Matt Lucas

Matthew Richard Lucas (born 5 March 1974) is an English actor, comedian, writer and television host. He is best known for his work with David Walliams on the BBC sketch comedy series Little Britain (2003–2006) and Come Fly with Me (2010–2011).

Lucas first came to prominence in the BBC TV comedy series The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer and Shooting Stars. In the latter, he portrayed score-keeping baby George Dawes from 1995 to 2009. From 2015 to 2017, he played Nardole in the BBC series Doctor Who. He has also appeared in films, including Astro Boy (2009), Alice in Wonderland (2010), Bridesmaids, Gnomeo & Juliet (both 2011), Small Apartments (2012), Paddington (2014), Wonka (2023) and Gladiator II (2024). Lucas presented the baking competition show The Great British Bake Off, alongside Noel Fielding, from 2020 to 2023.

On stage, Lucas has appeared as Monsieur Thénardier in the musical Les Misérables for the 25th anniversary concert at The O2 (2010), the long-running West End production (2011 and 2019), the All-Star Staged Concert (2019-20) and worldwide in the Arena Concert Spectacular (2025-26). He has also appeared in Taboo (2002), Prick Up Your Ears (2009), Me and My Girl (2026) and Oliver! (2026).

Early life Matthew Richard Lucas was born in the Paddington area of central London, the son of Diana (née Williams) and chauffeuring business owner and convicted fraudster John Stanley Lucas. His family is Jewish; some of his mother's family fled Nazi Germany just before the Second World War. He was raised in a Reform Jewish household, although his parents came from Orthodox Jewish families. He has had alopecia since childhood, having lost all his hair after being struck by a car at the age of six. When Lucas was 22, his father died of a heart attack.

Lucas was educated at Aylward Primary School in Stanmore, north-west London, and Haberdashers' Boys' School in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. He studied drama at the University of Bristol between 1992 and 1995, although he did not complete his degree. He also spent time with the National Youth Theatre, where he met his future collaborator David Walliams.

Career Early work Lucas's association with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer began in 1992. He appeared in The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer in 1995, and went on to star with them in Shooting Stars. He quickly rose to fame as George Dawes, a giant baby (often dressed in an adult-sized romper suit) who would deliver a string of meaningless gags and insults before delivering the teams' scores, while sitting at and playing a drum kit. He also appeared on occasion as Marjorie Dawes, George's mother, who also appears in Little Britain. "Mudslide" by the Bluetones, alongside Walliams in 2000, "Jesusland" by Ben Folds in 2005, "I'm with Stupid" by Pet Shop Boys, and "Vindaloo" by Fat Les.

Lucas ventured into stage musicals in 2002, when he took a role in Boy George's musical Taboo at The Venue in London. He played the performance artist Leigh Bowery. The two were old friends from Haberdashers' and Lucas took Blaker to the Groucho Club, where he told Blaker of his ideas for a sketch show. Little Britain was launched as a radio show on BBC Radio 4 and it later became a TV series.

Among the many characters he plays in the series, which he wrote and acted in, along with David Walliams, are apparently "disabled" Andy Pipkin, teenage Bristol chav Vicky Pollard, homophobic homosexual Daffyd Thomas, and insensitive slimming club organiser Marjorie Dawes.

In January 2005, Lucas and Walliams were named the most powerful people in TV comedy by Radio Times.

Later career In 2005, he took his first role in a television drama, a supporting part as a Venetian duke in the BBC historical serial Casanova, written by Russell T Davies. Also in 2005, he did voice work in the ITV children's program King Arthur's Disasters alongside Rik Mayall. Since 2006, Lucas has been the voice of the radio and television character Digit Al, devised as part of a public information campaign on digital switchover. On 26 November 2006 he appeared on the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs. He made a cameo appearance in Shaun of the Dead as Tom, the cousin of Shaun's friend Yvonne.

