Justin Lee Collins

Early life

Collins was born on 28 July 1974 in Southmead, Bristol, to Anita and Danny Collins, a self-employed electrician. Collins is an only child. In 1990, Collins left education at Speedwell Technology College at the age of 15 with no qualifications and started working at Marks & Spencer as a warehouse operative.

Comedy and theatre

Collins began his career in entertainment as a stand-up comic whilst still working part-time as a double-glazing window demonstrator. He won the best New Comedy Act award at the Glastonbury Festival in 1997 and reached the finals of the BBC New Comedy Awards at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival the same year. Collins gave up stand-up comedy in 2002 to concentrate on TV and radio presenting, stating that he never intends to return to the profession.

In 2007 and 2010, Collins won "Funniest Man" at Loaded's LAFTA awards.

In 2008 Collins appeared as Amos Hart in the hit show Chicago, for which he rehearsed for at the Cambridge Theatre. Collins said of the role, "I'm over the moon to be playing the sexiest part in the best show on the West End stage. I've already gone through a dozen pairs of tights."

From August 2011 to September 2012 Collins played Dennis Dupree in the West End production of Rock of Ages.

In 2013, Collins made a low-key return to stand-up comedy when he participated in “What’s the fuss?” an event organised by Helen Lederer.

Radio

Collins began hosting a radio show on XFM in 2003, initially on Sundays at 1 to 3 am, later progressing to Saturday afternoons from 3 to 6 pm. He left in December 2005 and returned to host the Saturday 2 to 6pm slot during April 2011. On 17 September that year, Collins sat in for Dermot O'Leary's Saturday show on BBC Radio 2. Collins was heard performing a Tom Jones impersonation on BBC Radio 1's Chris Moyles Show in January 2008.

In 2014, Collins returned to radio with his own weekly show on Fubar Radio, an uncensored station featuring Andy Parsons and Mark Dolan. Collins' show currently runs Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 8.00pm - 10.00pm with co-host Sam Hutt. The show is also available via iTunes in podcast form.

Television and film

In 2002, Collins made shows for Bravo and MTV and became the host of the companion show for the first series of Strictly Come Dancing. He was replaced by Claudia Winkleman the following year and the show moved from BBC Three to BBC Two.

In 2005 and 2006, Collins presented The Games: Live At Trackside on E4 alongside Caroline Flack. The series was the companion show to Channel 4's sports-based reality programme The Games.

He was one of the presenters of Channel 4 and Paramount's Flipside TV.

Collins presented The Friday Night Project (later known as The Sunday Night Project) for Channel 4 alongside Alan Carr for three years from 2006 to 2009. He has also hosted a number of Bring Back... shows in which he aims to reunite groups, normally who are associated with TV or music. He also made a series for Channel 4 entitled The Convention Crasher, aired in late 2007 and early 2008, in which he learned skills such as clowning and ventriloquism in an attempt to win prizes at professional conventions.

On 7 May 2007, he became the latest "celebrity friend" of Paul O'Grady to fill the comic's shoes as guest presenter on The New Paul O'Grady Show on Channel 4 when O'Grady took a break. Collins appeared on Top Gear with Alan Carr on 22 June 2008, for the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car segment. His appeared onBring Back Star Trek and featured him trying to bring back the cast of the popular 1960s television series.

In June 2008, a show was aired on Sky One entitled Justin Lee Collins: 180, which followed his quest to be a professional darts player. In the show, he practised with Keith Deller and played in the BDO International Open on 15 June 2008. He lost in the first round 3-0 in legs to county player Stuart Bousfield, who was in the top 100 in the BDO rankings at the time.

He signed a £3 million deal with ITV for a show which focused on topical issues, but with a comedic twist, titled The Justin Lee Collins Show on ITV2 which ran from March to May 2009. That year he became the host of the Sky1 show Oops tv, which shows home videos of people doing stupid things and things going badly wrong. That August he appeared on JLC Is, a six-part series on Sky1 HD depicting the comedian taking on challenges to become a Mexican Wrestler, a surfer, a ballroom dancer, a ten pin bowler, a high diver and a West End Star. The following month on 11 September, whilst being interviewed on BBC Radio 1's Chris Moyles Show it was announced that Collins had signed an exclusive deal with Channel 5, and Collins confirmed that he would therefore not be making another series of The Justin Lee Collins Show for ITV2. On joining Five he hosted the game show Heads Or Tails, where players can win up to £1m by correctly calling coin flips and a chat show called Good Times which has since been cancelled due to poor viewing figures.

In Justin Lee Collins: The Wrestler, Collins trains for 10 days in Mexico with a Mexican transvestite Luchador (Mexican wrestler) who fights under the name Cassandro, as an exotico. Justin adopts a rudo (bad guy) Luchador persona, El Glorioso, or the Glorious One, with his own wrestling mask. His persona is given the blessing of El Hijo del Santo (The Son of Saint). Returning to London, Justin fights Cassandro in a Lucha libre event in the Roundhouse, ultimately losing and being unmasked.

In 2014, Collins was cast in British feature film The Hatching as 'Stan'. Directed by Michael Anderson. Collins stars alongside Andrew Lee Potts and Thomas Turgoose. The following year he had a bit-part in time travel comedy Time Slips, directed by Stephen Hyams.

In August 2016, Collins made his return to TV, two years after his conviction, by becoming a regular presenter on FanTV each Tuesday and Thursday on Showcasetv.

Music

After failing to be chosen to represent the United Kingdom in the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest, on 22 January 2010 Collins announced on RTÉ's The Late Late Show his intention to seek the nomination to represent Ireland. His proposed song was written by Boyzone star Ronan Keating. RTÉ confirmed on 9 February 2010 that the song had not been short listed for the Irish final.

In 2007, Collins signed a three-album deal with Universal. However, due to other commitments, the first album was never released and subsequently the deal was called off. Collins revealed in an interview with Reveal Magazine (2012) that it's something he would like to re-visit in the future.

Writing

In September 2009 Collins' autobiography Good Times! was published by Ebury Press. An audiobook followed.

Conventions

In 2015, Wales Comic Con announced that Justin Lee Collins would be appearing as a convention guest for the first time in his career.

Children and spouse

Collins' wife Karen gave birth to their first child, a boy called Archie, on 16 May 2005. During his appearance on UK daytime television show This Morning on 17 January 2008, Collins announced that his wife had recently given birth to their second son, Harvey. Collins separated from his wife in late 2010.

Harassment conviction

In November 2010, Collins began a relationship with Anna Larke. They lived together in Kew from January to July 2011. In December 2011, Collins was charged with Section 4 harassment (causing fear of violence), in relation to an alleged harassment. Collins was subsequently tried at St Albans Crown Court, where, on 9 October 2012, he was convicted of harassment causing fear of violence by a 10–1 majority verdict (one juror having been discharged), and sentenced to 140 hours of community service and to pay £3,500 prosecution costs. He did not appeal against his conviction. Following the trial he sought help from a psychotherapist. In March 2014, Collins said he was in a new relationship and described his personal life as "good".