Eddie Izzard facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Eddie Izzard
Izzard in 2015
Born	Edward John Izzard (1962-02-07) 7 February 1962 (age 62) Aden, Aden Colony (now Yemen)
Nationality	British
Other names	Suzy Eddie Izzard
Occupation	Comedian actor activist
Years active	1982–present

Suzy Eddie Izzard ( IZ-ard; born Edward John Izzard, 7 February 1962, often known professionally as Eddie Izzard), is a British stand-up comedian, actor and activist. Her comedic style takes the form of what appears to the audience as rambling whimsical monologues and self-referential pantomime.

Izzard's stand-up comedy tours have included Live at the Ambassadors (1993), Definite Article (1996), Glorious (1997), Dress to Kill (1998), Circle (2000), Stripped (2009), Force Majeure (2013) and Wunderbar (2022). She starred in the television series The Riches (2007–2008) and has appeared in numerous films, including Ocean's Twelve (2004), Ocean's Thirteen (2007), Valkyrie (2008), Absolutely Anything (2015) and Six Minutes to Midnight (2020). Izzard has also worked as a voice actor on films such as Five Children and It (2004), The Wild (2006), The Lego Batman Movie (2017) and the Netflix original series Green Eggs and Ham (2019). Among various accolades, she won two Primetime Emmys for Dress to Kill and was nominated for a Tony Award for her Broadway performance in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg.

In 2009, Izzard completed 43 marathons in 51 days for Sport Relief, despite having no history of long-distance running. In 2016, she ran 27 marathons in 27 days in South Africa in honour of Nelson Mandela, raising £1.35 million. In addition to her native English, she has performed stand-up in Arabic, French, German, Russian and Spanish, and is an active supporter of Europeanism and the European Union.

A dedicated Labour Party activist, Izzard twice ran unsuccessfully for the party's National Executive Committee and then joined as the most successful initially non-elected person after Christine Shawcroft resigned in March 2018. In 2022 and 2023, Izzard attempted to become the party's prospective parliamentary candidate (for Sheffield Central and Brighton Pavilion respectively); she was not selected in the members' ballots.

Early life and education

Edward John Izzard was born in Aden (then in Aden Colony and now in Yemen) on 7 February 1962, to English parents Dorothy Ella Izzard (1927–1968) and Harold John Michael Izzard (1928–2018). Their surname is of French Huguenot origin. Dorothy was a midwife and nurse, while Harold was an accountant who was working in Aden for British Petroleum at the time of Edward's birth. A brother, Mark, was born two years earlier.

When Izzard was a year old, the family moved to Northern Ireland and settled in Bangor, where they lived until Izzard was five. The family then moved to Wales, where they lived in Skewen.

Izzard was six when her mother died of cancer. The siblings built a model railway to occupy their time while their mother was ill, which was later donated to Bexhill Museum in 2016. Following the death, Izzard attended the private St John's School in Newton, St Bede's Prep School in Eastbourne, and Eastbourne College. She has said that she knew she was transgender at the age of four, after watching a boy being forced to wear a dress by his sisters, and knew she wanted to be an actor at the age of seven.

She studied drama at the University of Sheffield.

Career

Comedy

Izzard performing in December 2008

Izzard began to toy with comedy while at university with her friend Rob Ballard. The two took their act to the streets, often in the Covent Garden district of London. After splitting with Ballard, Izzard spent a great deal of the early 1980s working as a street performer in Europe and the United States. She says that she developed her comedic voice by talking to the audience while doing solo escape acts. She then moved her act to the stand-up comedy venues of Britain, performing her routine for the first time at the Banana Cabaret in London's Balham area.

In 1987, Izzard's first stage appearance was at the Comedy Store in London. She refined her comedy material throughout the 1980s and began earning recognition through improvisation in the early 1990s, in part at her own club, Raging Bull in Soho. Her breakthrough came in 1991 after she performed her "raised by wolves" routine on the televised Hysteria 3 AIDS benefit.

In 2000, for the comedy special Dress to Kill, Izzard won two Primetime Emmy Awards: Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program and Outstanding Writing for a Variety or Music Program, while the special was nominated for Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Special.

