Tim Key

Did you know?!

1. Early training

   After graduating from the University of Sheffield, Key went back to Cambridge and joined the Cambridge Footlights, though he had not been a student there. At the Footlights he met Tom Basden, Stefan Golaszewski and Lloyd Woolf, and together they started the sketch group Cowards.

2. First role

   Key's first appearance with the Footlights came in the 2001 stage production Far Too Happy, whose cast included Mark Watson and Sophie Winkleman and which was nominated for the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer at the Fringe.

3. Beyond film

   In November 2010, The Invisible Dot Ltd / Angular Records put out Key's first album, Tim Key. With a String Quartet. On a Boat. Basden interjects while Key reads poetry with a string quartet behind him.

4. Behind the camera

   Key co-created the BBC Four quiz show We Need Answers in 2009 with Mark Watson and Alex Horne, in which celebrities answered questions posed by question-answering text services; Watson hosted and Key read the questions.

5. First role

   Key's first television appearance came in 2006, playing an Eastenders special effects supervisor in the satirical comedy Time Trumpet. The next year he read poetry as himself on Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe.