Best-known for his surreal and digressive stand-up, British comedian and actor Eddie Izzard was born on February 7, 1962, in Aden, Yemen, where his English parents -- Dorothy Ella, a nurse and midwife, and Harold John Izzard, an accountant -- worked for British Petroleum.

Izzard worked as a street performer and in smaller comedy venues throughout the mid-to-late 1980s; his big break came when he appeared in Hysteria III, a 1991 AIDS fundraiser held at the London Palladium, and did his now-famous "Raised by wolves" sketch. After that, he drew bigger and bigger audiences, and in 1993 hired the Ambassadors Theatre in London's West End for the first of many successful one-man shows. With Eddie Izzard: Live at the Ambassadors (1993), he was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award (outstanding achievement) and won his first British Comedy Award for top stand-up comedian. He returned to the West End the next year with his second one-man show, Eddie Izzard: Unrepeatable (1994), and soon thereafter made his West End debut in a drama, as the lead in the world premiere of David Mamet's "The Cryptogram" with Lindsay Duncan; his success led to his second starring role, in "900 Oneonta".

Izzard appeared in 1995 as the title character in Christopher Marlowe's groundbreaking "Edward II". In 1996, he made his big-screen debut alongside Bob Hoskins and Robin Williams in The Secret Agent (1996); he also staged another one-man show, Eddie Izzard: Definite Article (1996), for which he received his second British Comedy Award. He then took "Definite Article" to major cities outside the UK, including New York, and returned to the West End with a new show, Eddie Izzard: Glorious (1997), which included a month in New York City at PS122.

In 1998, Izzard appeared in another film, Velvet Goldmine (1998), with Ewan McGregor, and also staged his breakthrough one-man U.S. show, Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill (1999) which aired on HBO and earned Izzard two Emmy Awards. Izzard next took on the challenge of appearing as Lenny Bruce in Peter Hall's West End production of "Lenny."

Izzard started 2000 touring the world with Eddie Izzard: Circle (2002) and continued to act in films, among them The Criminal (1999); Shadow of the Vampire (2000) with John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe; and Peter Bogdanovich's The Cat's Meow (2001), in which he played Charles Chaplin. He returned to the stage, in London and later in New York (his Broadway debut), with A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (2002), a version of which was televised.

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Trivia

Born in Yemen while his parents were there on business. He has a brother named Mark. His mother died when Eddie was six years old.
He was nominated for Broadway's 2003 Tony Award as best actor (play) for a revival of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg.
He is dyslexic.
He auditioned for the role of Rodney Skinner (The Invisible Man) in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), but lost out to Tony Curran.
His comedy routines frequently contain the following elements: references to jam, banjos, bananas, monkeys, and the names Jeff, Kev, and Steve; world history; the Bible, using an impression of James Mason to portray God; pantomime; mumbling; and foreign languages, sometimes actually performing in French or German for English-speaking audiences.
He speaks French with such fluency that he's performed multiple comedy shows entirely in French. Same goes with German.
He was touring in New Zealand during the filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He heard about the filming and, being such a big fan of the books, asked if he could make an appearance in the films. He was declined.
He uses 3 distinct voices in most of his one-man shows - God (James Mason), Sean Connery (several, including Noah) and Mrs. Badcrumble (Scottish clarinet teacher). In real life, Mrs. Badcrumble was his piano teacher as a young boy.
Sarah Townsend composes the music for all of his shows.
In 1991 he was nominated for the Perrier Award.
His admirers include John Cleese and former Doctor Who (1963) star Tom Baker. During the television special Python Night: 30 Years of Monty Python (1999), which Izzard hosted, Cleese said that Izzard was the lost Python. Baker championed Izzard to play the Doctor when the series was revived in 2005. He described Izzard as "so mysterious and strange".
In a 2005 poll to find the Comedian's Comedian, Izzard was voted as number 19 out of the top 50 greatest comedy acts in history by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.
Originally played Darren McCarthy in Day 6 of 24 (2001). He dropped out due to scheduling conflicts after only a day of filming. He was replaced by David Hunt.
Eddie spent August and September 2009 literally running around the UK, from London, England, to Cardiff, Wales, to Belfast, Northern Ireland, to Edinburgh, Scotland, and back to London. He ran approximately 30 miles per day for a total of about 1100 miles, to raise money for the charity "Sport Relief," which is part of "Comic Relief.".
He is a prominent celebrity supporter of Britain's Labour Party, has made financial donations to the party and appeared on stage at the 2009 party conference.
In 2008, he was touring the U.S. with his one-man show, "Stripped.".
In June 2013, United Kingdom, Europe, and South Africa: Touring with Force Majeure.
In late spring 2010, he was touring Canada with his one man show, Stripped.
In April 2007, he was starring in the F/X series, The Riches (2007), airing on Tuesday nights and repeats on Sunday and Monday nights.
In July 2010, he played the role in David Mamet's play, "Race", on Broadway in New York City.
In August 2003, he was touring the United States, Australia, and New Zealand with his new show, "Sexie", throughout the last half of the year.
He made a surprise appearance as one of the "Bruces" in the "Philopher's Song" sketch during the 2014 reunion show for Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Personal Quotes 

I'd be happy to be taken as a woman -- and that's what I was initially trying to do when I started throwing on dresses and stuff. But that wasn't going to happen because everyone kept calling me sir. So I thought I'd change the method and just start wearing what I wanted to wear.
I can go from blokey to girlie in 15 minutes and then I'm out the door. But that's the fastest I can do it. Becoming a woman takes work.
I definitely have breast envy. When teenage girls were saying 'I wish I had breasts', I was thinking the same thing.
My sexuality is straight transvestite or male lesbian. It seems we are beyond the idea that I am gay and hiding it. If I had to describe how I feel in my head, I'd say I'm a complete boy plus half a girl. I don't seem to have the sixth sense that women have or their stronger senses of taste and smell. Gay men can also have it but straight men don't.
When I first came out, I thought, I want to walk like a real woman, I don't want to do mincing steps. And there was some girl I saw walking up Holloway Road in Islington who had this long languid walk and I thought, that's what I like, so I incorporated her walk into mine.
I don't know what it's like in the U.S. but immigrants in the U.K. do the jobs the citizens won't do.
[on the Statue of Liberty]: Funny that France gave that to the United States. What did the U.S. give them in return?
[on Ellis Island's immigration history]: I do find history fascinating, I find people fascinating, and I'm quite good at standing somewhere and taking out all the new stuff and imagining people coming in and I would have been with them.
[on running marathons]: Animals in the wild are lean, and I think we should be too.
[on spending time in New York City]: They only have a few days -- go see a big musical like Billy Elliot. If you have more time, see me show.
I'm excited to play Thunder Bay (Ontario) because I assume it's an exciting place where thunder happens.
My dad was working-class. One granddad drove a bus. The other was a cowherder who said he was a shepherd. He didn't like being a cowherd but shepherd sounded pretty groovy. Like Jesus.
[on political extremes] About 80 to 90 percent of the world is live and let live. I want to fight for that. Right-wingers have a beguiling politics because it is simplistic. We have complex politics in the centre and you have to try to simplify it, to explain it, because sometimes you have ten choices. Right-wingers - you have one choice: Agree with me or I'll kill you. It's that one that Hitler used...The dumbest thing the right wing ever came up with, back in the day [was] We've got to kill someone because it's really rainy and the crops are failing, so we have to kill Steve.