Paul Kaye

Paul Kaye (born 15 December 1964) is an English comedian and actor.

He is known for his portrayals of shock interviewer Dennis Pennis on The Sunday Show, New York lawyer Mike Strutter on MTV's Strutter, Thoros of Myr in HBO's Game of Thrones, and Vince the fox on the BBC comedy Mongrels.

Kaye was born in the Clapham area of London on 15 December 1964.

He and his twin sister were adopted by Jackie and Ivan Kaye and raised in Wembley, where their adoptive parents ran a sportswear shop.

He is of Jewish background.

He was a promising schoolboy athlete who achieved an impressive time in the 100-metre race.

He later became a fan of punk rock, particularly the Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious.

At the age of 16, he entered Harrow Art School on a two-year foundation course, and achieved a distinction before earning a first-class degree in Theatre Design from Nottingham Trent University (then called Trent Polytechnic).

On graduation, Kaye designed theatre posters for the King's Head, the Bush Theatre, and the Gate Theatre, Notting Hill.

He was a scene painter at the Old Vic Theatre in Waterloo and illustrated regularly for the NME, i-D, Literary Review, Time Out and International Musician magazines between 1987 and 1989.

Kaye formed and sang in many bands, notably the dark psychedelic outfit We Are Pleb, who played extensively in Camden during 1988–89 (at the same time as Blur and Suede) and had a penchant for setting the stage on fire.

He had two exhibitions of illustration and poster work between 1989 and 1990, firstly at the Soho House Theatre, and then at The Drill Hall.

After brief stints presenting two episodes of Transmission (ITV's early 1990s indie music magazine show) as Pennis, the character next appeared in 1995 on BBC2's The Sunday Show.

The basic premise was that Kaye and a camera crew would visit film premieres, press functions, and other assorted celebrity gatherings to attempt to get an "interview" with stars, in between short skits and sketches featuring the character.

Originally, the celebrities would be mainly British stars harassed at assorted London-based events, such as actor Hugh Grant, TV host Ulrika Jonsson, and sports pundit Des Lynam.

Kaye was signed to Go Discs in 1992 with a group called TV Eye (formed with ex-members of the band Eat), which released two singles, "Killer Fly" and "Eradicator".

In 1993, Kaye filmed a prototype Dennis Pennis, interviewing his own band on a late-night indie music show on Granada TV called Transmission.

After the interview, Kaye then went out with the crew, got very drunk and offended as many people as possible up and down Oxford Street.

This tape somehow arrived on the desk of producers at Planet 24 six months later, and they offered Kaye the job of knocking on people's doors at 6.00am on The Big Breakfast.

Kaye turned them down, preferring to stay on Job Seekers Allowance and stick with We Are Pleb; Mark Lamarr eventually took the job.

Kaye was the in-house graphic designer for Tottenham Hotspur.

He had an office in White Hart Lane and designed merchandise for Spurs, Derby County, Southampton and Aston Villa for Danish sportswear brand Hummel International (doing caricatures of Paul Gascoigne for school lunchboxes etc.).

As an Arsenal fan, Kaye has said there are subliminal cannons contained within his work for Spurs, most notably a pen and ink drawing of Tottenham's new stand on a catalogue cover which features a minute cannon in the crowd: 70,000 were printed.

Kaye became in-house theatre designer of the Bet Zvi Drama Academy in Tel Aviv for 12 months in 1994, designing all the in-house productions in their studio theatre.

His TV debut was on The Word being secretly filmed in Oliver Reed's dressing room.

Kaye recalls "Reed had drunk two bottles of vodka, taken all his clothes off and I honestly thought he was going to kill me on live television. I swore in bed that I'd never do a celebrity interview again. Typically, six months later I'd come up with Dennis Pennis."

In 1994, Kaye convinced his old friend Anthony Hines (a car mechanic and some time roadie for TV Eye) to help him write Dennis Pennis when he was offered the job on The Sunday Show.

A late night half-hour one-off special aired on 15 September 1995 on BBC2 called Anyone For Pennis?, which contained previously unseen footage that couldn't be shown on The Sunday Show due to the show's pre-watershed slot at lunchtime.

When the Pennis character took off, Kaye was afforded a budget large enough to travel to Cannes, Hollywood, and Venice to record footage for a two-part special on 9 and 16 August 1996 on BBC2 called Very Important Pennis.

His victims from this point on were much more renowned, the most famous of whom were Arnold Schwarzenegger, Demi Moore, Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman and Bruce Willis, amid a raft of other Hollywood A-list stars.

It was apparent that these victims were unsettled and unhappy with Pennis' unique line of questioning.

Some stars, such as Costner, insulted him back, while others, such as Moore, simply declined to comment and left.

Pennis was visibly amused at the look of disgust on some of the stars' faces.

There was some controversy when Pennis asked of Steve Martin, "How come you're not funny any more?"

Martin subsequently cancelled all scheduled press interviews.

Kaye later said that he regretted this interview for a while, but nevertheless said, "Anyone who thinks they can improve on Bilko and Inspector Clouseau needs a slap, don't they?"

A special one hour video-only feature was released in 1997 called Dennis Pennis RIP: Too Rude to Live, which saw the character killed off.

(Hines was later poached by Sacha Baron Cohen to write for Ali G on The Eleven O'Clock Show and went on to receive an Oscar nomination for co-writing Borat in 2006).

Celebrity interviewer Dennis Pennis, created by Kaye and Hines, was one of Kaye's best-known characters.

With dyed red hair, gaudy jackets adorned with punk-style badges, and thick glasses, Pennis stood out from the crowd and asked celebrities atypical questions, ranging from playful to cruel.