Biography for
Simon Pegg More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

14 February 1970, Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England, UK

Birth Name

Simon John Beckingham

Height

5' 10" (1.78 m)

Spouse

Maureen Pegg

(23 July 2005 - present) 1 child

Trade Mark

References Sci-fi and pop culture in his films and shows

Trivia

Graduated from Bristol university in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in theatre, film and television.

Is a huge Star Wars fan and his work often includes references to the Star Wars saga.

In addition to the numerous visual reference to Star Wars (1977) in Shaun of the Dead (2004), his flatmate, Pete, is played by Peter Serafinowicz, the voice of Darth Maul.

He went to Brockworth School in Gloucester and opened their new business centre in 2004.

Was offered the lead role of Rorschach in the doomed movie adaptation of the comic book mini-series, The Watchmen. He turned it down because it would become too "Simon Pegg *is* Rorschach."

Auditioned for the role of Rufus in Love Actually (2003).

Was the drummer in a band called "God's Third Leg" when he was 16.

He was part of the same comedy troupe as David Walliams, Matt Lucas and Dominik Diamond.

Is godfather of Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow's daughter, Apple.

Was originally slated to play Rose Tyler's father in the first series of "Doctor Who" (2005), but due to a scheduling conflict took the role of The Editor in another episode.

Was offered a role in Dog Soldiers (2002), but turned it down at Edgar Wright's request, as Wright wanted Shaun of the Dead (2004) to be Pegg's first role in a horror movie.

Nick Frost, who co-stars with Pegg in Hot Fuzz (2007), "Spaced" (1999) and Shaun of the Dead (2004), is Pegg's real life best friend and former flatmate. Before they first starred in "Spaced" (1999) together, Frost had no formal training as an actor, but is now a top comedy name in the UK.

He was cast in the role of "Benji" in Mission: Impossible III (2006) after Ricky Gervais was unable to take the role. 'JJ Abrams', director of the film, is said to be a huge fan of Shaun of the Dead (2004).

Hot Fuzz (2007) was shot in and around the city of Wells, one of the smallest cities in the UK.

Pegg revealed that he would like to return to "Spaced" (1999), in the form of a one-hour special. The one-off show would reveal what became of the main characters. Pegg revealed this in a 2007 interview with Spaced co-star Bill Bailey.

Lost two stone (28 pounds) for his role in Hot Fuzz (2007).

When asked by a journalist whether England hadn't become too small for him after the world-wide success of Shaun of the Dead (2004), he replied "It's not like I'm going to be starring in Mission Impossible 3". Six months later, he was cast as Benji in Mission: Impossible III (2006).

He is the Darrick Robertson's "model" for Wee Hughie in The Boys by Garth Ennis and Darrick Robertson.

He is a big fan of Gillian Anderson and "The X Files" (1993).

Attended Stratford-Upon-Avon college, and studied Performance Studies and English.

Along with Alan Dale, Daphne Ashbrook, Guy Siner, Maurice Roëves, Olaf Pooley, Barrie Ingham, John Franklyn-Robbins, Christopher Neame and Deep Roy, he is one of only ten actors to have speaking roles in both the "Star Trek" and "Doctor Who" franchises. He played the Editor in "Doctor Who: The Long Game (#1.7)" (2005) and Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in Star Trek (2009). He appeared with Roy in the latter.

Mother's name is Gillian.

Worked in UK department store Debenhams on the menswear department at the Bristol store before he went into acting.

His favourite film is The Empire Strikes Back and His Favourite TV shows are The X-Files and Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

On 6 July 2009, Simon announced on his official website that his wife Maureen McCann had given birth to a daughter a few days earlier. However he added "name, weight, time, place etc all belong to us and we won't be going out of our way to divulge them anytime soon".

His wife of four years, Maureen McCann gave birth to a healthy baby girl, the couple's first child together, in July 2009.

Personal Quotes

It was like an awakening. - speaking about seeing Star Wars (1977) for the first time as a child.

You know what, despite my complaints about Phantom Menace and Episode 2, when Episode 3 comes out I'll be first in line. I genuinely love it.

Every person should have their escape route planned. I think everyone has an apocalypse fantasy, what would I do in the event of the end of the world, and we just basically - me and Nick - said what would we do, where would we head?

I always loved horror and that's sort of the reason we decided to make the film. We were nourished on those sorts of films, so it was a labor of love.

Chris Martin's a good friend of mine. I'm actually Apple's godfather. He's an old friend and we've been mates for quite a few years now.

Doctor Who was a big part of my childhood so it was a great honour to be in it.

But I think there's plenty of British comedy that Americans have never seen that they would like but sometimes things just get through.

Both me and Edgar are firm believers in never underestimating or talking down to an audience, and giving an audience something to do, to give them something which is entirely up to them to enter into the film and find these hidden things and whatever.

As a certain kind of threat, as monsters from the id, they're more affective as aggressive killing machines, but I think the whole point of the zombie as Romero framed it was that it's us. They're like larva. They just keep coming.

Because once the word got out that we were making Shaun of the Dead, we didn't want people to think we were backtracking or changing our minds.

And also, isn't the root of the word zombie from somnambulist, which means sleepwalker. By the very running immediately stops them from being zombies

American audiences tend to be more expressive than British ones.

[Shaun of the Dead (2004)] I wrote "Spaced" (1999) with Jessica Hynes (aka Jessica Stevenson), who plays "Yvonne" in the film - who is our savior that comes and gets us at the end.

I used to lie in bed in my flat and imagine what would happen if there was a zombie attack.

In England, we don't have any guns whatsoever.

It's the very British thing of reserve and keeping everything shut in, that's what people do with their emotions, shut the curtains on them

I think that the joke and the ghost story both have a similar set up in that you kind of set something up and pay it off with a laugh or a scare.

I think at its best the American sense of humor is the same as the British sense of humor at its best, which is to be wry and ironic and self deprecating.

I don't know about doing a sequel. I think you can retroactively damage a product by adding to it.

I just love listening to the laughter

I loved playing Shaun, he's not that different from me

I mean, yeah, I'm sure that Python and the other things have paved the way for a greater understanding of the British sense of humor, but I don't think it's all that different than the American sense of humor.

I once showed a holiday video to my entire family and forgot there was a point where I flashed. I only realized about one second before it happened and couldn't get to the remote in time to stop them all from seeing me pull down my trousers and reveal myself. My sister screamed and my mum said, 'Ooh, that's changed.'

Being the Doctor? I don't think I'd do it for two reasons. One, I'm really loving doing movies. I'm really enjoying working in the US. Second, I really love "Doctor Who" (2005) and I'd hate to have to sit down every Saturday night and have it be me. David's (David Tennant) done such an incredible job, he's gonna be a tough act to follow. It would feel awful if I just went and balled up the franchise by just being rubbish.

[Talking about taking over the role of "Scotty" from the late 'James Doohan'] I didn't want to do an impression of "James Doohan", because the guy's a legend. I wanted to make it a tribute to him. His son, Christopher Doohan, was on the Enterprise with me. He was my assistant, so I was able to talk to him about his experiences with his dad.

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