In 2007, he released "(I'm Gonna Be) 500 Miles", originally by The Proclaimers, with Peter Kay as a charity single for Comic Relief. He performed the single as Little Britain character Andy Pipkin, along with Kay playing as Brian Potter. He also starred as Mr. Toad in The Wind in the Willows, a 2006 television adaptation of the Kenneth Grahame novel.

He has appeared in Kath & Kim and Neighbours (the latter alongside David Walliams as Little Britain characters Lou and Andy), as well as a cameo role, playing 'Chris' or 'Jammy' at the wedding fayre, in the BBC Three sitcom Gavin & Stacey. Lucas has co-written (with Walliams) and performed in a new series of Little Britain USA for HBO. Lucas was the first celebrity to appear in 2008's Big Brother Celebrity Hijack on E4.

On 9 April 2009, the series Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire, featuring Lucas as a regular performer, premièred on Comedy Central, the first major comedy series which Lucas had worked on since Little Britain. In 2010, Lucas played Tweedledee and Tweedledum in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.

Starting in February 2010, Lucas began hosting his own radio show, And The Winner Is, in which he handed out a fictional series of awards based on nominations by his guests.

On 3 October 2010, Lucas played Monsieur Thénardier in the 25th Anniversary Concert of Les Misérables, at The O2 Arena in London for two performances. The following year from 23 June to 10 September 2011, he reprised the role at the Queen's Theatre, in the long-running West End production. He has since collaborated with Alfie Boe, who played Jean Valjean, to record a duet of "The Impossible Dream" on Boe's debut album.

Also in 2011, Lucas lent his voice to the CGI film Gnomeo and Juliet and he played a small role as the roommate of Kristen Wiig in the comedy Bridesmaids.

On Christmas Day 2010, the BBC premiered Lucas and David Walliams' latest series, Come Fly with Me. Unlike their previous work, Little Britain, this new show concentrated solely on the airline industry, with Walliams and Lucas each portraying several characters. In a BBC Three interview aired on 9 February 2011, it was revealed that the creators had considered including Carol Beer, the travel agent character from Little Britain. However, they chose not to include her to avoid the impression that Come Fly with Me was just a spinoff. Instead, they introduced an entirely fresh cast of characters.

On 28 March 2012, Lucas appeared as the "Generation X" guest on the Australian game show Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation. On 10 April 2012, Lucas's own BBC One show The Matt Lucas Awards began. It was a send-up of an awards program, with a panel of comedians giving their nominations for awards for a series of prizes concerning trivial topics.

Lucas also starred in the dark comedy Small Apartments released in February 2013 alongside James Caan, Billy Crystal, Johnny Knoxville, and Juno Temple with other cameo performances by notable actors. On 21 February 2013, Lucas appeared on the NBC series Community as Toby, an English friend of Abed Nadir. In 2014, Lucas played Ray Thomas in The Life of Rock with Brian Pern, as well as Joe the taxi driver in Paddington.

Lucas launched a new comedy series called Pompidou for BBC Two. The show began airing on 1 March 2015.

In May 2016, Lucas reprised his role as "Tweedledee/Tweedledum" in Tim Burton's Alice Through the Looking Glass, sequel to Alice in Wonderland. Lucas joined the BBC series Doctor Who for its tenth series, reprising the character Nardole, which he had previously played in the 2015 and 2016 Christmas specials, "The Husbands of River Song" and "The Return of Doctor Mysterio" respectively.

On 16 February 2017, Lucas was awarded an Honorary Degree "Doctor of Letters" by the University of Bristol, where he had studied for two years in the 1990s but had left before completing his degree course. On 3 October 2017, Lucas released his autobiography titled Little Me, published by Canongate Books in hardback. The paperback edition was released on 7 June 2018.

From 2 July to 25 August 2018, Lucas played Bill Snibson in a revival of Me and My Girl at Chichester Festival Theatre.

