David Walliams

Born David Williams (he changed it because there was already an actor of that name when he came to join union Equity), the future star was aware he was somewhat different from a very young age. His classmates knew it too, dubbing him "Daphne" because of his camp manner. Walliams, by his own admission, "completely played up to it". In fact, it made him realise how much he loved performing: "They were punishing me for being different but my reaction was to embrace it... I loved the attention!"

Walliams attended Bristol University (in the year below Simon Pegg) where he met Jason Bradbury, who was to become a long-standing sidekick. Their double act was called Bunce and Burner, and they were also part of a cabaret group called David Icke and the Orphans of Jesus. This was made up of other future bigwigs such as Myfanwy Moore (the future producer of Little Britain).

Walliams met Matt Lucas in 1990 when they both enrolled at the National Youth Theatre - a kind of summer school for aspiring performers. They bonded over their mutual love of alternative comedy, but didn't actually work together until the mid Nineties, when they started to put some shows together (by this point Walliams had already broken into TV with such illustrious roles as doing the voiceover for a talking lift on a BBC kids' show!).

One of their first breakthroughs as a double act was the Spoofovision series for the Paramount Comedy Channel in 1996, in which they played characters called Gareth Peas and Danny Mash, and spoofed everything from boy bands to late night review shows. It wasn't anywhere near as successful as Rock Profiles or their crowning glory Little Britain, but it established them as a double act with promise.

Ever since Little Britain made Walliams a super celebrity, the tabloids haven't known what to make of his sexuality. His brazen campness and close relationship with the gay Lucas initially led some to think he too was gay, but his oft-reported dalliances with the ladies seemed to refute this. He himself has kept the rumour mill going with his contradictory statements - once saying that life would be easier if he were attracted to men, other times going on the record as saying he's "only 70% straight". He's also joked that he'll have a sex change at 70, just to live out his final decades as a woman.