Craig Kelly (actor)
Encyclopedia
Craig Kelly is a British
actor, best known for his role as Vince Tyler in the Channel 4
television series Queer as Folk and as Luke Strong
in Coronation Street
.
near Blackpool
, Lancashire
. He is the brother of actor Dean Lennox Kelly
. Kelly has a keen interest in Kickboxing
, in which he has a black belt. He has been training in the sport for 10 years, as of 2009.
and attended the Drama Centre London, where he studied the Stanislavski School of method acting
alongside John Simm
and Joe Duttine
.
Graduating in 1992, Kelly played a minor speaking role in Titanic
as Assistant Wireless Operator, Harold Bride and also as Russell Muir in the film When Saturday Comes.
as Daniel Perryman between 1995 and 1996. A very brief role was as the Mercedes-Benz
driver in the Rabbit In Your Headlights
video, who utters the line "Nice coat, mate" before speeding off. Craig also starred opposite Amanda Holden in the ITV series 'The Grimleys' as Mr Treblecock, the school lothario. He played the young father of Alison Mundy in a second series episode of afterlife
in 2006.
In 2003, Kelly featured in the webcast
Doctor Who
adventure The Scream of the Shalka. He later guest starred in the third series of the BBC
's Waking the Dead
in which he played a cross dresser who is released from prison on appeal for murdering his father.
In November 2008, Kelly landed the role of the new Underworld factory boss, Luke Strong, for a year-long stint in ITV
's Coronation Street
. His character last appeared in the episode which aired on 19 October 2009.
On 25 August 2009, it was announced that he would take part in Series 7 of BBC One
's Strictly Come Dancing
partnering Flavia Cacace
. Kelly was the 8th Celebrity eliminated from the competition on 7 November 2009 in a special show from Blackpool Tower Ballroom.
Kelly starred alongside his brother in the ITV1
drama Collision
which aired over five consecutive nights in November 2009.
Kelly was also in James Cameron's Titanic (1997) and played the part of a Marconi Operator.
Also he appeared in Spiceworld with a minor speaking role where he speaks to Geri (Ginger Spice)
idents and more recently on Channel 4
idents. As of April 2008 he is a voiceover for Channel 4's 4OD on-demand service and the ITV catchup service. He has also narrated for various television programmes, including Channel 4's Shipwrecked: Battle of the Islands (2006–2009), E4's Shipwrecked: The Island 2011
(2011) and ITV's Freddie Mercury: A Kind of Magic documentary. He can also be credited for his narration on Sally Morgan
's Star Psychic Show, as well as series 6 of The Real Hustle
on BBC Three (a show his brother narrated for two series). He is currently the station voice for Manchester's Key 103
.
in the Balearic Islands
in the summer of 2009. The couple live in Kensal Green
, London
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
actor, best known for his role as Vince Tyler in the Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
television series Queer as Folk and as Luke Strong
Luke Strong
Luke Strong is a fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. Portrayed by actor Craig Kelly, the character appeared throughout 2009. Luke took over Carla Gordon's share of the Underworld factory with Tony Gordon...
in Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
.
Biography
Kelly was born on 31 October 1970 in Lytham St AnnesLytham St Annes
Lytham St Annes is a conurbation in the Fylde district of Lancashire, England. The neighbouring towns of Lytham and St-Anne's-on-the-Sea have grown together and now form a seaside resort...
near Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
, Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
. He is the brother of actor Dean Lennox Kelly
Dean Lennox Kelly
Dean Lennox Kelly is an English actor, He is the brother of actor Craig Kelly.Dean is best known for his role as Kev Ball in Channel 4’s Shameless.-Career:...
. Kelly has a keen interest in Kickboxing
Kickboxing
Kickboxing refers to a group of martial arts and stand-up combat sports based on kicking and punching, historically developed from karate, Muay Thai and western boxing....
, in which he has a black belt. He has been training in the sport for 10 years, as of 2009.
Career
Kelly moved to LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and attended the Drama Centre London, where he studied the Stanislavski School of method acting
Method acting
Method acting is a phrase that loosely refers to a family of techniques used by actors to create in themselves the thoughts and emotions of their characters, so as to develop lifelike performances...
alongside John Simm
John Simm
John Simm is an English stage and screen actor. In recent years he is best known for his roles as Sam Tyler in the detective drama Life on Mars and as The Master in the revival of the science fiction series Doctor Who, but he has also starred in many highly acclaimed award-winning television...
and Joe Duttine
Joe Duttine
Joe Duttine , sometimes credited as Jo Duttine, is an English film, theatre and television actor.-Early life:He was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England...
.
Graduating in 1992, Kelly played a minor speaking role in Titanic
Titanic (1997 film)
Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance and disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Billy Zane as Rose's fiancé, Cal...
as Assistant Wireless Operator, Harold Bride and also as Russell Muir in the film When Saturday Comes.