In January 2019, Lucas starred in a Netflix film titled Polar. In April, he voiced a character called Charlie in the family animated film The Queen's Corgi, and also voiced Mr Collick in Missing Link.

In 2019, Lucas was the bank holiday cover host for the Radio 2 Breakfast Show. He also covered Paul O'Grady's Sunday 5–7pm show during that summer. Fearne Cotton was the main breakfast show holiday cover host. In 2021, Lucas continued to sit in for Zoe Ball and host the Radio 2 Breakfast Show.

From 10 August to 30 November 2019, Lucas returned to playing Monsieur Thénardier in Les Misérables: The All-Star Staged Concert at the Gielgud Theatre in London's West End. On 20 December 2019, Lucas returned to the role at the Sondheim Theatre (previously the Queen's Theatre), after actor Gerard Carey contracted vocal damage through pneumonia and was forced to pull out. On 10 January 2020, Lucas himself was forced to withdraw from the show following a back injury. On 5 December 2020, Lucas returned again to the role for The All-Star Staged Concert which returned to the Sondheim Theatre to a socially-distant audience during the COVID-19 pandemic. The concert was due to run until 31 January 2021, however due to the government's guidelines, the production closed early on 15 December.

In March 2020, he became the new co-host of the Channel 4 and Love Productions television show The Great British Bake Off, taking over from Sandi Toksvig. He departed from the programme in December 2022.

On 3 April 2020, Lucas released a reworked version of his "Baked Potato Song" from Shooting Stars titled "Thank You Baked Potato", with all proceeds from the track going towards the Feed NHS campaign, which aims to provide meals for NHS workers in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. The song reached No. 34 in the charts. Lucas also wrote a children's picture book based on "Thank You, Baked Potato", published by Egmont and from which all proceeds again went to Feed NHS.

In 2020, Lucas, along with his Little Britain co-star David Walliams, apologised for their portrayal of characters using racial caricatures, "including an obese Caribbean woman called Desiree DeVere, portrayed in blackface, and a 'portly Thai bride' called Ting Tong." This was prompted after Netflix and BBC iPlayer removed the show from their catalogues.

In 2023, Lucas returned to Hollywood to star in the musical fantasy film Wonka, as one of the main antagonists, Gerald Prodnose. That year he also wrote a children's book titled The Boy Who Slept Through Christmas.

In 2024, he played a minor role in the historic epic action film Gladiator II as the Master of ceremonies. It serves as a sequel to Gladiator, which was released in 2000. He later revealed that he landed the role after his agent asked him to put in a tape, and he filmed it 80 times before sending it to the producers. He has said that he took inspiration for the character from David Hemmings in the original film, as well as Stanley Tucci in The Hunger Games.

In February 2025, Lucas reunited with David Walliams to present a twice weekly podcast entitled Making a Scene. . In each episode they interview a different personality and discuss how their life would be portrayed in a biopic.

In 2025 and 2026, Lucas returned again to the role of Monsieur Thénardier in Les Misérables: The Arena Concert Spectacular touring selected dates across the UK, Sweden, Ireland, Australia and Netherlands finishing at the Royal Albert Hall in London and Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

In September 2026, Lucas will play Fagin in the West End revival of Oliver! for 6 weeks only at the Gielgud Theatre (temporarily covering for Simon Lipkin).

Personal life Lucas is a patron of the Karen Morris Memorial Trust, a UK charity for leukaemia patients and their families. In April 2003, he appeared on Celebrity Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and won £62,500 for the charity.

Lucas is gay. He first suspected his sexuality at age seven. At a ceremony in Central London in December 2006, he entered into a civil partnership with Kevin McGee. In attendance were Barbara Windsor, Neil Tennant, Elton John, and Courtney Love. They separated and had their civil partnership dissolved through the High Court in 2008.

