Russell Peters was born in Brampton, Ontario, Canada to Eric and Maureen Peters. His family is of Anglo-Indian ancestry and is Catholic. His father was born in Pune, India and worked as a federal meat inspector and his mother was born in Calcutta, India. He has an older brother named Clayton who was born in Calcutta.
He went to Georges Vanier Catholic Elementary School from kindergarten to grade 8, Chinguacousy Secondary School for grades 9–10, and Bramalea Secondary School for grades 11–12 in Brampton.
Career
Peters began performing in Toronto in 1989.[3] He has since also performed in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, mainland China,Hong Kong, Iran, Denmark, South Africa, the Caribbean, Vietnam, New Zealand, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Sweden, India, United Arab Emirates,Bahrain, Jordan, Norway , Lebanon, London, Pakistan and Trinidad among other places.
He hosted the Canada Day Comedy Festival 2006. His comedy special Russell Peters: Outsourced, aired on Comedy Central on August 16, 2006. The DVD version features his uncensored performance. The DVD has been popular, especially in Canada, selling over 100,000 copies. Outsourced remained on the National DVD Chart over one and a half years after release.
In September 2008, it was confirmed that Peters made a deal with Fox to develop a new sitcom, based on his experience in Canada. Peters says, "It's really a snapshot of where my family maybe was ten years ago" and he ensures that the sitcom is "Something that will be funny and honest."[10][11] Peters participated in a USO tour of Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, Africa and Greenland in November 2007 with Wilmer Valderrama and Mayra Veronica.[12] Peters' latest DVD/CD combo Russell Peters: Red, White, and Brown was recorded on February 2, 2008, at The WAMU Theatre at Madison Square Garden. Peters and his brother, Clayton Peters, who is also his manager, self-produced and financed Red, White and Brown. It was released in Canada in September 2008 and in the US on January 27, 2009. Peters also currently produces and stars on the radio situation comedy series, Monsoon House, on CBC Radio One.
Peters was the host of the 2008 Juno Awards televised ceremonies in Calgary on April 6, 2008, for which he won a Gemini Award for "Best Performance or Host in a Variety Program or Series". The 2008 awards broadcast received the second-highest ratings ever for the program. He was asked to host the Juno Awards for a second year in a row. The 2009 Juno Awards took place in Vancouver on March 29, 2009.Between June 2008 and June 2009, Peters earned $10 million, making him one of the highest-paid comedians during that twelve-month period.
Between June 2008 and June 2010, Peters earned $15 million, continuing his run as one of the highest-paid comedians.
On October 26, 2010, Peters released his autobiography, Call me Russell, co - written with his brother Clayton and Dannis Koromilas.
Popularity
Peters' popularity extends to several countries. In Canada, Peters became the first comedian to sell out Toronto's Air Canada Centre,[16] with more than 15,000 tickets in two days for the single show. He ended up selling over 30,000 tickets nationally over the two-day sales period. A total of over 60,000 tickets were sold across six cities. In Sydney, Peters had a record breaking audience of 13,880, making the event the largest stand-up comedy show in Australian history. Peters attributes his sudden widespread popularity to a stand-up performance he did on the Canadian TV comedy series Comedy Now! that was uploaded onto YouTube and became viral. While the initial video upload featured his performance in its 45 minute entirety, subsequent videos uploaded by other YouTube users were snippets of that performance, chopped into each of the cultural groups he targeted. According to Peters, those snippets made their way to those specified cultural groups, and were well received by them.
Comedy
Russell Peters' stand-up performances are mostly made up of observational comedy where he uses humor to poke fun at the subjects of race, class and culture, often using his own life experiences as well as impersonations of different cultural accents to illustrate his act. Russell Peters uses his minority status to allow him to poke fun at different races in his performance, but according to a interview done for The National (CBC), he does not intend to put down or offend different races and cultures, but instead tries to raise them up through humor. For example: "Somebody's gonna get hurt real bad".
[edit]Personal life
Peters proposed to girlfriend Monica Diaz García on July 10, 2010 at the Los Angeles International Airport. He announced the engagement via Twitter. The couple married on August 20, 2010 at A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. The wedding was attended by about 20 guests, including an Elvis impersonator. Peters and Diaz had their first child, a girl, due February 23, 2011. When announcing the pregnancy, Peters told The Canadian Press, "Did I get married because she was knocked up? I would say that expedited it." His daughter was born two and a half months early,on December 14, 2010, but was healthy as Peters stated on his Twitter. She was given the name Crystianna Marie Peters.
Awards and recognition
He has been nominated for four Gemini Awards, the Canadian television awards. He has also been nominated for Best Male Comic at the Canadian Comedy Awards. Peters has been featured at such shows as Montreal's Just for Laughs (Juste pour rire) Comedy Festival, the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, and the Edinburgh Festival.
- 1997 – Nomination for the Gemini Award in the category "Best Individual Performance in a Comedy Program or Series". This was for Show Me The Funny, from the TV-series Comics! (1997)
- 2004 – Nomination for a Gemini Award for his Comedy Now! special.
- 2008 – Nomination for a Gemini Award for hosting The Junos.
- 2008 – Winner of a Gemini Award for 'Best Performance or Host in a Variety Program or Series'.
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