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Karl Pilkington was raised by monkeys in the jungles of Africa. He was by no means the cleverest in the troop but gradually gained their respect with his flea picking abilities. He was spotted by a Mancunian family on safari one day who took him back to Manchester and adopted him as their own. When he first arrived Karl could only grunt and drag his knuckles across the ground so he fitted in well in Manchester. He eventually learned how to act human again and even learned to speak, even so his vocabulary is very limited to this day.
The Real Karl Pilkington
Karl Pilkington was born on 23rd September 1972 in Manchester. He didn’t do well at school and famously his only qualification was an ‘E’ in history. This was due in part to his lack of attendance, instead spending a lot of his childhood going on caravan holidays to Port Meridith with his mum or missing school on days when it was too windy to venture outside. He also had several near death experiences as a child including choking on a Mister Freeze Pop and almost hanging himself with his backpack.
Karl has always been in showbiz in some shape or form starting from a very young age when he accidently played the drums along to "We Three Kings" which apparently went down a storm. Later he would appear in a talent competition as a magician but unfortunately lost to a Madonnna impersonator. In his teenage years he ran a mobile disco along with his friend Colin Makin called "Pilki's Makin Music". He could also be seen body popping in local malls.
His jobs after school included working in a printers and also a supermarket called “Cordon Bleu”. His first venture into radio was as an agony uncle on a late night phone in on a local Manchester radio station. This is where he met his long term girlfriend Suzanne.
In 1994 Karl was hired by London radio station XFM as a technician and moved down south. He was later promoted to head of production and in 2001 was made the producer of "The Ricky Gervais Show". Although originally given to Gervais and Merchant as an off air producer they quickly realised the value of his input. Although reluctantly at first he became more and more involved and quickly became the star of the show, building a cult following with his bizarre take on life and his almost childlike stupidity.
In 2005 Karl left XFM in order to continue the shows but in a different format. Gervais and Merchant had become far too busy to commit themselves to radio so embarked on the new media of podcasts. Initially 12 free podcasts were released at the end of 2005 which proved to be extremely popular breaking records for the number of downloads. Karl was now known the world over and continues to make audiobooks with Ricky and Steve.
Karl has also dabbled in TV work including “3 minute wonders” and an hour long documentary called “Satisfied Fool” both of which aired on Channel 4. He has also been a regular contributer on BBC2's arts programme "The Culture Show" and has done some tv commercial voiceovers. His acting career has been limited to a brief cameo appearance in Extras where he played a journalist. He has also written three books "The World of Karl Pilkington" which was actually mostly transcripts from the podcasts, "Happy Slapped by a Jellyfish" and "Karlology".
If you would like to know more about Karl Pilkington just listen to the shows. Quite often he talks about his childhood, personal life and experiences in detail.