Lucas was raised as Jewish but has variously described himself as an atheist and a "fairly secular Jew". In 2022, he was the subject of BBC's Who Do You Think You Are? and learned that many of his grandmother's cousins had been murdered in the Holocaust. His grandmother's cousin, Werner Goldschmidt, had lived with the family of diarist Anne Frank as a sub-tenant in Amsterdam in 1942. In the episode, it is disclosed that his cousin is mentioned by name in Anne's diary, and was present in the apartment at the time of the family's last night there, before they went into hiding. In 2021, 83 years after his grandmother left Berlin, Lucas obtained German citizenship. On 16 February 2026, Lucas was followed on the London Underground by a pro-Palestinian supporter, who repeatedly shouted "Free Palestine" and called Lucas a "Zionist". The incident, captured on video, drew widespread media criticism; Lucas has rarely spoken publicly about Israel-Palestine matters, although he was a signatory an open letter in October 2023 sent by Hollywood stars to President Biden, calling for the release of Israeli hostages.

Lucas is an avid supporter of Arsenal Football Club.

From 2012 to 2015, Lucas lived with his Bridesmaids co-star Rebel Wilson in West Hollywood.

Lucas was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2026 New Year Honours for services to drama.

Lucas has stated he is autistic and has ADHD.

Filmography Films Year Title Role NotesRef. 1998 Jilting Joe Air Steward 1999 Plunkett & Macleane Sir Oswald 2004 Shaun of the Dead Cousin Tom Cameo 2005 Cold and Dark Dr. Elgin 2009 Astro Boy Sparx Voice 2010 Alice in Wonderland Tweedledum and Tweedledee The Infidel Rabbi Les Misérables in Concert: The 25th Anniversary Thénardier 2011 Gnomeo & Juliet Benny Voice Bridesmaids Gil 2012 Small Apartments Franklin Franklin 2013 The Look of Love Divine In Secret Olivier Previously titled Thérèse The Harry Hill Movie Otto 2014 Paddington Joe 2016 Alice Through the Looking Glass Tweedledee and Tweedledum 2017 How to Talk to Girls at Parties PT Wain 2018 A Futile and Stupid Gesture Tony Hendra Sherlock Gnomes Benny Voice 2019 Polar Mr. Blut Missing Link Mr. Collick Voice The Queen's Corgi Charlie Les Misérables: The Staged Concert Thénardier 2022 I Came By Great British Bake-Off Host 2023 Wonka Gerald Prodnose 2024 Gladiator II Master of ceremonies

