Early life

Reece was born on the 27 August 1969 and went to Bretton Hall College

Career

The League of Gentlemen initially began as a stage act in 1995, transferred to BBC Radio 4 as On the Town with The League of Gentlemen in 1995 and then arrived on television on BBC Two in 1999. The latter saw Shearsmith and his colleagues awarded a British Academy Television Award, a Royal Television Society Award and the prestigious Golden Rose of Montreux.

He has appeared in other comedy projects including Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere as well as playing the insane villain Tony in the Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer comedy Catterick. He also appeared in two episodes of the award-winning pop-culture comedy Spaced as robot-wars obsessed TA soldier Dexter, and played neurotic doctor Flynn in the BBC Two sitcom TLC which was written by The Weakest Link creator Fintan Coyle. His ability for talking 'gibberish' lends itself to playing his more macabre characters like Papa Lazarou.

From March 2006 to January 2007, he appeared in the West End as Leo Bloom in The Producers.

In the 2008 English language DVD release of the cult 2006 Norwegian animated film Free Jimmy, Shearsmith voiced the character of "Ante", a heavy-set, bizarrely-dressed biker member of the "Lappish Mafia". In this his voice is used along with the other actors of League of Gentlemen such as Steve Pemberton and Mark Gatiss. The dialogue was written by Simon Pegg and other actors.

Psychoville aired June 2009 and marked his return to BBC2. It was co-written by Shearsmith and his League of Gentlemen cohort Steve Pemberton. Both Shearsmith and Pemberton star in the series and play numerous characters. In 2010 Shearsmith appeared in John Landis' black comedy Burke and Hare.

In 2010 Shearsmith played the lead character in Ghost Stories, written and directed by Jeremy Dyson and magician Andy Nyman.

In 2011, Cameron Mackintosh's new musical Betty Blue Eyes opened in the west end, in which he played downtrodden husband Gilbert Chilvers (a chiropodist) alongside Sarah Lancashire. In May of that year, Psychoville returned to TV with a second series, where once again he starred beside Pemberton and numerous other names including Imelda Staunton.

In 2012, he starred in Bad Sugar, a comedy series written by Sam Bain & Jesse Armstrong, along with Olivia Colman and Julia Davis.

In November 2013, he played Patrick Troughton in An Adventure in Space and Time, a docu-drama about the conception and making of Doctor Who, which was written by Mark Gatiss. He met with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer again for the final episode in the first series of House of Fools as a ghost called 'Martin'.

In 2014, Shearsmith stars as Malcolm Webster in the ITV drama series The Widower. In June of that year, it was announced that Shearsmith would play Nathan Steele in Ben Wheatley's upcoming film High-Rise. Also in 2014, Shearsmith starred as Detective Sergeant Stone in Chasing Shadows, an ITV drama series about missing persons.

In February 2015, Shearsmith was interviewed by Adam Buxton on BBC Radio 4's Chain Reaction. 17 July 2015 cast announcement: Shearsmith cast in Hangmen By Martin McDonagh, Directed by Matthew Dunster at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs from Thursday 10 September to Saturday 10 October 2015. In 2015, Shearsmith appeared as Gagan Rassmussen in the Series 9 Doctor Who episode Sleep No More. In February 2016 Reece starred in the dark comedy thriller Stag.

Personal life

Reece is married to Jane, and they have two children together.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role
1995	Alas Smith and Jones	Actor
	The League of Gentlemen Stage Show	Writer/Actor
	P.R.O.B.E.	The Devil of Winterborne
1996	Friday Night Armistice	Performer
	P.R.O.B.E.	The Ghosts of Winterborne
1997	In the Red	Performer
	Mash and Peas do U.S.	Actor
	Auton	Actor
	On The Town With The League Of Gentlemen	Writer/Actor
1998	Lenny Henry Goes to Town	Actor
	In the Red	Actor
	Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round	Actor
1999	The League of Gentlemen, Series 1	Writer/Actor
	This Year's Love	Actor
2000	A Local Show For Local People	Writer/Performer
	The League of Gentlemen, Series 2	Writer/Actor
	The League of Gentlemen Christmas Special	Writer/Actor
	Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)	Actor
	The League of Gentlemen - A Local Book For Local People	Writer
2001	Spaced	Actor
	Coming Up	Birthday Girl
	A Local Show for Local People (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane)	Writer/Performer
2002	The League of Gentlemen, Series 3	Writer/Actor
	TLC	Actor
	The League of Gentlemen, The Making Of Series 3	Presenter
	'Art' (Whitehall Theatre)	Performer
	Robbie the Reindeer: Legend of the Lost Tribe	Voice Actor
2003	Mash and Peas	Actor
2004	Catterick	Actor
	Shaun of the Dead	Actor
	The All Star Comedy Show - Monkey Trousers	Performer
	Max & Paddy's Road to Nowhere	Actor
2005	The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy	Voice Actor
	The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse	Writer/Actor
	Wyndham's Theatre Presents Shakespeare's As You Like It	Performer
	The League of Gentlemen Are Behind You (various venues)	Writer/Performer
2006	The Producers (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane)	Performer
2007	Miss Marple: Ordeal by Innocence	Actor
	The Abbey (TV series)	Actor
	Modern Men	Performer
	Ladies and Gentlemen: Comedy Showcase	Actor
	Christmas at the Riviera	Actor
2008	Coming Up	Lickle Bill Um
	The Cottage	Actor
	The Common Pursuit at the Menier Chocolate Factory	Performer
	Free Jimmy	Ante (voice)
2009	Psychoville	Actor/Writer
	Comedians at the Lyric Hammersmith	Performer
	Would I Lie to You?	Performer
2010	The First Men in the Moon	Actor
	Burke and Hare	Actor
	The Bear	Actor
	Good Boy	Actor
2011	Betty Blue Eyes(The Novello Theatre)	Performer
2012	Comedy Showcase - The Function Room	Actor
	Swiftcover SwiftBrothers Advertising Campaign	Voice Actor
	Absent Friends	Performer
	Henry IV	Actor
	Him Indoors	Actor
	Silent Night of the Living Dead	Actor
2013	A Field in England	Actor
	Comedy Showcase - Bad Sugar	Actor
	An Adventure in Space and Time	Actor, as Patrick Troughton
	The World's End	Actor
2014-present	Inside No 9	Actor/Writer/Director
2014	The Widower	Actor
	Chasing Shadows	DS Sean Stone
	Dead Funny: Horror Stories by Comedians	Writer
2015	Peter Kay's Car Share	Ray the Fishmonger
	High-Rise	Nathan Steele
	Doctor Who	Gagan Rassmussen
2016	Galavant	Neo of Sporin
	Stag	Wendy
	Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge	Jasper Jones

[ Source: Wikipedia ]