Paul O’Grady

Paul James O’Grady, MBE, is an English comedian, television presenter, actor, writer, radio host, producer, and former drag queen. He achieved notability in the London gay scene during the 1980s with his drag queen persona Lily Savage, with which he went mainstream in the 1990s. He subsequently dropped the character and in the 2000s became the presenter of a range of television and radio shows, most notably The Paul O’ Grady Show. He has received a variety of awards, among them honorary degrees and an MBE in the 2008 Birthday Honours for services to entertainment.

About Paul O’Grady in brief

Summary Paul O'GradyPaul James O’Grady, MBE, is an English comedian, television presenter, actor, writer, radio host, producer, and former drag queen. He achieved notability in the London gay scene during the 1980s with his drag queen persona Lily Savage, with which he went mainstream in the 1990s. He subsequently dropped the character and in the 2000s became the presenter of a range of television and radio shows, most notably The Paul O’ Grady Show. He has received a variety of awards, among them honorary degrees and an MBE in the 2008 Birthday Honours for services to entertainment. His father, Patrick, was Irish and had grown up on a farm in Ballincurry, County Roscommon, before moving to England in 1936. His mother, Mary Savage, was born in England to Irish immigrants from County Louth. He was their third child and grew up in a working-class Irish family in Tranmere, Cheshire. He attended a private Catholic school but dropped out after failing his Redcourt exam. He is a fan of the popular television series The Avengers and Batman plus The Avengers plus Batman, plus Batman and The Avengers, plus Lord of the Flies, plus The X-Files and The Hobbit. He also enjoys a brief romance with another heterosexual boy, although he still assumed he was heterosexual. He currently lives in London with his wife and two children, and has a daughter and a son with a partner. He lives with his partner and their two children in a house built in a former quarry during the early 1930s, which he describes as being ‘always damp and cold’ and suffering from cracks in the walls and ceilings overnight.

His name was changed from ‘Grady’ to ‘O’Graday’ in a paperwork mistake when he joined the Royal Air Force, and he kept the new name. He now lives in south London and works as a care officer for Camden Council. In 2004, he began presenting ITV’s daytime chat show ThePaul O’ grady Show, which proved a hit with audiences. In 2006 he defected to rival Channel 4, where the show was rebranded as The New Paul O’Grady Show and ran until 2009. O’grady subsequently presented a late night ITV show, Paul O’s Live, as well as For the Love of Dogs and Paul O’,Grady’s Animal Orphans, while presenting BBC Radio 2’s Paul O Grady on the Wireless and publishing a four-volume autobiography. In 2010, he starred in BBC sitcom Eyes Down and presented two travel documentaries for ITV. He and his wife have a son, James, who was born into a middle-class Catholic family in Birkenhead, Cheshire, and a daughter, Emma, who is from a working class Irish family. He had three brothers and two sisters. He moved to London in the late 1970s, initially working as a peripatetic care officer. In 1978, he developed his drag act, basing the character of Lily Savage upon traits found amongst female relatives.