Paul O’Grady

About the Paul O’Grady

Paul James O’Grady was an English comedian, broadcaster, drag queen, actor, and writer. He achieved notability in the London gay scene during the 1980s with his drag persona Lily Savage, through which he gained wider popularity in the 1990s. O’Grady subsequently dropped the character and in the 2000s became the presenter of various television and radio shows, including The Paul O’Grady Show.

Born to a working-class Irish migrant family in Tranmere, Cheshire, O’Grady moved to London in the late 1970s, initially working as a peripatetic care officer for Camden Council. He developed his drag act in 1978, basing the character of Lily Savage upon traits found among female relatives. Touring England as part of drag mime duo the Playgirls, O’Grady then went solo as a stand-up comedian in the early 1980s. Performing as Savage for eight years at a South London gay pub, the Royal Vauxhall Tavernand presented two travel documentaries for ITV. In 2004, he began presenting ITV’s daytime chat show The Paul O’Grady Show. After the network refused to transfer creative control of the series to O’Grady’s production company Olga TV, he moved to Channel 4 in 2006, where the show was rebranded as The New Paul O’Grady Show, airing until 2009. O’Grady presented the late night ITV show Paul O’Grady Liveand BBC Radio 2’s Paul O’Grady on the Wirelessin the 2008 Birthday Honours for services to entertainment. In 2020 he became president of the British Music Hall Society, taking over the role from Roy Hudd. On 31 October 2022 he was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Kent, where he lived for many years.