Childhood:

His jobs have included civil servant, barman for Yates Wine Lodge, office work in an abattoir, woodsman and a time as an assistant clerk at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court. He has also worked in a children’s home in West Kirby and spent some years as a peripatetic care officer for Camden council.

Friends & Relationships: O’Grady is openly gay, but has previously had relationships with women, and was once married to a female Portuguese friend in a marriage of convenience. He is now very close to his daughter Sharyn, who married her childhood friend Philip Mousley at Liverpool Town Hall on 30 July 2005. His long term lover and business partner of 20 years was Irishman Brendan Murphy, who died of cancer on 9 June 2005, five days before Paul’s fiftieth birthday. O’Grady became a grandfather on 26 December 2006, when his daughter Sharyn gave birth to a son, Abel.

Work: In 1977, O’Grady went to Manila where he worked as a waiter in Gussy’s Bar (also a brothel). It was here he got the idea for Lily Savage, his now infamous drag alter-ego. He returned to London in the early 1980s and subsequently achieved fame with his creation of Lily, initially playing to gay clubs and pubs up and down the country. Lily was best known at the time for her eight year residency at The Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London. He toured Europe, appearing at Madame Arthurs in Denmark and various night clubs and theatres in Germany, Finland, Sweden, Holland, France and Israel. After appearing at The Edinburgh Festival, for which he was nominated for a Perrier Award, he became more mainstream. Lily first became popular on television, making appearances on ITV programme This Morning, and as the ‘On the Bed Presenter’ on The Big Breakfast. For a few years Lily hosted the game show Blankety Blank for the BBC and later for ITV, as well as her own comedy show Lily Live! with ITV in 2000. Lily Savage also co-hosted the 1996 Smash Hits Poll Winners Party with Ant & Dec.

O’Grady has appeared on stage in Prisoner Cell Block H - The Musical, the musical Annie as “Miss Hannigan”, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as “the Childcatcher” and in the panto Snow White and the Seven Dwarves as the “Wicked Queen”.

O’Grady played a prostitute snout called Roxanne in several episodes of The Bill between 1988 and 1990. In 1990 he appeared in the ITV miniseries Chimera as Tony Donaldson, a social worker skilled in signing for the deaf.

In 2000 he appeared in a six-part travelogue series as himself, entitled “Paul O’Grady’s Orient”. This was followed in 2001 by “Paul O’Grady’s America”. These were amongst his first major television appearances out of drag. From 2002 onwards, he has appeared less as Lily and more often as himself. In 2002 he presented Outtake TV, a bloopers show, and in 2003 starred as the lead character in the BBC sitcom “Eyes Down” for two series. He also appeared in Celebrity Driving School for the BBC. Since then, he has had success as the presenter of his own early evening talk show, The Paul O’Grady Show, on ITV. On 27 March 2006, Paul O’Grady began hosting his talk show on Channel 4, now called The New Paul O’Grady Show.

O’Grady retired his Lily Savage character around 2004. He claimed she had “seen the light, taken the veil and packed herself off to a convent in France” but recently on his current TV show, he said, “she’s escaped the convent and she’s heading towards these shores!” which may signal the return of the Lily Savage character.

On 16 March 2007, O’Grady presented part of Red Nose Day 2007, where he performed several circus tricks, including fire eating.

The fourth Channel 4 series started on 17 September 2007. On 24 August The Daily Mirror revealed that Paul had rejected a £5 million deal to return to ITV as the “New Parkinson. Instead he has signed a £4 million deal to remain with Channel 4 until the end of 2009.

On 28 June 2008 O’Grady appeared in the Doctor Who episode The Stolen Earth.

Greatest Achievement: In 2003, O’Grady was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy and in 2006 he was listed by The Independent at number 32 in their 101 most influential gay men and women in Britain.

He holds many awards, and in December 2005 he won the Best TV Comedy Entertainment Personality category of the British Comedy Awards. In 2005, he won a BAFTA and is also the recipient of two Royal Television Society and three National Television Awards.

He was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours.