Mackenzie Crook

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Mackenzie Crook
Image:Mackenzie Crook.jpg A photo of Mackenzie from Telegraph.co.uk
Birth name	Paul Mackenzie Crook
Born	September 29, 1971 Maidstone, Kent
Spouse(s)	Lindsay Crook
Notable roles	Gareth Keenan in The Office Ragetti in Pirates of the Carribean series

Paul Mackenzie Crook (born September 29, 1971) is an English actor best known for playing Gareth Keenan in The Office.

1 Early life
2 Professional career
3 Personal life
4 External links

[edit] Early life

Crook was born in Maidstone, Kent, and grew up in Dartford. His father, Michael Crook worked for British Airways and his mother, Sheila Crook was a hospital manager. He also has two sisters, one the eldest and one the youngest. In the summers he spent time with his uncle in Zimbabwe where he developed a love for painting. He went to Wilmington Grammar School for Boys, and did his first plays there. He joined the Orchard Youth Theatre in Dartford when he was about 15 and gained his inspiration for acting.

[edit] Professional career

[edit] Film & TV Roles

Crook began his career as a standup comedian alongside Iain Lee. They appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the mid-90's as Chalk and Cheese. He had also often performed as a grotesque schoolteacher called Mr. Bagshaw. Crook's first major television role was as a comedy sketch contributor on Channel 4's The Eleven O'Clock Show in 1998. He was later a member of the main cast of the BBC sketch show TV to Go in 2001. From 2001 to 2003 he played the role of Gareth Keenan in the popular mockumentary The Office. He appeared in Pirates of the Caribbean (2003), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006), and is expected to appear in Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End (2007), as Ragetti, a pirate with a comically ill-fitting wooden eye. He has appeared in ads for Visa and M&Ms (as his Ragetti character in both). According to past interviews he received the role when Johnny Depp recommended him to Gore Verbinski to play a part in the films after bonding with Mackenzie on the set of Finding Neverland.

Many of those who have interviewed him have described him as a shy and quietly-spoken man, being also fairly nervous.

Mackenzie as Gareth Keenan from The Office

He also appeared as Launcelot Gobbo in Michael Radford's 2004 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. Crook played a minor role in the 2004 film Finding Neverland as a theatre usher. Other films he starred in include The Gathering, The Brother's Grimm and Churchill: The Hollywood Years. Another one is Johnny Vegas' The Sex Lives of The Potato Men.

Mackenzie has starred in three of Tim Plester and Ben Gregor's short films: as Gary Tibbs in Ant Muzak (2002), as Servalan in Blake's Junction 7 (2004), and as Glorious George in World of Wrestling (2007). He is also has a role in an upcoming film in 2007 I Want Candy (2007 film) as Mr Dulberg, a quirky University Professor. Also, he is to voice a main character called Rolli in an animated film from Finland called 'Quest For A Heart'.

[edit] Theatre Performances

He played Billy Bibbit in the 2004 London West End production of the stage play of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and in 2006 The Exonerated at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. He is currently featuring in a production of The Seagull at the Royal Court Theatre as a troubled writer named Konstantin.

[edit] Other Projects

Crook has said that his other ambitions would be to draw and write and he has recently made a deal with the book publisher Faber to illustrate and write a children's book about a boy who finds something strange in his garden after the hurricane of 1987.

Crook has also written a film script and shown it to director Sam Mendes, about a group of gangsters in 18th Century London in which he hopes to play the lead.

[edit] Personal life

He now lives in Muswell Hill, North London in Peter Sellers' old semi-detached house (which he bought for £700,000) with his wife, Lindsay, and his young son, Jude.