Early life

Dennis, the younger of two boys, was born in Kettering, Northamptonshire, the son of schoolteacher Dorothy M. (Hinnels) and John D. Dennis. His brother, also named John, is currently the British Ambassador to Angola. He grew up in Mill Hill in North London as his father was appointed as parish priest of Mill Hill soon after his birth. His father later became the Bishop of Knaresborough and then of Saint Edmundsbury and Ipswich. Dennis was educated at University College School in London. During his time at UCS, he played rugby with Will Self and was head boy in his final year.

Subsequently, Dennis went on to read the Geography Tripos as an exhibitioner at St John's College, Cambridge. His dissertation was titled "The Spatial Distribution of Elementary Education in 19th-century Wakefield". He also joined the Footlights, where he first met Punt and club president Nick Hancock and the trio collaborated on a number of projects besides the annual revue.

After graduating with a first, Dennis worked for Unilever for six years in the marketing department while performing comedy with Punt at venues including The Comedy Store on the weekends. The duo then formed half of the team of The Mary Whitehouse Experience on BBC Radio 1. Dennis uses his middle name Hugh as his stage name because Equity already had a Peter Dennis when he first started.

When the BBC commissioned the series for BBC Two, Dennis took a sabbatical as the rehearsal days changed to weekdays and eventually went into comedy full-time. While in his final year of university, he was approached by a member of the intelligence services and was invited to London for interview at which time he decided he did not want to take the matter further.

Radio and television career

While an impressionist, Dennis did voices for Spitting Image and appeared with Punt as resident support comics on two TV series hosted on the BBC by Jasper Carrott. Dennis also appeared twice as a contestant on the topical panel show Have I Got News for You, including one opposite former schoolmate Self.

Punt and Dennis' radio career includes over a decade of performing Punt and Dennis, It's Been a Bad Week, The Party Line and the satirical radio comedy show, The Now Show. On The Now Show, Dennis is in a line-up including Punt, Mitch Benn, Laura Shavin, Jon Holmes and Marcus Brigstocke. He is friends with Chris Morris and has had cameos on Brass Eye as well as doing the narration for the CBBC show Sam and Mark's Guide To Dodging Disasters.

In December 2009, Dennis joined Oz Clarke in presenting the 60-minute Christmas special Oz and Hugh Drink to Christmas broadcast on BBC Two. In December 2010 the pair returned for a four-part series called Oz and Hugh Raise the Bar, which puts them in a competition to create a bar featuring only local British food and drinks.

Dennis has starred in a number of sitcoms, including My Hero in which he played obnoxious GP Piers Crispin. From 2007 to 2014, he starred in Outnumbered, a semi-improvised sitcom based around family life and won a BAFTA nomination in the comedy category for the 2009 Christmas special.

Besides his regular television work, Dennis is a panellist on Mock the Week and has appeared in every episode since its inception. He is a regular guest on various BBC-broadcast comedy panel game shows such as They Think It's All Over, Would I Lie To You?, QI and has guest hosted Have I Got News for You. In 2011, Dennis hosted the short-lived improvisational comedy series Fast and Loose.

Beginning on 16 February 2012, Dennis and Julia Bradbury hosted a four-part BBC One documentary series The Great British Countryside'.

Personal life

Dennis lives in Chichester, West Sussex, with his second wife, Catherine ("Kate") Abbot-Anderson whom he married in 1996. They have a son, Freddie (born 1997) and a daughter Meg (born 1999). His first marriage to Miranda Carroll ended in divorce in 1993.

On 10 July 2008, Dennis received an Honorary Fellowship from the University of Northampton.

Dennis took part in the 2007 L'Étape du Tour, cycling an open stage of the Tour de France for amateurs which was held in the mountains 2 weeks before the main event. This was discussed in the fifth series of Mock the Week and also QI series six, episode 5 'France'. He started in 2,400th place of 8,000 entrants, finishing in 3,400th from 4,000 who completed it, five hours behind the winner. On 30 October 2011, Dennis completed the Great South Run in Portsmouth for the Alzheimers Society.

Dennis was the subject of the BBC One programme Who Do You Think You Are? (broadcast on 12 September 2012) in which he tries to find out more about his two grandfathers and their backgrounds. His paternal great-grandfather was a miner at Kiveton Park Colliery near Sheffield whose younger son, Dennis' grandfather, served as an officer during World War I and was coincidentally trained at Dennis' alma mater St John's College. His maternal grandfather also served in France during the Great War and was in the Suffolk Regiment. Dennis has one brother, John David Dennis, who is a career diplomat, currently serving as the British Ambassador to Angola. Hugh Dennis is a supporter of Arsenal F.C..

Filmography

Year	Show	Role	Notes
1989-1991	Spitting Image	Various characters	Voice only
1991-1992	The Mary Whitehouse Experience	Various characters	Co-creator/writer
1992	Me, You and Him	Harry Dunstan	Co-creator
	A Word in Your Era	Prince John	1 episode
1994	The Easter Stories	Gardener	1 episode
1994-1995	The Imaginatively Titled Punt & Dennis Show	Various characters	12 episodes
1996	The Detectives	Seth	1 episode
1997	Brass Eye	Dr Balb Kubrox	1 episode
2000	Doctors	Nick Browning	1 episode
	Jack Dee's Happy Hour	Jed Cake	Voice only; 8 episodes
2000-2006	My Hero	Dr Piers Crispin
2002	TV to Go	Various characters	Series 2
2005-	Mock the Week	Himself, regular panellist
2007-2014	Outnumbered	Pete Brockman	Series Regular
2009	QI	Himself, guest panellist	2 episodes
2009	New Tricks	Tony Granville	1 episode
	Hotel Babylon	Jim Doody	1 episode
2011	Fast and Loose	Himself	Host
2013	Agatha Christie's Marple	Major Philphott	"Endless Night"
2014-	Over to Bill	Bill Onion
2014-	Not Going Out	Toby	Also portrayed Captain Morris in 1 episode
2015	Ballot Monkeys	Martin Frost
2016	Insert Name Here	Guest panellist

[ Source: Wikipedia ]