Gourt Home::Gourt :: Patrick Kielty
Patrick Kielty (born 31 January 1971) is a Northern Irish television personality. He was born in Dundrum, County Down, Northern Ireland and raised a Roman Catholic.
The Troubles there affected him more personally than most. His father, Jack Kielty, a businessman, was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries, although Jack Kielty had no ties to any republican militant group.
Patrick Kielty formerly dated Amanda Byram who has worked for the Irish TV channel TV3 and Channel 4 in the UK. He joked that due to the fact that she was from the South of Ireland their relationship received cross-border funding.
Patrick's career started while he was still a student at Queen's University, Belfast. He become well known locally for his stand-up comedy routines at The Empire pub comedy nights (branded as The Empire Laughs Back). One of his best regular routines involved donning a balaclava and making spoof paramilitary pronouncements.
In 1993 Patrick Kielty presented the show SUS on Ulster Television. He later became the warm-up act for a BBC Northern Ireland programme Anderson on the Box presented by local personality Gerry Anderson. When this show was axed, Pat Kielty presented its replacement, PK Tonight.
Although this only ran for a year and was only shown in Northern Ireland, it did attract the attention of London-based broadcasters and he graduated to presenting programmes such as Last Chance Lottery and Patrick Kielty Almost Live which were shown throughout the UK. He did an impersonation of Martin McGuinness singing the Simon and Garfunkel song, Bridge over Troubled Water (because McGuinness and Art Garfunkel have remarkably similar features).
He continues to appear on many TV programmes to this day, although he has left much of his political comedy background behind and these days tends to favour light-entertainment shows, such as the BBCs Fame Academy and Love Island for ITV in both 2005 and 2006. Also in 2006, Patrick hosted a segment on ITV's coverage of The Prince's Trust 30th Birthday LIVE, along side Kate Thornton.
Trivia
He has an uncle who works for the U.S. Secret Service.
External links
1971 births | Living people | Natives of County Down | Northern Irish comedians | Northern Irish television presenters | Roman Catholic entertainers
"Patrick Kielty"