Frank Skinner

Frank Skinner, (born Christopher Graham Collins on 28 January 1957) is an English writer and comedian.

Born at Sandwell General Hospital, West Bromwich, Collins grew up in Oldbury, West Midlands, England. He attended Moat Farm Infant School from 1961 to 1964, St. Hubert's Roman Catholic Junior School from 1964 to 1968, and then Oldbury Technical Secondary School from September 1968.

He passed 2 O-levels in the summer of 1973 and was allowed to take A-levels in English Language and Art, along with several O-level re-sits, at Oldbury Technical School Sixth Form. But he was caught embezzling the school meals service by selling cut-price meal vouchers to pupils and expelled just six weeks into his studies.

For several years he was known to the police after a series of minor offences including putting a length of pipe across a road and causing a car crash, although he never ended up in prison.

But he soon turned his life around by taking 4 A-levels (including English Language and Literature) at night school and then graduating from the Birmingham Polytechnic, now known as UCE Birmingham in 1985 with a degree in English Literature. After graduating, he spent four years as an English lecturer at Halesowen College, whilst being a stand-up comedian on the side, before quitting his job in 1989 to pursue his comedy career full-time. During this period he quit drinking due to influenza and remains one of the UK's most high-profile recovering alcoholics.

Collins took on the pseudonym Frank Skinner when the actors' union Equity told him there was already someone of the same name on their books (their rules do not permit two members with identical names). He took the name from a member of his late father's dominoes team.

Skinner had performed his first stand-up gig in 1987 and made his television debut a year later. In 1990 he co-wrote and starred in a weakly-received sitcom, Packet Of Three, on Channel 4 but continued to see his reputation as a stand-up grow. He won the 1991 Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, beating Jack Dee and Eddie Izzard.

He often works with best friend and ex-flatmate David Baddiel, notably on the popular late night entertainment show Fantasy Football League, from 1994 to 2004 and on Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned from 2000 to 2005.

The duo also co-wrote and performed the football song "Three Lions" with the Lightning Seeds and the England national football team for Euro 96, and re-released it for the 1998 World Cup. Both times the song reached #1 in the UK charts and it is widely regarded as the best of the English football anthems.

Skinner is a class war protagonist, stating that he "hates posh people" and dislikes the presence of middle class people (and women) at football matches.

From 1995 to 1998, Skinner had his own chat show on BBC One, and moved it to ITV in 1999, where it ran until late 2005. He has appeared in a number of self-written sitcoms, including Blue Heaven (1992) and Shane (2004). In 2003, he was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy. He has lived in London since the beginning of his comedy career in 1991, but still supports West Bromwich Albion F.C. and Warwickshire County Cricket Club. When West Bromwich Albion won promotion to the FA Premier League in 2004, he featured in an Express and Star article which commemorated the club's promotion.

In 2005, Skinner announced he was going to leave behind his television work in favour of returning to the stand-up comedy circuit. It was rumoured that ITV's decision not to offer him a new contract was the main driving force behind this decision. A second series of Shane has been made, but is lost amongst the wrangling.

Skinner and David Baddiel covered the 2006 FIFA World Cup by podcast for The Times, a British broadsheet. Frank is currently learning to play the banjo for a celebrity reality show to be broadcast on the BBC in 2007, and will also executive produce a CBS pilot version of Shane. A novel, rumoured to be called "Thunderman and Jeff Phillips" may also follow in 2007.

In February 2006, he received an honorary degree from the University of Central England.

In 2007, he announced a new live stand-up tour, his first for 10 years. He will perform in venues around the UK during September and October 2007.