Craig Charles

Biography: Craig's career began at the age of 12 when he won the Guardian Poetry Award. The runner up was 33 years old! He performed as a warm-up act for various bands in Liverpool, and made his TV debut performing his poetry on Riverside and Wogan.

Nowadays he is perhaps best known for his role of Dave Lister on Red Dwarf. When going for the auditions for Red Dwarf, Craig had no acting experience what so ever, which sowed the seeds of doubt into Doug Naylor's mind at the time, coupled with the fact they believed him to have a non-likable persona and just didn't have a Scouser in mind for the part of Lister. However Craig blew them all away at his reading, turned out to be one of the nicest blokes they'd ever met and made a good double act with Chris Barrie when pairing auditionees up for Rimmer and Lister. All the Liverpool references that are heard throughout the entire series were written in specifically for Craig as Lister.

Craig has also been seen and heard as a performer or presenter on a whole host of programmes as diverse as Through the Keyhole, The Bill, Radio 4's Kaleidoscope and of course the irresistible carnage of Robot Wars.

In addition to his abilities as a skilled actor, comedian and poet, he also had a stint as a professional footballer for Liverpool based club Tranmere Rovers. In the past Craig has also been a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and has toured various venues with his stand-up show and even done some panto (in Dick Whittington). He has had several bands (one of which even played tracks included on the Red Dwarf soundtrack), though currently continues to front his own band, The Eye.… Expand