Luke Garrod Kempner (born 5 June 1987) is an English impressionist, comedian and actor. After appearing in various films and musicals, he established a career in comedy, developing his own stand-up comedy show, and has since appeared as an impressionist on numerous sketch shows including '' Newzoids'' (2016), '' Tracey Ullman's Show'' (2017), '' Murder in Successville'' (2017), '' Spitting Image'' (2020–2021), '' The Last Leg'' (2021) and ''Deep Fake Neighbour Wars'' (2023), as well as appearing regularly on '' Big Brother's Bit on the Side'' (2016–2018).

Early and personal life

Luke Garrod Kempner was born on 5 June 1987 to Mark and Anna Kempner (' Schneider) in Smallfield, a settlement in Burstow,

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, England. He is the younger brother of comedian Sooz Kempner. Kempner attended Burstow Primary School and subsequently Oakwood School in Horley. He then went on to attend

Reigate College Reigate College is a state college in Reigate, Surrey, England, for students aged between 16–19 years of age. The college occupies part of the town centre between the High Street and railway station. Reigate College was graded by Ofsted as " ...

and studied drama at the Guildford School of Acting. Kempner said he " mpersonatedthe teachers all the way through iseducation." Kempner married Alana MacFarlane in 2016 and they have a daughter, born in 2021.

Career

After finishing drama school, Kempner began his career as an actor, portraying minor roles in the films ''Fathers of Girls'' (2009) and ''Fly Trap'' (2010) and appearing in musicals including ''Lift'', '' Les Misérables'', ''

South Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

'' and ''

Avenue Q ''Avenue Q'' is a musical comedy featuring puppets and human actors with music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx and book by Jeff Whitty. It won Best Musical, Book, and Score at the 2004 Tony Awards. The show's format is a parody of PBS' ...

'' but said that he "always wanted to do iscomedy professionally." In 2012, he began posting videos of himself impersonating celebrities including

Andy Murray Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray h ...

and Tom Daley, however it wasn't until his comedy skit ''Downstairs at Downton'', inspired by the characters of the

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

drama '' Downton Abbey'', gained traction on social media and his career as a comedian and impressionist subsequently took off. He developed the online sketch into a one-man show titled ''The Only Way Is Downton'', touring around the UK at venues including the

Edinburgh Fringe Festival The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

, and later developing an American version ''America's Got Downton'' that he performed in the United States. In December 2015, Kempner fronted his own

ITV2 ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a ...

sketch show ''Luke Kempner's Impression of 2015'', which featured Kempner's various impersonations of celebrities. In 2016, he appeared in an episode of ''

Drunk History ''Drunk History'' is an American educational comedy television series produced by Comedy Central, based on the Funny or Die web series created by Derek Waters and Jeremy Konner in 2007. They and Will Ferrell and Adam McKay are the show's exec ...

'' and provided the voices for the

sketch show '' Newzoids'', before joining '' Big Brother's Bit on the Side'' as a regular comedian and impressionsist, in which he impersonated the housemates throughout the series. In 2017, he appeared as various characters in '' Tracey Ullman's Show'' and '' Murder in Successville''. In 2019, he narrated the

dating series '' Singletown''. In 2020, Kempner appeared as a contestant on the first series of '' Celebrity Karaoke Club'', and finished in third place. Between 2020 and 2021, he provided the voices for the puppets on the revival series of '' Spitting Image'' and went on to star in the musical adaption. In 2021, he appeared as various characters in '' The Last Leg''. In 2022, Kempner toured his new show ''Macho Macho Man'' at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which was described as a "deep dive into the thorny issues of modern masculinity" and ranked four out of five stars by '' The Daily Telegraph''. In 2023, Kempner impersonated various celebrities in the

comedy series ''Deep Fake Neighbour Wars'', before it was announced he would be appearing in the

West End West End most commonly refers to: * West End of London, an area of central London, England * West End theatre, a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London, England West End may also refer to: Pl ...

production of ''Les Misérables'' as Thénardier.

Filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kempner, Luke 1987 births 21st-century English male actors Alumni of the Guildford School of Acting English impressionists (entertainers) English male comedians English male musical theatre actors Living people Male actors from Surrey Comedians from Surrey Jewish English comedians