Simon Pegg

Simon Pegg (born February 14, 1970, Gloucester, England) is an English actor, writer, and comedian best known for his nerdy character roles in the Star Trek films of the early 2000s, the Mission Impossible film series, and collaborations with director Edgar Wright on the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy: Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and The World’s End (2013).

Early life

Pegg was born Simon John Beckingham in Gloucester, England, to jazz musician and salesman John Beckingham and Gillian (née Smith) Beckingham, a civil servant and theater troupe member. His parents divorced when he was seven years old, and his mother remarried shoe salesman Richard Pegg; Simon subsequently adopted his stepfather’s surname. Pegg became interested in performing in his youth, acting and telling jokes. In a 2007 interview with The Observer, he recalls: “I grew up around a really passionate group of people who were doing theater for nothing, doing it simply for the sake of doing it. And that’s where I got my love of it from.” He studied English literature and theater at Stratford-upon-Avon College from 1985–87 and went on to study theater, film, and television at the University of Bristol, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1991.

Career

In 1995 Pegg appeared on television for the first time, in the short-lived sketch comedy series Six Pairs of Pants, for which he was also a writer. It was his first collaboration with Jessica Hynes, a fellow comedian. The following year he performed in three episodes of the British stand-up and sketch comedy series Saturday Live. In 1996 Pegg and Hynes first collaborated with director Wright on the TV miniseries Asylum, a dark comedy that follows the adventures of patients in a psychiatric hospital where the competency of the staff is suspect. Wright directed the episodes while Pegg and Hynes performed, and all three of them contributed to the writing. Through the rest of the 1990s, Pegg continued to appear on television in various roles, including his portrayal of the accident-prone character Jools in the family sitcom Faith in the Future (1996–98) and his work in the sketch comedy show We Know Where You Live (1997).

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He first rose to prominence as one of the lead characters in the British sitcom Spaced (1999–2001), which he developed with Hynes. Pegg and Hynes costarred in the series, which was directed by Wright and has become a cult classic in Britain in the years since its release. The show focused on the escapades of aspiring artist Tim Bisley (Pegg) and struggling writer Daisy Steiner (Hynes) after they grift their way into renting a “couples only” apartment together as relative strangers. Pegg’s real-life best friend, actor Nick Frost, appeared in the series as Bisley’s best friend, Mike Watt. Frost would go on to perform in many of Pegg’s projects, often in the best friend role. Overlapping with Spaced, Pegg appeared on the sketch comedy show Big Train (1998–2002), for which he also wrote some material.

Pegg and Wright collaborated again for the 2004 film Shaun of the Dead, with Wright again directing and Pegg starring and cowriting the script. Frost, who had in part helped inspire the story—a “romantic zombie comedy” (also called a “rom-zom-com”) about friends who attempt to weather a zombie apocalypse from their local pub—again played the best friend character. Pegg, Wright, and Frost adopted a similar formula for the buddy-cop slasher comedy Hot Fuzz and the science-fiction comedy The World’s End, films that are grouped with Shaun of the Dead in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, named after a British ice cream treat. Wright later recalled on Twitter (now known as X) that because the dessert had been featured in Shaun of the Dead, the crew had been given free Cornettos at the film’s after-party. Pegg and Wright had decided they should mention Cornettos again in their next film in hopes of receiving free treats. Although this ploy proved unsuccessful, they were able to secure the sweets after filming The World’s End.

In between the Cornetto films, Pegg and Frost wrote and starred in Paul (2011), a film about friends who encounter an extraterrestrial being during a road trip. Pegg also teamed up with fellow comedian Michael Ian Black to write the romantic comedy Run Fatboy Run (2007), directed by David Schwimmer, which Pegg also starred in.

Pegg remained an in-demand actor throughout the early 21st century, appearing as tech whiz Benji Dunn in Mission: Impossible III (2006), Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol (2011), Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation (2015), Mission: Impossible—Fallout (2018), and Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One (2023). He also played the role of Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in the rebooted series of Star Trek films, including Star Trek (2009), Star Trek into Darkness (2013), and Star Trek Beyond (2016), for which he also contributed to the script.

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A self-professed nerd, Pegg gravitated toward science-fiction and comic-inspired roles, including a part in director Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin (2011) and a recurring role in the satirical superhero TV series The Boys (2019–2023). A particular fan of the Star Wars film series, Pegg played a minor role in Star Wars: Episode VII—The Force Awakens (2015). He also voiced the character of Buck in the animated films Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009), Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012), Ice Age: Collision Course (2016), and The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild (2022).

Personal life

In 2005 Pegg married publicist Maureen McCann, with Frost serving as his best man. The couple has one child together. In addition to his on-screen work, Pegg published an autobiography, Nerd Do Well, in 2010.