Comedy actor Paddy McGuinness is otherwise known as the incompetent, sex-obsessed bouncer (also called Paddy) armed with dodgy chat up lines in Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights.

After initially aspiring to a career as a lab technician but being put off after his first physics lesson in college, Paddy embarked upon a string of dead end jobs, including silver-service waiter, building site labourer, bakery dough-machine cleaner, lifeguard, fitness instructor, holiday rep and cleaner.

Paddy's acting debut was in a one-off Peter Kay mocumentary in which he had about three lines. He says the producer wasn't too keen on him because he had no acting experience and the director was patronising towards him but while he's now 'co-writing and starring in my own TV series with Peter, I've never heard of the producer or director since. Funny life, int it'.

His character Paddy the doorman first appeared in That Peter Kay Thing in 2000 and returned as a regular character in Phoenix Nights. He was still working as a leisure centre lifeguard throughout the first series of Phoenix Nights and only packed in the day job when the second series started. He reprised the role again in Max and Paddy: The Road to Nowhere, a spin-off series that he cowrote with Peter Kay.

Paddy is also a stand-up comedian and is embarking on a huge nationwide tour later this year.