Best-known for his cross-dressing stand-up comedy routines, British actor/comedian Eddie Izzard was born on February 7, 1962 in Aden, Yemen, while his English parents were there on business. He is the son of Dorothy Ella, a nurse and midwife, and Harold John Izzard, an accountant for British Petroleum. After working as a street performer and in smaller comedy venues throughout the 1980s, Izzard received his big break with his his first stage appearance in London's West End in 1993, with his one-man comedy show Eddie Izzard: Live at the Ambassadors (1993). The show earned Izzard a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for outstanding achievement and garnered Izzard his first British Comedy Award for top stand-up comedian. He returned to the West End the next year with his second one-man show, Eddie Izzard: Unrepeatable (1994), followed by his dramatic West End debut as the lead in the world premiere of David Mamet's "The Cryptogram" with Lindsay Duncan, which landed Izzard his second starring role in "900 Oneonta".
Izzard appeared in 1995 portraying the title character in Christopher Marlowe's groundbreaking "Edward II". In 1996, Izzard made his big screen debut alongside Bob Hoskins and Robin Williams in L'agent secret (1996) and staged another one-man show, Eddie Izzard: Definite Article (1996), for which he received his second British Comedy Award. He then took "Definite Article" to major cities outside the UK including New York City and returned to the West End with a new show,Eddie Izzard: Glorious (1997), which included a month in New York City at PS122. By 1998, Izzard appeared in another film, Velvet Goldmine (1998), with Ewan McGregor, as well as staging his breakthrough one-man U.S. show, Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill (1999) which aired on HBO and went on to earn Izzard two Emmy Awards in 2000. At the end of the decade Izzard took on Lenny Bruce by securing the lead in Peter Hall's West End production of Lenny. Izzard started 2000 touring the world with Eddie Izzard: Circle (2002) and continued to develop his acting resume with roles in The Criminal (1999), L'ombre du vampire (2000) with John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe, co-starred opposite Kirsten Dunst in the Peter Bogdanovich-directed Un parfum de meurtre (2001) as Charles Chaplin and taking the male lead in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (2002) on the London stage. In 2003 Izzard was seen on the big screen in the French production Muraya- Expanded Reality and Alex Cox's Revengers Tragedy (2002) and on the small screen in a BBC mini-series _40 (2002)(TV)_. Izzard made his Broadway debut in the spring of 2003, reprising his West End role in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg.
Other prominent films he has appeared in include Chapeau melon et bottes de cuir (1998), Ocean's Twelve (2004), Ma super ex (2006), Ocean's 13 (2007) and Walkyrie (2008), and he has done voice work in a handful of movies including The Wild (2006), Le monde de Narnia: chapitre 2 - Le prince Caspian (2008) and Cars 2 (2011).
Izzard has also appeared in various television series, including a starring role in The Riches (2007), which lasted two seasons on FX from 2007-2008.
