Ricky Grover

Rickie Joseph Grover (born 24 December 1961) is an English actor and comedian. His stepfather was an armed robber and his mother a hairdresser. His first cousin is Jimmy Doherty. Grover became a ladies' hairdresser and a champion boxer, with the nickname Ricky 'Goodnight' Grover due to his big punching power. He then became a stand-up comedian, actor and occasional television presenter. He is best known for his role as Andrew Cotton in EastEnders. Grover is dyslexic and could not read or write until his early thirties.

Grover was born in West Ham, Essex.

Grover has appeared in television programmes including Red Dwarf, Fist of Fun, 'Orrible, The 11 O'Clock Show, Honky Sausages and Black Books. He also provided the voice acting for the character of Yangus in the English language version of the PlayStation 2 game Dragon Quest VIII.

His 1996 short film Punch won the Silver Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.

In 1998 he featured in the music video for the England song Vindaloo by "Fat Les".

In 2000, he won the Best Actor award at the Brest European Short Film Festival for his performance in Hungry (1998) One of his most regular characters is "Bulla", a violent offender who originally featured on The 11 O'Clock Show and was interviewed by Michael Parkinson. He had a guest appearance in Top Buzzer. In 2011 he starred and co-wrote the feature-length film Big Fat Gypsy Gangster with his wife, Maria Grover.

He has appeared in adverts for Virgin Mobile and Beagle Street Insurance.

Since July 2009 he has played the part of Matron Hilary Loftus in the BAFTA award-winning BBC Four medical 'docu-sitcom' Getting On, directed by Peter Capaldi. He had a role in the vampire film Dead Cert and in the horror drama Tony. which was released in UK cinemas on 5 February 2010

Ricky Grover also had a role in an episode of Not Going Out in 2011, playing a drug dealing butcher.

Grover reprised the role of Yangus in the 2015 videogame Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below.

In 2006, Grover presented the documentary F*** Off I'm Fat as part of BBC Three's first "Body Image" season. In 2007 he presented a peak-time Tonight With Trevor McDonald report on obesity and a BBC Two episode of Grandad's Back in Business in which he mentored two stand-up comedians.

Since July 2003, Grover has written a column, "Raging Bulla", for the monthly magazine Loaded until it’s final issue in 2015.

• Sit-Down Comedy (contributor to anthology, ed Malcolm Hardee & John Fleming) Ebury Press/Random House, 2003.ISBN 0-09-188924-3.