Izzard is fluent in French and has performed stand-up shows in the language; since 2014, she has also started to perform in Arabic, German, Russian and Spanish, languages that she did not previously speak.

Acting

In 1994, Izzard's West End drama debut as the lead in the world premiere of David Mamet's The Cryptogram with Lindsay Duncan, in the production at London's Comedy Theatre. The success of that role led to a second starring role, in David Beaird's black comedy 900 Oneonta. In 1995, she portrayed the title character in Christopher Marlowe's Edward II.

In 1998, Izzard appeared briefly on stage with Monty Python in The American Film Institute's Tribute to Monty Python (also referred to as Monty Python Live at Aspen). As part of an inside joke, she walked on stage with the five surviving Pythons and was summarily escorted off by Eric Idle and Michael Palin when attempting to participate in a discussion about how the group got together. In July 2014, she appeared on stage with Monty Python during their live show Monty Python Live (Mostly) as the special guest in their "Blackmail" sketch.

Izzard in 2013

Izzard portrayed comedian Lenny Bruce in the 1999 production of Julian Barry's 1971 play Lenny. In 2001, she replaced Clive Owen in Peter Nichols' 1967 play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg at the Comedy Theatre. Izzard and Victoria Hamilton repeated their lead roles when the show was brought to Broadway in 2003 in the Roundabout Theatre Company production. The revival received four Tony Award nominations, including Best Revival of a Play, Best Leading Actor and Best Leading Actress for its stars Izzard and Hamilton in their Broadway debuts, and Best Direction for Laurence Boswell. In June 2010, she replaced James Spader in the role of Jack Lawson in David Mamet's play Race on Broadway.

Izzard has appeared in numerous films, starting with The Secret Agent in 1996, and has appeared as several real-life individuals, including Charlie Chaplin in The Cat's Meow, actor Gustav von Wangenheim in Shadow of the Vampire, General Erich Fellgiebel in Valkyrie and wartime pioneer of radar Robert Watson-Watt in the BBC drama film Castles in the Sky. Other roles have included Mr Kite in Across the Universe, Lussurioso in Revengers Tragedy and criminal expert Roman Nagel in Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen. Her voice work has included the titular "It" in Five Children and It, Nigel in The Wild and the mouse warrior Reepicheep in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Izzard declined to reprise the role as Reepicheep, a role understudied by Simon Pegg in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Izzard has stated that she felt she learned to act while working on the film Circus.

In 2009, Izzard was the subject of Sarah Townsend's documentary Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story, which addresses BBC's Watchdog reporting of "recycling material from an old tour".

Izzard appeared in the 2009 BBC science fiction miniseries The Day of the Triffids, based on the 1951 novel, alongside Jason Priestley, Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson, Dougray Scott and Brian Cox. She played Dr. Hatteras, a sceptical psychology professor, in the Showtime series United States of Tara and appeared in six episodes of the 2013–15 American psychological horror television series Hannibal as Dr. Abel Gideon. In 2021, she appeared in the television series The Lost Symbol based on Dan Brown's 2009 novel of the same name.

At the London 2012 Paralympic Games, Izzard presented the medals to the athletes who had won the 800m T54 race, including gold medalist David Weir.

She has appeared on a number of episodes of BBC One's Have I Got News for You and as a guest on The Daily Show. In 2017, she read excerpts from her autobiography Believe Me for BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week.

From 25 January to 3 March 2024, Izzard performed a one-person version of Shakespeare's Hamlet, adapted by her brother Mark and directed by Selina Cadell, at the Greenwich House Theater in New York. The run was extended three times. The show transferred to Riverside Studios, London, with previews from 23 May 2024.

Charity work

Flag used by Izzard to represent Northern Ireland during the 2009 Sport Relief marathon. The green background references the Northern Ireland football jersey, while the white dove symbolises peace.

Izzard with the flags of the UK and European Union in 2006

Izzard (left) travels to Brussels with Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2006

Flag carried by Izzard during the Sport Relief Mile event in 2010.

