After Dinner Speakers: Graham Norton, Lance Armstrong, Nick Ross

Born in 1963, his original name was Graham Walker; 'Norton' is his great-grandmother's maiden name which he later adopted when discovering Equity already had a ‘Graham Walker’. He was brought up in County Cork in Ireland, his family was Protestant in a 98% Catholic area; his father a Guinness representative and his mother a leading member of the Mother’s Union. After failing to get into Journalism school, Graham went onto University College Cork studying English & French; he left after the first year and went to America where he was briefly engaged before recognising he was gay. He later returned to university to finish his degree. He then went to London to join the Central School of Speech and Drama and, until his late 20s, worked as a waiter and a barman. Graham first ventured into the world of comedy in the early nineties, and was nominated for the prized Perrier award in 1997, when he also appeared as Father Noel Furlong (the happiest, clappiest, campest ) priest in ‘Father Ted’. He then got his first TV break on Channel 5's Bring Me The Head Of Light Entertainment. Then, in May 200, he received the Bafta award for Best entertainment performance for So Graham Norton; he has won this award for two years running now along with other coveted awards. He is now bringing his outrageous, camp humour to Channel 4, 5 nights a week.