Colin Mochrie

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Colin Mochrie : biography

November 30, 1957 –

Colin Andrew Mochrie ( born November 30, 1957) is a Scottish-born Canadian actor and improvisational comedian, most famous for his appearances on the British and U.S. versions of television improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?.

Early life

Colin Mochrie was born in Kilmarnock, Scotland, the oldest of three children. His father was an airline maintenance executive.http://www.filmreference.com/film/13/Colin-Mochrie.html He was shy as a child, stating that neighbours would have commented that he "watched way too much television." In 1964, his family moved to a French neighbourhood just outside Montreal, Quebec, and five years later moved again to Vancouver, British Columbia. Mochrie attended Killarney Secondary School, where he was a self-proclaimed loner who wanted to become a marine biologist. He was persuaded by a friend to try out for a play entitled The Death and Life of Sneaky Fitch where Mochrie played the role of the undertaker. He was hooked when he got his first laugh, which paved the way for a career in entertainment. After graduating from high school, where he was valedictorian, Mochrie attended the Studio 58 theatre school in Vancouver for four years, where he discovered the art of improvisational comedy.

Personal life

Mochrie lives in Toronto, Canada with his wife, Debra McGrath and his son Luke, a reviewer on the website That Guy With The Glasses.

Awards

Mochrie has been nominated for five Canadian Comedy Awards, and has won two. He has also won a Gemini Award and a Writers Guild of Canada award for This Hour Has 22 Minutes.

Career

Improvisational beginnings

Upon graduation from Studio 58, Mochrie found his first line of work as a member of the Vancouver TheatreSports League. He started working with the group in 1980. Fame was slow to start, as Mochrie "literally had to pull people out of McDonald’s to come see the shows." Mochrie originally had parts in plays while working for the group, though after a time working for the TheatreSports League became a full-time job for Mochrie. He met fellow improvisor Ryan Stiles during this time. He was visiting a mutual friend in New Zealand when Stiles was doing comedy at Punchlines. After the two met, Stiles and Mochrie began working at TheatreSports together. It has been stated that the two met while members of Second City, though, according to Mochrie, this is untrue.

Following Expo ’86, Mochrie ended his tenure with the Vancouver TheatreSports League and moved to Toronto. Once there, Mochrie auditioned for The Second City comedy troupe, where Stiles was working. He began performing with the Second City National Touring Company where he met Debra McGrath, who was the director of the company at the time. The two were married in 1989 and had a son, Luke, in 1990.

Mochrie worked for The Second City for three years, co-writing and starring in three productions and directing three seasons of their national touring company. As a member of the touring company, he performed in many skits, including one where he and two others are at a bar, and they help him to rewrite an anecdote from his youth involving his father taking him to a baseball game; and a five-minute version of a James Bond movie, complete with Mochrie in a downhill ski chase and parachuting off a cliff.

1988–1998

Upon finishing his stint with Second City in 1988, Mochrie’s career was quiet for a while as he spent some time with his new wife and child. In 1989, he auditioned for the new British Channel 4 improv show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, but did not make the cut. Mochrie has stated that audition was a good learning experience because while improv is about setting other people up to be funny, auditions should be about giving yourself chance to stand out. He moved to Los Angeles the following year, and again auditioned for Whose Line, this time making the cut and was asked to fly to London. He appeared on one episode and was again let go. The third time he auditioned, he earned a regular spot on the show. He spent seven years as a regular on Whose Line Is It Anyway? and remained a cast member until the show’s end in 1998.