Reece Shearsmith

Early life

Reece was born in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire as Reeson Shearsmith and went to Andrew Marvell High School and then Bretton Hall College of Education.

Career

The League of Gentlemen initially began as a stage act in 1995, transferred to BBC Radio 4 as On the Town with The League of Gentlemen in 1995 and then arrived on television on BBC Two in 1999. The latter saw Shearsmith and his colleagues awarded a British Academy Television Award, a Royal Television Society Award and the prestigious Golden Rose of Montreaux.

Following The League of Gentlemen, Shearsmith appeared in comedy programmes including Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere as well as playing insane villain Tony in the Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer comedy Catterick. He appeared in two episodes of the award-winning pop-culture comedy Spaced as Robot Wars obsessed TA soldier Dexter, and played neurotic Doctor Flynn in hospital sitcom TLC alongside Alexander Armstrong.

From March 2006 to January 2007, he appeared in the West End as Leo Bloom in The Producers.

In the 2008 English language DVD release of the cult 2006 Norwegian animated film Free Jimmy, Shearsmith voiced the character of "Ante", a heavy-set, bizarrely-dressed biker member of the "Lappish Mafia". In this, his voice is used along with Steve Pemberton and Mark Gatiss.

Psychoville began June 2009 and marked his return to BBC2. The dark comedy series was written by Shearsmith and his League of Gentlemen writing partner Steve Pemberton. Both Shearsmith and Pemberton played numerous characters in the programme, which ran for two series and a Halloween special.

In 2010 Shearsmith appeared in John Landis' black comedy Burke and Hare and played the lead character in Ghost Stories, written and directed by Jeremy Dyson and magician Andy Nyman.

In 2011, Cameron Mackintosh's new musical Betty Blue Eyes opened in the West End, in which Shearsmith played downtrodden husband Gilbert Chilvers (a chiropodist) alongside Sarah Lancashire. Also in 2011, he played Harry Wiseman in Eric & Ernie, a feature-length TV drama about Morecambe and Wise.

In 2012, he appeared in Bad Sugar, a comedy pilot written by Sam Bain & Jesse Armstrong, along with Olivia Colman, Julia Davis and Sharon Horgan. A full series order was cancelled due to availability of the writers and cast. He also appeared in comedy pilot The Function Room.

In 2013, he played Patrick Troughton in An Adventure in Space and Time, a docu-drama about the conception and making of Doctor Who, which was written by Mark Gatiss. He worked with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer again in the first series of House of Fools as Martin the ghost and in the Christmas special as Santa. He made two guest appearances in Jeremy Dyson's Psychobitches as Old Mother Shipton in series one and Princess Margaret in series two.

Also in 2013, he starred in Ben Wheatley's A Field In England as Whitehead and appeared in The World's End.

In 2014, Shearsmith and Pemberton returned to BBC2 with a new dark comedy series called Inside No. 9. Each episode of the anthology series takes place in a different 'No. 9' location. Shearsmith and Pemberton play various characters across the series and have also directed two of the episodes.

Also in 2014, he starred as Malcolm Webster in ITV drama series, based on a true story, The Widower. Also in 2014, he starred as Detective Sergeant Stone in Chasing Shadows, an ITV drama series about missing persons.

In 2015, he played Gagan Rassmussen in the Series 9 Doctor Who episode "Sleep No More", Steele in High-Rise directed by Ben Wheatley, Ray in Peter Kay's Car Share, and Pastor John in the Christmas specials of Julia Davis's Hunderby. In February 2015, Shearsmith was interviewed by Adam Buxton on BBC Radio 4's Chain Reaction and he then interviewed Bob Mortimer. Also in 2015, he appeared in Hangmen at the Royal Court Theatre from Thursday 10 September to Saturday 10 October 2015. The play was written by Martin McDonagh and directed by Matthew Dunster.

In 2016, he appeared in Mid Morning Matters With Alan Partridge, American musical comedy series Galavant and dark comedy thriller Stag. He also appeared live at Latitude Festival in Southwold, Suffolk.

A Christmas special of Inside No. 9 aired in December 2016 and a third series will air this year, 2017.

In 2017, he appeared in the title role in The Dresser at Chichester Festival Theatre.

Personal life

Reece is married to Jane Shearsmith, and they have two children together. His daughter Holly appears in the first episode of Psychoville as the birthday girl who gets a makeover from Mr Jelly the clown, played by Shearsmith.