Shane Richie

Multifaceted British actor, comedian, and TV presenter Shane Richie was best known for his role as "cheeky chappie" Alfie Moon on the long-running BBC soap opera EastEnders, but also had a low-key parallel career as a singer. Born in 1964 to Irish parents and brought up in Willesden in North West London, as a young boy he regularly accompanied them to the Irish and country evenings his father ran at local social clubs. Beginning his entertainment career in his teenage years as a "bluecoat" at the holiday resort Pontins, he later moved into standup comedy, appearing on Sky TV and BBC One, before hosting a number of game shows. In the late '90s he attempted unsuccessfully to launch a pop career, releasing two albums, 1997's The Album and 2000's Once Around the Sun. His first acting gig came in 2001, in the offbeat ITV soap opera Night & Day, which later attained a cult following. In 2002 he shot to fame as Alfie Moon on EastEnders, becoming a household name. His first musical success was in 2003, when his charity cover of Wham!'s "I'm Your Man" went to number two in the U.K. singles chart. Roles in the comedy-drama Minder, sitcom Benidorm, and Alfie-centric EastEnders spin-off Redwater followed, alongside more game show hosting work. Concurrently, Richie flexed his muscle as a musical theater actor, appearing in Boogie Nights and Scrooge. In between all of this other work, he occasionally toured the U.K. as a singer, playing low-key gigs with his own band. In 2009 he was booked as the warm-up act for Michael Jackson's comeback concert series at London's O2, which ultimately never came to pass owing to Jackson's untimely death. In 2017 Richie returned to music -- and to his roots -- with the album A Country Soul on EastWest. It saw him covering a selection of old-time favorites by the likes of the Eagles, Stephen Stills, and Dobie Gray, as well as contributing a song of his own composition.
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