Keith Lemon is an English actor, comedian, writer, and television host.
He is best known for being the creator of and starring in the Channel 4 sketch comedy show Bo’ Selecta!
Bo’ Selecta!, as a sketch show, lampooned popular culture and was best known for its abstract and often surreal toilet humor. He is famous for presenting two ITV shows, Celebrity Juice and Through the Keyhole.
The former has been running since 2008, and the latter ran from 2013 to 2019. Besides the shows mentioned above, he has also had other comedy shows of varying fame and success, like Lemon La Vida Loca, The Keith Lemon Sketch Show, and The Keith & Paddy Picture Show.
His humor is largely part of the Character comedy, impressions, parody, and sketch school of comedy.
Quick Facts About Keith Lemon
| 49 |
| $10 million |
| Comedian |
| British |
| Leigh Izaak Francis |
| Jill Carter |
| 2 |
| April 30, 1973 |
| Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
| Character Comedy, Parody, Sketch |
| 1995 – Present |
Who Is Keith Lemon’s Wife, Jill Carter?
Keith Lemon is married to Jill Carter, a beauty therapist, whom he wed on October 30, 2022.
The two were married at Allerton Castle, have been married for over two decades, and have been together for a decade more.
According to the comedian, the two are childhood sweethearts. For the longest time, Lemon was hesitant to talk much about his private life to keep the personal and the public separate, but in recent years he has been more revealing.
In a 2021 interview, the comedian went and gushed about his wife, describing her as his rock, and talked about her many admirable qualities. According to Lemon, his wife, Jill, is not only a fantastic woman but a brilliant mom, and he loves everything there is to love about her.
How Many Children Does Keith Lemon Have?
Comedian Keith Lemon has two children, both daughters, named Matilda and Dolly.
Matilda was born on February 2009, but the younger one’s birth date has not been revealed to the public. Like with his wife, the man is fiercely protective of the identity and privacy of his daughters.
He doesn’t post them online, and the few times he has done so, he has protected their identities with masks. For example, one time, he shared a funny video of him and one of his daughters on Instagram, they were dressed in a Spider-man outfit.
The rest of the video showcased them doing various activities, all in Spider-man masks, and according to the caption, the video was taken during the pandemic lockdown.
Keith Lemon Has A Special Relationship With His Mother
Not only is Keith Lemon a family man, but he has made it clear that he also has a deep love and respect for his mother.
Keith often involves his mother, Pat, in his projects.
Recently, Lemon posted a video on his Instagram to announce that the two were doing a show together but that she couldn’t remember the name.
The title, he later revealed, will be The fantastical Factory of Curious Craft.
Lemon never lets an opportunity go to celebrate his mother and their special and loving relationship. He often posts her pictures on his social media account and doesn’t let a mother’s day go by when he hasn’t done so.
He has earned many fans due to the loving and respectful way he treats his mother.
More About Keith Lemon’s Early Life
Keith Lemon was born on April 30, 1973, in Beeston, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire.
He was raised in Old Farnley, Leeds, in a council estate. While his mother, Pat, is still alive, his father passed away from cancer at 47.
Lemon went to Farnley Park High School, now The Farnley Academy. Later, he attended Jacob Kramer College and graduated with a degree in graphic design.
He was found and supported by television host Davina McCall while performing in-role stand-up comedy at a southern comedy club before making his significant television breakthrough.
On Dom and Kirk’s Nite O’ Plenty, McCall landed Lemon his first television part as Bobby Stark, a character who offers advice on attracting women. From January through July 1996, the show aired on Paramount Television.
On the initial seasons of Channel 4’s Popworld, Lemon played the music paparazzo Barry Gibson in his second television appearance. In the 2000 ITV late-night series Whatever I Want, Lemon played various roles, including Gibson, Keith Lemon, and Avid Merrion.
Keith Lemon’s Net Worth In 2022
Keith Lemon is an English comedian who has a net worth of $10 million as of 2022, earned through his television and film career.
As stated above, Lemon has had a successful television career where he has hosted many shows and sketches comedy series. His filmography runs 21 projects deep, and almost all of them have been successful.
Not only has he been a presenter in many of these shows, but a writer as well, and their success is defined by the fact that all but six of these shows are bolded in Wikipedia.
That means that the shows have earned some form of cultural relevance to the point that people have felt compelled to discuss their importance or their background to the world. And those six unbolded shows are all after 2018, which explains their unbolded status.
Of Lemon’s 21-project deep filmography, he’s had his name on six of them, meaning that his name is not only respected but famous enough to carry multiple shows and projects, which explains his respectable net worth.
A Look At Keith Lemon’s Career
Keith Lemon has had an enjoyable and fantastic career, leading to his success.
