[3] His other television credits include starring as arms dealer Richard Onslow Roper, the main antagonist in the miniseries The Night Manager (2016), for which he won his third Golden Globe, and playing Senator Tom James in the HBO sitcom Veep (2015–2019), for which he received his 10th Emmy Award nomination.

Laurie has appeared in the films Peter's Friends (1992), Sense and Sensibility (1995), 101 Dalmatians (1996), The Borrowers (1997), The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), Stuart Little (1999), Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (2001), Flight of the Phoenix (2004), Tomorrowland (2015), Arthur Christmas (2011) in which he voiced Steven Claus, and The Personal History of David Copperfield (2020).

[5] Laurie was born on 11 June 1959, in the Blackbird Leys area of Oxford,[6][7] the youngest of four children of Patricia (née Laidlaw) and William George Ranald Mundell "Ran" Laurie, who was a physician and winner of an Olympic gold medal in the coxless pairs (rowing) at the 1948 London Games.

[13][14] He notes that "belief in God didn't play a large role" in his home, but "a certain attitude to life and the living of it did".

Not much given to things of a 'bookey' nature, I spent a large part of my youth smoking Number Six and cheating in French vocabulary tests.

[7] Forced to abandon rowing during a bout of glandular fever, Laurie joined the Cambridge Footlights,[24] a university dramatic club that has produced many well-known actors and comedians including members of the popular British surreal comedy group, Monty Python.

Laurie, Fry and Thompson later parodied themselves as the University Challenge representatives of "Footlights College, Oxbridge" in "Bambi", an episode of The Young Ones, with the series' co-writer Ben Elton completing their team.

They took their annual revue, The Cellar Tapes, to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and won the first Perrier Comedy Award which was presented to them by Rowan Atkinson.

The revue was written principally by Laurie and Fry, and the cast also included Thompson, Tony Slattery, Paul Shearer and Penny Dwyer.

The Perrier Award led to a West End transfer for The Cellar Tapes and a television version of the revue, broadcast in May 1982.

It resulted in Laurie, Fry and Thompson being selected, along with Ben Elton, Robbie Coltrane and Siobhan Redmond to write and appear in a new sketch comedy show for Granada Television, Alfresco, which ran for two series.

Laurie starred in the Thames Television film Letters from a Bomber Pilot (1985) directed by David Hodgson.

Since 2002, Laurie has appeared in a range of British television dramas, guest-starring that year in two episodes of the first season of the spy thriller series Spooks on BBC One.

In 2004, Laurie guest-starred as a professor in charge of a space probe called Beagle, on The Lenny Henry Show.

[7] He was in Namibia filming Flight of the Phoenix and recorded his audition tape for the show in the bathroom of the hotel, as it was the only place he could get enough light.

Laurie was initially cast as Perry White, the editor of the Daily Planet, in Singer's film Superman Returns but had to bow out of the project because of his commitment to House.

[33] In July 2006, Laurie appeared on Inside the Actors Studio, where he also performed one of his own comic songs, "Mystery", accompanying himself on the piano.

[7] He hosted NBC's Saturday Night Live, in which he appeared in drag in a sketch about a man (Kenan Thompson) with a broken leg who accuses his doctor of being dishonest.

Laurie also appeared as Captain James Biggs in Street Kings, opposite Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker, and then in 2009 as the eccentric Dr. Herbert Cockroach, PhD in DreamWorks' Monsters vs. Aliens.

In 2010, Laurie guest starred in The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror XXI" as Roger, a castaway who is planning a murder scheme on a ship during Homer and Marge's second honeymoon.

[40][41] Laurie played arms dealer Richard Onslow Roper in the BBC 1 miniseries The Night Manager.

In addition to being an Executive Producer on the show alongside Tom Hiddleston, it was also Laurie's first role on British TV in thirteen years.

He has displayed his musical talents throughout his acting career, such as on A Bit of Fry & Laurie, Jeeves and Wooster, House and when he hosted Saturday Night Live in October 2006.

[50] On House Laurie played several classic rock 'n roll instruments including Gibson Flying V and Les Paul guitars.

His character has a Hammond B-3 organ in his home and on one episode performed the introduction to Procol Harum's classic "Whiter Shade of Pale".

In 1996 Laurie's first novel, The Gun Seller, an intricate thriller laced with Wodehouseian humour, was published and became a best-seller.

Stephen Fry, Laurie's best friend and long-time comedy partner, was the best man at his wedding and is the godfather of his children.

[61] In June 2013 Laurie was the guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, where he chose tracks from Joe Cocker, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Randy Newman, Professor Longhair, Son House, Nina Simone, Lester Young–Buddy Rich Trio, and Van Morrison as his eight favourite discs.

[62] This was his second appearance on the show, having previously been on a 1996 episode, where he chose tracks by Muddy Waters, Max Bruch, the Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra with Count Basie, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Van Morrison and Dr.

[65][66] On 23 May 2007 Laurie was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to drama in the 2007 New Year Honours.