Griff Rhys Jones

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Image:GryffRhysJonesNTNON.jpg Griff Rhys Jones (born 16 November 1953) is a British writer and actor. He came to national attention in the 1980s when he starred with Mel Smith in a number of comedy sketch shows on British TV.

Rhys Jones was born in Cardiff, Wales, and was educated at Brentwood School, Essex, where he met Charlie Bean (Executive Director of the Bank of England) and Douglas Adams, the writer of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He was part of a group called The Clique by the school's headmaster for their antics. He followed Bean and Adams to Cambridge, reading History and English at Emmanuel College.

While at University, Jones joined the prestigious Cambridge Footlights Club (of which he became Vice-President in 1976). He was also president of the ADC (Amateur Dramatics Club) during his time at Cambridge.

After University, he started appearing in numerous comedy programmes, usually with Mel Smith, including the second series of the notable 1980s sketch show Not the Nine O'Clock News, alongside Smith, Rowan Atkinson and Pamela Stephenson.

He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1984 (1983 season) for Best Comedy Performance in Charley's Aunt and in 1994 (1993 season) for Best Comedy Performance for his performance in An Absolute Turkey.

Jones was the presenter of the BBC's Restoration programme, and has done a considerable amount of fundraising work for the Hackney Empire theatre conservation project. He also starred in Russell T. Davies's drama series Mine All Mine, on ITV1. In 2006 he and Smith featured in the BBC One series The Smith and Jones Sketchbook, a repackaging of material from their previous sketch shows for the BBC. Jones' forthcoming TV projects include Restoration Village and a travelogue series, Mountains.

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