YouTube hosts a number of these short films. Lemon produced a series of short films for Comedy Central, formerly known as Paramount Comedy, at the beginning of his career titled Stars in Their Houses.
His big break in television came when Channel 4 gave him a £250,000 contract to make a show based on his television characters, such as his earlier appearances as Bobby Stark and Barry Gibson.
As a result, Bo’ Selecta! was created in 2002. In the series, Lemon played the primary, non-celebrity character, Avid Merrion, and several celebrities whom he impersonated by donning masks.
The show ran for five seasons, from 2002 to 2006; however, the final two seasons loosely followed the first three. The fourth season, A Bear’s Tail, was based on The Bear, another of his characters. Bo! was the American name for Series 5, which saw Avid Merrion return.
Immediately after Bo’ Selecta! Lemon produced Keith Lemon’s Very Brilliant World Tour, a brand-new series based on one of the series’ characters, which debuted on ITV2 in April 2008. Because of the program’s success, Lemon produced Celebrity Juice, a follow-up program with the character of Keith Lemon that has since aired for 23 seasons.
Lemon co-hosted the ITV shows LemonAid (2012) and Sing If You Can (2011) with Stacey Solomon. He would make his feature film debut in Keith Lemon: The Film, which was announced in November 2011, and filming will begin later that month.
Most recently, Francis appeared as Pete, a shop employee, in the 2019 Elton John film Rocketman.
Lemon has become a sort of cultural mainstay in British comedy and media. His interviews have become a work of art in themselves. In interviews, Lemon frequently assumes a different persona; he has done so as Keith Lemon ever since and as Avid Merrion while Bo’ Selecta! ran from 2002 to 2006.
Lemon acknowledged that his former Jacob Kramer College lecturer, Laimonis Meiri, was the source of Avid Merrion’s accent and vernacular in an out-of-character interview with On: Yorkshire Magazine.
Additionally, he clarified that Merrion is merely a typo of Meiri and has nothing to do with the Merrion Centre in Leeds, as some may have believed. The Frank Skinner Show, Loose Women, Big Brother’s Little Brother, The Museum of Curiosity, and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross have all included interviews with Lemon in his persona.
He has built an amazing career, an amazing life with his family, who love him very much, and an adoring public who continue to flock in to see what their favorite comedian has in store for them. Currently, Lemon is working as a co-presenter with Ashley Roberts in 2022 show The Real Dirty Dancing, a dance-related competition show.
How Did Keith Lemon Become Famous?
Any discussion on Keith Lemon and his career cannot be complete without looking at what made his name.
Keith Lemon is Bo’ Selecta, and for many British audiences, he always will be Bo’ Selecta. Between 2002 and 2004, Channel 4 aired three Bo’ Selecta! series, which produced several spin-offs.
He portrayed the lead role of Avid Merrion, a stalker who is dangerously insane and pursues down celebrities out of obsession. The program contained sketches in which Lemon, wearing latex facemasks with distorted facial characteristics, portrays caricatures of British and American celebrities.
The most well-known sketches featured celebrities like David Blaine, Kelly Osbourne, and Michael Jackson, who was portrayed as a foul-mouthed mental patient with tics in the form of “hee-hees,” Mel B, who has a strong Northern accent, and central figures like Elton John, who was portrayed as being angry, aggressive, and antisocial.
Each episode would include one of Avid Merrion’s sketches.
The deliberate incompetence of each impersonation and overall incongruity is a large part of the humor in the program; examples include sequences in which Avid slaps Justin Timberlake with cold steak and attempts to kiss Patsy Kensit while playing Mel B.
Despite a devoted fan base and some positive reviews, the program has come under fire for supposedly encouraging narrow-mindedness and childish behavior. As part of its 30th anniversary, it was listed as the 19th greatest comedy show on Channel 4.
4Music rebroadcast the program. Under the Bo’ Selecta! label, the Christmas singles “Proper Crimbo” and the double A-side “I Got You Babe / Soda Pop” were released. 2003 saw the release of “Proper Crimbo,” which peaked at No. 3 on the UK Singles Chart.
Christmas 2004 saw the release of “I Got You Babe / Soda Pop,” which peaked at No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart.
In the years since, Lemon has toned down his content and made it more family-friendly, and although that may have given him more success than Bo’ Selecta, not one of them hold the same amount of cultural relevance the show had.
However, that goodwill is not shared by everyone, as many of the celebrities lampooned in the show have since spoken out about how harmful the show has been to their image, especially television presenter Trisha Goddard.
Some FAQs
What Is Keith Lemon’s Real Name?
His real name is Leigh Izaak Francis
How Many Children Does Keith Lemon Have?
He has two children, both daughters
How Much Is Keith Lemon’s Net Worth?
He has a net worth of $10 million