Lee Gordon McKillop[2][3] was born on 4 August 1968[4] in Southport, Lancashire.[5] He lived above a pub until he was 12, when his parents separated.[6] He went to Birkdale Primary Junior School (Bury Road), Stanley High School in Southport, and Everton High School in Blackburn.[7][8] On leaving school, Mack worked in a bingo hall and as a stable boy. After working at the stable of racehorse trainer Ginger McCain in Southport for three days, he asked if he could ride one of the horses, to which the trainer agreed. Without realising, Mack then chose Red Rum as the first horse he would ride.[6][9]
Mack then became a Bluecoat entertainer at the Pontins holiday resort at Hemsby in Norfolk. He was sacked after appearing on stage drunk one night, forgetting a joke and insulting an audience member.[10][11] He then worked for six months at Pontins in Morecambe.[6]
Mack went on to have various other jobs, and performed his first "open mic" slot in 1994, while studying at Brunel University, from where he graduated with a degree in Drama.[12] Within 18 months he was a full-time comedian.[6]
Career
Lee Mack on Radio 4's 'Don't Make Me Laugh' 2015
Mack first came to prominence by winning So You Think You're Funny at the 1995 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Five years later at the festival, he was nominated for the Perrier Award Main Prize for his sketch comedy show, Lee Mack's New Bits, with Catherine Tate and Dan Antopolski. Since then, Mack has played the part of Graham, the security guard in the original radio version of The Mighty Boosh, and also has his own radio show on BBC Radio 2 called The Lee Mack Show, which features varying celebrities co-hosting the show.
Television
Mack was a cast member for ITV's The Sketch Show[6] and featured in the American show of the same name.
His first sitcom Not Going Out for BBC One with Tim Vine (in which he plays Lee, the leading man) premiered on 6 October 2006. The show has since returned for eleven more seasons, the most recent airing in 2023. The show has won a Rose d'Or and RTS Award.
From 2014 to 2017, Mack presented Duck Quacks Don't Echo, a comedy-based panel show for Sky1, with various celebrity guests.
In 2017, he made his stage debut in Molière's The Miser.[16]
In June 2020, Mack announced his new sitcom, Semi-Detached. He was also set to host a reality show named The Chop: Britain's Best Woodworker for Sky History. However, the show was suspended shortly after its debut in October 2020, after allegations emerged that one of the series' contestants, promoted through the channel's social media pages, bore facial tattoos resembling Nazi symbolism.[18]Semi-Detached was cancelled after one season.[19]
Mack was on series 11 of Taskmaster, which started broadcast in March 2021.[20]
On 18 May 2023, Mack appeared on an episode of the anthology seriesInside No. 9. The episode was initially billed as "Hold on Tight!", featuring creators Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith alongside Robin Askwith, and was going to be set within a No. 9 bus, but this turned out to be a deliberate hoax; the actual episode was "3 By 3", a supposed pilot quiz show hosted by Mack, that was introduced by the continuity announcer as a replacement for "Hold on Tight!".[25] This was the second time Mack played himself presenting a fictitious game show after 2017's National Treasure.
Podcast
Mack has long had an interest in Buddhism, mindfulness and the possibility of leading a more spiritual life. Since September 2020, he has hosted a podcast on Buddhism and mindfulness with Neil Webster called I Can't Believe It's Not Buddha.[26]
Stand-up
In April 2001, Mack appeared at Up The Creek (in Greenwich)[27] and in 2003 he was regularly playing clubs around London - including Balham's Banana Cabaret, alongside Ian Cognito.[28]
Mack went on tour in 2006 and filmed his first live DVD at the Bloomsbury Theatre, which was released the following year. In spring 2010, Mack embarked on his "Going Out" tour. Extra dates were added for autumn 2010 due to his spring tour being sold out well in advance. Going Out Live, his second live DVD, was filmed at the Hammersmith Apollo and was released in November. In December 2010 he performed at the Royal Variety Performance.[29]
Mack met his wife, Tara, during his time studying at Brunel University in 1996. They married in 2005, and live in East Molesey, Surrey, with their three children,[32] including their eldest son, Arlo, who briefly appeared in the 2013 Christmas special of Not Going Out, and their daughter, Millie, who appeared in the Not Going Out episode "Friend" of the twelfth series. Mack is of distant part-Irish descent, which was explored in the 2018 season of the British television programme Who Do You Think You Are?[33] While on the show, Mack found that his great-grandfather was a jobbing comic named William Alexander McKillop, who used the stage name Billy Mac. He also learned that his grandfather Joe was born in Southport, but was taken to Ireland as a baby and brought up by his grandparents in Ballina, County Mayo.[34]
In February 2009, Mack, along with other British entertainers, signed an open letter to The Times regarding the Baháʼí Faith leaders then on trial in Iran.[35]
Mack said in an interview with The Guardian[36] that his first foray into comedy was doing Bobby Ball impressions at his school when he was 15. Ball would go on to play Mack's father, Frank, in Not Going Out. Mack is a keen supporter of Blackburn Rovers and occasionally visits Ewood Park to watch games.[37] At one point, he shared a flat with Noel Fielding.
In July 2012, Mack received an honorary doctorate from Brunel University.[38] He published his autobiography Mack the Life (ISBN0-552-16655-3).
Mack is a darts fan, and regularly plays with his friend and former Not Going Out co-star, Tim Vine. Both men appeared on the debut series of Let's Play Darts, facing each other in the final, with Mack and his partner Martin Adams beating Vine and his partner Darryl Fitton. Mack held two Guinness World Records titles relating to darts. The first was for the most darts number twos in one minute, which stood until 19 November 2020 when Ricky Evans broke the record with a total of 25.[39] Mack had also, on the same day of the first record, broken the record for the most darts in inner and outer bullseyes in one minute; that title was held for a year and two months, before it was broken on 23 September 2016 by professional darts player James Wade.[40][41]
Mack has a phobia of flying, and travels by himself to holiday destinations. He travelled by train to Barcelona, and went around the world for Children in Need in 2009 with other celebrities; however, he and Frank Skinner did not fly to Turkey. Mack said because the day he went home was his wife's birthday, he could not get the train back. He went on a flying course, which briefly helped for the flight home; however, he has not been on another plane since.[45]
Mack has taken part in several Soccer Aid matches to raise money for UNICEF. In September 2021, he scored for the first time,[46] in a year that he played for the World XI team, due to his Irish heritage of his great-grandmother.[47] On 12 June 2022, Mack returned for the following game at the London Stadium, and scored the winning penalty for the World XI after a 2–2 draw in normal time.[48][49]
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