In 1997, he won Channel 4's So You Think You're Funny contest and the following year was nominated for a Perrier Award for his show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

In 2008, Kay co-wrote and starred in Britain's Got the Pop Factor... and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice, a parody of several British reality television shows.

He also provided the voice of police constable (later chief inspector) Albert Mackintosh in two feature-length films of the Wallace & Gromit franchise, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Vengeance Most Fowl.

[4] Peter John Kay was born on 2 July 1973 in Farnworth, Lancashire,[5] where he attended Mount Saint Joseph School, leaving with a GCSE in art.

[5] His mother, Deirdre (née O'Neill), is an Irish Catholic originally from Coalisland, County Tyrone,[6] and Peter was brought up in her faith.

He took several minor jobs, including working in a toilet roll factory, a Netto supermarket, a video rental shop, Manchester Arena, a cash-and-carry, a cinema, a petrol station and a bingo hall, which later inspired episodes for That Peter Kay Thing.

His episode, "Two Minutes", written by Johanne McAndrew, saw him play a getaway driver as two of his friends attempted to rob a pub of its takings.

Following the series' success, Kay and his co-writers – Neil Fitzmaurice and Dave Spikey – used the episode "In the Club" as the basis for Phoenix Nights, which was an immediate hit.

He appeared in the first episode of the 2002 series of Linda Green, playing a pizza delivery man who ended up being something of a soulmate to the eponymous heroine.

In 2008, he returned to television after an absence of four years with the BAFTA-winning satire of reality talent shows, Peter Kay's Britain's Got the Pop Factor... and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice, which he co-wrote with Paul Coleman.

Kay won his second Royal Television Society award for best actor for playing Geraldine McQueen, a transgender dinner lady from Ireland.

[12] In 2007, Kay followed the success of "(Is This the Way to) Amarillo" with a cover version of "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)", originally by the Proclaimers, also for Comic Relief.

In February 2007, Kay played director Roger DeBris in the Mel Brooks musical The Producers at Manchester's Palace Theatre for 120 shows.

He gave a speech to the crowd before introducing the concert's headline act, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.

[citation needed] In April 2020, Kay featured in the BBC's Big Night In in which he introduced an updated version of "(Is This the Way to) Amarillo".

[13][14] On 2 January 2021, Kay was a guest on BBC Radio 2's Saturday morning show, with Cat Deeley hosting this 10am to 1pm programme as Graham Norton had by then left the slot.

His first stand-up success was in the competition the North West Comedian of the Year, which was held in Manchester and hosted by Dave Spikey, who would later be the co-star and co-writer of Phoenix Nights.

During this period, he appeared on several chat shows, such as Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and Parkinson, on the latter of which he had previously served as warm-up.

It was later clarified that this was an issue with the ticket booking services associated with specific venues rather than a matter directly associated with Peter Kay or his production company.

[24] On 6 November 2022, via an advert during the series 22 premiere of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, Kay announced his first stand-up tour in twelve years, running from 2 December 2022 to 11 August 2023.

In solidarity with the current cost of living crisis, Kay stated that tickets would start at £35, matching the price of his previous 2010 tour.