Kevin Bishop

English actor, comic, and writer Kevin Bishop made a splashy cinema debut in a very American adaptation of a British classic -- the 1996 movie "Muppet Treasure Island" starred the 16-year-old Bishop in the flesh-and-blood leading role of Jim Hawkins. Other international film work followed ñ in the 2002 Spanish-German film "Food of Love," he starred as a classical-music page-turner having an affair with a concert pianist. In 2005, Bishop appeared on stage in the biographical role of another actor/comic, Dudley Moore. The play, "Pete and Dud: Come Again," depicted the tensions between Moore and his collaborator Peter Cook. Ironically, Bishop's own career was about to take a turn towards sketch comedy. In 2006 he was featured on British comedy series "Star Stories." This led to Channel 4 offering Bishop the chance to perform and write a sketch show of his own. Debuting in 2008, "The Kevin Bishop show"'s premise was the channel surfing of an unseen TV viewer. The result was rapid-fire satires of crime dramas, commercials, movie trailers, and more. The show was nominated for a British Comedy Award but also attracted some controversy for its darkly comic take on such horrors as the Holocaust. Bishop continues to work in film; his role in 2007's "Irina Palm," in which he played the father of a son dying of cancer, was a notable dramatic part he took on just as he was crafting the comic visions of his TV show.