On 27 July 2009, with only five weeks' training and no significant prior running experience, Izzard began seven weeks of back-to-back marathon runs (with Sundays off) across the UK to raise money for Sport Relief. She ran from London to Cardiff to Belfast to Edinburgh and back to London, carrying the flag of the country—England, Scotland, or Wales—in which she was running. In Northern Ireland, she carried a self-designed green flag bearing a white dove. The blog Eddie Iz Running documented the 43 marathons in 51 days, covering at least 27 miles per day (totalling more than 1,100 miles), ending on 15 September 2009. Izzard received a special award at BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2009 for these achievements. In March 2010, she took part in the Sport Relief Mile event.

On 16 February 2016, the BBC announced that Izzard would attempt to run 27 marathons in 27 days through South Africa for Sport Relief. The significance of the number 27 came from the number of years Nelson Mandela was held in prison. In total, she would aim to run more than 700 miles in temperatures of up to 40 °C. Izzard had attempted such a project in South Africa in 2012, but withdrew due to health concerns. She completed the first marathon on 23 February 2016, completing the marathon challenge on 20 March 2016 at the statue of Mandela in front of the Union Buildings in Pretoria. Because she had spent a day in hospital, she had to run two consecutive marathons on this last day. She raised more than £1.35M for Sport Relief. A BBC documentary detailing the feat was broadcast on 28 March.

On 8 December 2020, Izzard announced that she would attempt to run 31 marathons and perform 31 stand-up gigs, in the 31 days of January 2021 to raise money for a range of charities including Fareshare, Walking With The Wounded, Care International, United to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases and Covenant House. The series of marathons raised in excess of £275,000.

Comedic style

Izzard uses a stream-of-consciousness delivery that jumps between topics, saying in a 2004 interview with The Guardian that "it's the oral tradition [...] human beings have been doing it for thousands of years". Her bent towards the surreal went so far as to produce a sitcom called Cows in 1997 for Channel 4, a live-action comedy with actors dressed in cow suits. She has cited Monty Python as her biggest influence, and Python member John Cleese once referred to her as "the lost Python".

Personal life

Izzard identifies as genderfluid and calls herself "somewhat boy-ish and somewhat girl-ish". She uses the word "transgender" as an umbrella term. In March 2023, she announced that she would begin using the name Suzy in addition to Eddie, saying that she is "going to be Suzy Eddie Izzard".

Izzard keeps her romantic life private. She once dated Irish singer Sarah Townsend, whom Izzard first met while running a venue at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1989. Townsend later created the documentary Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story.

Izzard is an atheist.

Izzard supports Crystal Palace and became an associate director at the club on 16 July 2012. She is also a train modeller.

Honours

In 2003, Izzard received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of East Anglia, Norwich, for her work promoting "modern languages and tolerance of other cultures and lifestyles", and for having "transcended national barriers" with humour. She has also received honorary doctorates from the University of Sunderland in 2012, York St John University in 2018, and the University of Sheffield in 2006, where she had spent a year on an Accounting and Financial Management course in the early 1980s and established the now-defunct Alternative Productions Society in the Union of Students with the aim of promoting fringe-based arts. She was elected Honorary President of Sheffield's Students' Union in 2010.

Izzard's website won the Yahoo People's Choice Award in 2004 and a Webby Award in 2005.

In 2007, Izzard was listed as number 3 of the 100 Greatest British National Comedians (behind Peter Kay at number 2 and Billy Connolly at number 1) as part of British television station Channel 4's ongoing 100 Greatest ... series, and was ranked 5th in 2010.

In 2013, Izzard received the 6th Annual Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism, which is presented at Harvard University each year by the Humanist Community at Harvard, the American Humanist Association and the Harvard Community of Humanists, Atheists, and Agnostics.

In 2015, Izzard was chosen by readers of The Guardian as their 2014 public language champion. The award was announced at the Guardian and British Academy 2014 Schools Language Awards as part of the annual Language Festival.

Work

Videos

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

• 900 Oneonta (1994)
• The Cryptogram (1994)
• Edward II (1995)
• Lenny (1999)
• A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (2001–2002, 2003)
• Trumbo (2003)
• Race (2010)
• What About Dick? (2012)
• Charles Dickens' Great Expectations (2022-2023)
• Hamlet (2024)

Video games

See also

In Spanish: Eddie Izzard para niños