Television Year Title Role NotesRef.1993MinderExtraEpisode: "Cars and Pints, and Pains" 1995 The Imaginatively Titled Punt & Dennis Show 1 episode The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer Mayor Hobson / Pub Landlord / Quivell Mills 4 episodes 1995–2009 Shooting Stars George Dawes / Marjorie Dawes 1996 Mash and Peas Danny Mash / Various roles 9 episodes; also writer 1997 Sunnyside Farm Mr. Mills It's Ulrika! Various roles Television film 1998 Barking Various Roles You Are Here Pat Magnet Television film 1999 Bang Bang, It's Reeves and Mortimer Various roles 1 episode Sir Bernard's Stately Homes Sir Bernard Chumley 6 episodes 1999–2022 Rock Profile Various characters 31 episodes; also writer 2000 Da Ali G Show Wrote 1 episode Lum the Invader Girl Ataru Moroboshi Voice, English BBC dub of Urusei Yatsura; 2 episodes 2001 Fun at the Funeral Parlour Father Titmus / Isaac Hunt 2 episodes Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) Nesbit Episode: "Revenge of the Bog People" 2002 Surrealissimo: The Scandalous Success of Salvador Dalí Luis Buñuel Television film Captain V 2003 Comic Relief 2003: The Big Hair Do Su Pollard: Blankety Blank 2003–2006 Little Britain Various Roles 23 episodes; also writer 2004 Catterick Roy Oates / Dan the Shellfish Man / Webster 6 episodes French and Saunders 1 episode The All-Star Comedy Show Various roles Television film AD/BC: A Rock Opera God 2005 Look Around You Dr. Phillip Lavender 2 episodes Casanova Villars Mini-series; 2 episodes 2005–2006 King Arthur's Disasters Merlin 2006 Popetown Cardinal One / Jackie Cohen 10 episodes The Wind in the Willows Mr. Toad Television film 2007 The National Television Awards 2007 Lou Gavin & Stacey Jammy 1 episode Neighbours Andy Pipkin Episode: "British Bulldog" Kath & Kim Karen 2 episodes 2008 Little Britain USA Various roles 6 episodes; also writer and executive producer 2009 Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire Chancellor Dongalor 6 episodes Comic Relief 2009 Julie / Matt Van-Laaast / Ellie Grace Television film Pride of Britain Awards 2009 Andy 2010 Funny or Die Presents Graham Rhys Grahamcox Episode: "The Carpet Brothers" The One Ronnie Various characters Television film 2010–2011 Come Fly with Me Various roles / Fearghal O'Farrell / Keeley St Clair / Mickey Minchin 6 episodes; also writer and associate producer 2012 The Greatest Footie Ads Ever Andy Television film 2012–2013 Portlandia Stu 2 episodes 2013 Community Toby Weeks Episode: "Conventions of Space and Time" Super Fun Night Derrick Guest appearance 2014 The Life of Rock with Brian Pern Ray Thomas 2015 Pompidou Pompidou Also writer and director Fresh Off the Boat Mr. Fisher Episode: "Boy II Man" Man Seeking Woman Igor Episode: "Teacup" 2015–2017 Doctor Who Nardole 15 episodes 2016 Bull Mr. Richards Episode: "A Faberge Egg" Galavant Peasant John Episode: "Aw, Hell, the King" Mack & Moxy Admirable Matt Episode: "A Spectrum of Possibilities" A Midsummer Night's Dream Nick Bottom Television film Round Planet Narrator 10 episodes 2017 Bill Nye Saves the World Himself Episode: "The Sexual Spectrum" Stella Wes Episode: 6.1 2018 Who Is America? Writer ("104") 2019 Moominvalley Teety-Woo In production 2020 Reasons to Be Cheerful with Matt Lucas Presenter 2020–2023 The Great British Bake Off Co-presenter Alongside Noel Fielding; replaced Sandi Toksvig 2021 The Masked Singer Guest panelist Series 2, Episode 7; Semi-final 50 Years of Mr Men with Matt Lucas Presenter TV documentary Legends of Tomorrow Aleister Crowley Voice; 2 episodes RuPaul's Drag Race UK Guest Judge Episode: "The Return of Royalty" Gogglebox for Stand Up to Cancer Himself Series 18, episode 5 (Su2c special) 2022 Deep Heat Administrator The Showcase 2022–2024 Fantasy Football League Co-presenter Co-writer 2026 The Masked Singer Emperor Penguin One episode Taskmaster Himself (contestant) Series 22, 10 episodes

Shorts Year Title Role NotesRef. 1996 Shooting Stars: Unviewed and Nude George Dawes Video 1997 Dennis Pennis R.I.P. 'The Quill' 2003 Moo(n) Bee Short 2003 Welcome to Glaringly Various roles 2005 Alan Partridge Presents: The Cream of British Comedy Daffydd Thomas Video 2007 Fievel Throws Down Short 2010 The RRF in New Recruit Sparx Voice, video short2020The Best of DaysNardole

Audio dramas Year Title Role Ref. 2001 Doctor Who: The One Doctor Cylinder / The Jelloid 2026 Royal Albert Hall Radio City Music Hall 2026Oliver!FaginMatthew BourneGielgud TheatreWest End

Stage guest appearances Monty Python Live (Mostly) - The O2 (2014) The Comeback - Noël Coward Theatre (2020) Inside No. 9 Stage/Fright - Wyndham's Theatre (2025)