James Hugh Calum Laurie, OBE (born June 11, 1959) is an English actor, comedian and writer. He is known professionally as Hugh Laurie.

Early life and education
The Perrier Award led to a West End transfer for The Cellar Tapes and a television version of the revue, broadcast in May 1982. It also resulted in Laurie, Fry and Thompson being selected along with Ben Elton, Robbie Coltrane and Siobhan Redmond to write and appear in a new sketch comedy show for Granada Television, Alfresco, which ran for two series.
Laurie and Fry went on to work together on various projects throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Among them were the Blackadder series, written by Ben Elton and Richard Curtis and starring Rowan Atkinson, with Laurie in various roles, but most notably Prince George and Lieutenant George; their BBC sketch comedy series, A Bit of Fry and Laurie; and Jeeves and Wooster. The latter was an adaptation of P. G. Wodehouse's stories, in which Laurie played Jeeves' employer, the amiable twit Bertie Wooster. It was a role for which Laurie was considered particularly well suited, displaying his talent as a pianist and singer, alongside his celebrated 'posh' voice. He and Fry also worked together at various charity stage events, such as Hysteria! 1, 2 & 3 and Amnesty International's The Secret Policeman's Third Ball, Comic Relief TV shows and the variety show Fry and Laurie Host a Christmas Night with the Stars. They collaborated again on the film Peter's Friends.
Laurie appeared in the music video for the 1992 single "Walking on Broken Glass" by Annie Lennox, in full Regency-period costume as in Blackadder the Third (and opposite John Malkovich, similarly reprising Dangerous Liaisons). He also appears as a scientist in the video for "Experiment IV" by Kate Bush.
Laurie's later film appearances include Sense and Sensibility (1995), adapted by and starring Emma Thompson; the Disney live-action movie 101 Dalmatians (1996), where he played Jasper, one of the bumbling criminals hired to kidnap the puppies; Elton's adaptation of his novel Inconceivable, Maybe Baby (2000); Girl From Rio; the 2004 remake of The Flight of the Phoenix; and the three Stuart Little films.
In 1996 Laurie's first novel, The Gun Seller, a spoof of the thriller genre, was published and became a best seller. He has since been working on the screenplay for a movie version and on a second novel, The Paper Soldier.
In 1998, Laurie had a brief guest-starring role on Friends in the episode "The One with Ross's Wedding, Part Two". With the popularity of House, his short scenes in the episode have become favourites of fans of both series, largely due to his comically disdainful use of the name "Pheebs".
Since 2002, Laurie has appeared in a range of British television dramas, guest-starring that year in two episodes of the first season of the spy thriller series Spooks on BBC One. In 2003, he starred in and also directed ITV's comedy-drama series Fortysomething (in one episode of which Stephen Fry appears). In 2001, he also voiced the character of a bar patron in the Family Guy episode "One If by Clam, Two If by Sea". Laurie was the character of Mr. Wolf in the cartoon Preston Pig. He was also a panellist on the first episode of QI, alongside Fry as host. In 2004, Laurie guest-starred as a professor in charge of a space probe called Beagle, on The Lenny Henry Show.
Although Laurie has been a household name in Britain since the 1980s, he only really came to the attention of the American public in 2004, when he first starred as the acerbic attending physician Dr Gregory House in the popular FOX medical drama, House. For his portrayal, Laurie assumes an American accent. As the story goes, Laurie was in Namibia filming Flight of the Phoenix and recorded the audition tape for the show in the bathroom of the hotel, the only place he could get enough light. His US accent was so convincing that the executive producer, Bryan Singer, who was unaware at the time that Laurie is English, pointed to him as an example of just the kind of compelling American actor he had been looking for. Laurie also adopts the voice between takes on the set of House, as well as during script read-throughs.
Following Laurie's American success, Stephen Fry expressed a desire to make a cameo appearance in House, but due to commitments in England, he is unable to do so for now., but he still appeared in a scripted, pre-taped intro, where he parodied his House character by rapidly diagnosing host Conan O'Brien and then proceeded to grope him as the latter asked him for help to get to the Emmys on time. He would later go on to speak in French whilst presenting an award with Dame Helen Mirren on stage.
Laurie was cast as Daily Planet editor Perry White in the film Superman Returns but had to bow out of the project due to his involvement in House (incidentally, the series is produced by Bad Hat Harry Productions, which is owned by Superman Returns director Bryan Singer).
In July 2006, Laurie appeared on Bravo!'s Inside the Actors Studio, where he also performed one of his own songs, "Mystery", on the piano with vocal accompaniment.
Laurie hosted NBC's Saturday Night Live where he dressed in drag in a sketch about a man (Kenan Thompson) with a broken leg who accuses his doctor of being dishonest. Laurie played the man's wife.
In August 2007, Laurie appeared on BBC Four's documentary, Stephen Fry: 50 Not Out, filmed in celebration of Fry's fiftieth birthday alongside longtime friend Emma Thompson.

Personal life
Emmy Awards
Golden Globe Awards
Satellite Awards
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Television Critics Association
Teen Choice Award

2005 - Nominated - Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
2007 - Nominated - Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
2006 - Winner - Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Drama
2007 - Winner - Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Drama
2005 - Winner - Outstanding Actor in a Series, Drama
2006 - Winner - Outstanding Actor in a Series, Drama
2006 - Nominated - Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
2007 - Winner - Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
2005 - Winner - Individual Achievement in Drama
2006 - Winner - Individual Achievement in Drama
2007 - Nominated - Individual Achievement in Drama
2007 - Winner - TV Actor: Drama Filmography

The Gun Seller (1996) ISBN 0099-46939-1
The Paper Soldier (September 2009)