Peter Kay is probably best known for his recent John Smith's beer adverts and his award-winning Channel 4 comedy show Phoenix Nights, in which he plays wheel-chair-bound nightclub owner Brian Potter.

You name it, Peter has done it. Numerous comedy shows including That Peter Kay Thing, he has played a carpenter in his favourite soap Coronation Street, appeared alongside Steve Coogan in the film 24 Hour Party People and presented The Big Breakfast. But it took a lot of work and a lot of jobs to get where he is today.

Peter's first big break was as the star and writer of The Services, a spoof one-off documentary set in a motorway service station in which he played five characters. This got him a nomination for his first Royal Television Society Award.

The list of awards and nominations Peter has received is long, including being nominated for the Perrier Award in 1998, first prize in Channel 4's So you Think You're Funny Award in 1997, Top Stand Up and Top TV Comedy Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards and second prize in the BBC/Edinburgh Stand-Up Award in 1997.