondego || Gordon Fendeman || anagram
|-
| Noirtier || Blackrow || translated literally
(calque)
|-
| Capt. Leclere || Paddy Leclare || homonym
|-
| Caderousse || Rufus Cade || translation: rousse
= red = Rufus
|-
| Baron Danglars || Barson-Garland || anagram
|-
| Monte Cristo || Simon Cotter || anagram
|}

* As well as having competed on University
Challenge whilst at Cambridge, he also appeared in
The Young Ones (television series)|The Young Ones
as "Lord Snot", one of the "Footlights College"
team against whom The Young Ones are competing in
a fictitious edition of University Challenge. He
later appeared in a Comic Relief edition of
University Challenge as part of the "Gownies" team
of University-graduate comedians, against the
(victorious) team of "Townies"; and in another
Comic Relief special two years later as part of
the South team who beat the North.

* He used to be a regular panellist on Have I Got
News For You, but now refuses to appear on the
show as a protest against the sacking of Angus
Deayton.

*In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of
the Observer's 50 funniest|50 funniest acts in
British comedy.

*While still at Uppingham School|boarding school,
Fry absconded with a stolen credit card and, when
apprehended, spent three months in prison for
fraud.

*In 2005, Fry was made an honorary fellow of
Queens' College, Cambridge, from which he
graduated.

*Fry often expresses admiration for three other
authors; Anthony Buckeridge, Douglas Adams, and
P.G. Wodehouse. Their influence is noticeable in
his writing style. He has appeared as Jeeves in
television adaptations of Wodehouse's writings, as
The Guide in the film adaptation of Adams's
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and has read
Buckeridge's Jennings (novels)|Jennings stories
for Radio 4.

==Links==
* http://www.stephenfry.com/ Official Stephen Fry
Web site
* imdb name|name=Stephen Fry|id=0000410
* http://www.pgwodehousebooks.com/fry.htm Stephen
Fry on PG Wodehouse
*
http://www.epilepsy.org.uk/nationaldoodleday/2005/
hall/gallery.cfm?doodle=168 Stephen's doodle for
http://www.nationaldoodleday.org.uk National
Doodle Day 2005will be auctioned on eBay on
National Doodle Day, Friday 25 February 2005 to
raise funds for http://www.epilepsy.org.uk
Epilepsy Action and the Neurofibromatosis
Association.