[Amy]

RUSSELL BRAND PRESENTS BIG BROTHER’S BIG MOUTH ON E4

Russell Brand brings his comical genius once more to E4 this summer, following last year’s Big Brother’s EFOURUM, as he presents E4’s thrice-weekly topical discussion programme, Big Brother’s Big Mouth.

A little background information on Russell Brand
Russell made his theatrical debut, aged fifteen, in Bugsy Malone as Fat Sam. Essex council decreed it criminally neglectful to allow this chameleon-like ability to put on hats to go un-nurtured and promptly funded an education at the Italia Conti stage school, which lead to a three-year scholarship at the Drama Centre in Camden.

In his spare time Russell began performing stand-up in pubs around London and reached the final of the prestigious Hackney Empire New Act of the Year competition. Brand was denied the victory that many assumed would be his (allegations of jury rigging came to naught) but was a runner-up, and his angry young man political rantings caught the eye of Time Out's Malcolm Hay who dubbed him "Essex's Bill Hicks".

Further gigs at the Hackney Empire followed and a successful run at the Edinburgh Festival with more flattering reviews and an appearance in the final of So You Think You’re Funny?

MTV caught Russell's show at the Festival and gave him his own series, Dance Floor Chart, where he bantered bizarrely with intoxicated youths in discos. Additionally he presented Select, their flagship tea-time phone in show. When Jackass arrived in Blighty, Russell was afforded the dubious privilege of promoting it for MTV UK.

RE:BRAND followed for UK Play - "a challenging look at cultural taboos" - and over ten episodes Russell had a boxing match with his Father (long before Dennis v Mortimer), had a bath with a homeless man (who he had living in his bed), acted as pimp to a heroin-addicted prostitute and tried to convert the leader of the young BNP to socialism.

Russell also presented his own show on Sunday afternoons for XFM, acted in Channel 4's White Teeth (as Merlin – a hippy commune leader/drug dealer), the Steve Coogan vehicle Cruise of the Gods, and hosted/ wrote The Russell Brand for Channel 4’s Comedy Lab series.

Summer 2004 saw Russell host E4’s live Big Brother discussion series EFOURUM, and present Kings of Comedy for E4, in between which he took his one man show Better Now to the Edinburgh Festival – a hilariously honest chronicle of Russell’s odyssey through a twilight world of *****s, heroin and hairdos, demonstrating that the road of excess leads to the palace of unemployment. The show was a complete sell out and received four and five-star reviews in The Times, The Guardian, The Scotsman and The Metro among others.

Russell has a number of exciting projects in development and has most recently been seen hosting Celebrity Big Brother’s EFOURUM on E4.