TV work
Kelly is best known for his role as Vince Tyler in Queer as Folk, for which he won serious critical acclaim and gained a plethora of new fans. He also appeared in CasualtyCasualty (TV series)
Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...
as Daniel Perryman between 1995 and 1996. A very brief role was as the Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is a German manufacturer of automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks. Mercedes-Benz is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG...
driver in the Rabbit In Your Headlights
Rabbit in Your Headlights (music video)
"Rabbit in Your Headlights" is a song by British electronic duo UNKLE. It was released as the lead single from their debut album Psyence Fiction . The song features vocals from British musician and Radiohead member Thom Yorke. The song was written by Yorke and Unkle member Josh Davis and produced...
video, who utters the line "Nice coat, mate" before speeding off. Craig also starred opposite Amanda Holden in the ITV series 'The Grimleys' as Mr Treblecock, the school lothario. He played the young father of Alison Mundy in a second series episode of afterlife
Afterlife (TV series)
Afterlife is a British television drama series, produced by independent production company Clerkenwell Films for the ITV network...
in 2006.
In 2003, Kelly featured in the webcast
Webcast
A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand...
Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
adventure The Scream of the Shalka. He later guest starred in the third series of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's Waking the Dead
Waking the Dead (TV series)
Waking the Dead is a British television police procedural crime drama series produced by the BBC featuring a fictional Cold Case Unit comprising CID police officers, a psychological profiler and a forensic scientist. A pilot episode aired in September 2000 and there have been a total of nine series...
in which he played a cross dresser who is released from prison on appeal for murdering his father.
In November 2008, Kelly landed the role of the new Underworld factory boss, Luke Strong, for a year-long stint in ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
's Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
. His character last appeared in the episode which aired on 19 October 2009.
On 25 August 2009, it was announced that he would take part in Series 7 of BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
's Strictly Come Dancing
Strictly Come Dancing
Strictly Come Dancing is a British television show, featuring celebrities with professional dance partners competing in Ballroom and Latin dances. The title of the show suggests a continuation of the long-running series Come Dancing, with an allusion to the film Strictly Ballroom...
partnering Flavia Cacace
Flavia Cacace
Flavia Cacace , is an Italian professional dancer. Her professional dance partner is Vincent Simone, and both regularly appear on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing. Their brand name when performing together is VincentandFlavia...
. Kelly was the 8th Celebrity eliminated from the competition on 7 November 2009 in a special show from Blackpool Tower Ballroom.
Kelly starred alongside his brother in the ITV1
ITV1
ITV1 is a generic brand that is used by twelve franchises of the British ITV Network in the English regions, Wales, southern Scotland , the Isle of Man and the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey. The ITV1 brand was introduced by Carlton and Granada in 2001, alongside the regional identities of their...
drama Collision
Collision (TV series)
Collision is a five-part television drama miniseries, which debuted on ITV in November 2009. In the same month, it was also on PBS as a series in two parts. It tells the story of a group of strangers whose lives intertwine following a devastating car crash...
which aired over five consecutive nights in November 2009.
Film Work
He played Cristian O'Neil in The Young Americans, with Harvey Keitel(1993).Kelly was also in James Cameron's Titanic (1997) and played the part of a Marconi Operator.
Also he appeared in Spiceworld with a minor speaking role where he speaks to Geri (Ginger Spice)
Voice-over work
Kelly is a prolific voiceover artist, his vocal talents heard on many adverts, BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
idents and more recently on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
idents. As of April 2008 he is a voiceover for Channel 4's 4OD on-demand service and the ITV catchup service. He has also narrated for various television programmes, including Channel 4's Shipwrecked: Battle of the Islands (2006–2009), E4's Shipwrecked: The Island 2011
Shipwrecked: The Island 2011
Shipwrecked: The Island 2011 is a UK reality television series and is the second revival of the Shipwrecked format. The 2011 series is the eighth overall in the Shipwrecked series. The Island has a different format from the Battle of the Islands series, consisting of only one tribe of 10 people...
(2011) and ITV's Freddie Mercury: A Kind of Magic documentary. He can also be credited for his narration on Sally Morgan
Sally Morgan (psychic)
Sally Morgan is a British television and stage artist who claims to have psychic abilities.-Career:Morgan can be seen on the ITV2 programme Sally Morgan: Star Psychic, as well as the Sky Living programme Psychic Sally: On the Road.In March 2010, she appeared on an episode of What Katie Did Next in...
's Star Psychic Show, as well as series 6 of The Real Hustle
The Real Hustle
The Real Hustle is a BBC television series made by Objective Productions and written by Alexis Conran and Paul Wilson. The show demonstrates confidence and magic tricks, distraction scams and proposition bets performed on members of the public by presenters Conran, Wilson and Jessica-Jane Clement...
on BBC Three (a show his brother narrated for two series). He is currently the station voice for Manchester's Key 103
Key 103
Key 103 is an Independent Local Radio station broadcasting to the city of Manchester and the north west of England. Its output is principally contemporary pop and dance music. Formerly owned by Trans World Communications, EMAP and now by Bauer Radio, Key 103 is part of Bauer's Place Network of...
.
Personal life
Kelly and his wife Camilla married in FormenteraFormentera
Formentera is the smaller and more southerly island of the Pine Islands group , which belongs to the Balearic Islands autonomous community .-Geography:...
in the Balearic Islands
Balearic Islands
The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.The four largest islands are: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain with Palma as the capital...
in the summer of 2009. The couple live in Kensal Green
Kensal Green
Kensal Green, also referred to as Kensal Rise is an area of London, England. It is located on the southern edge of the London Borough of Brent and borders the City of Westminster to the East and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to the South....
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.