Hugh Laurie as Gregory House

James Hugh Calum Laurie was born on June 11, 1959 in Oxford, England and was raised in the Presbyterian church. He was later educated at Selwyn College in Cambridge, where he earned a degree in archaeology and anthropology. While in college, he engaged in rowing, however, he was diagnosed with infectious mononucleosis, which forced him to give up sports. This marked the beginning of Laurie's acting career, as he joined the Cambridge Footlights, a drama club. His early work with the Footlights was in an episode of The Young Ones entitled "Bambi." Laurie later became the president of the Footlights and took their annual revue, The Cellar Tapes to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where he, along with his co-writers, won the first Perrier Comedy Award.

Laurie then went on with Stephen Fry, whom he worked with on The Cellar Tapes, to work on several comedy projects throughout the 1980s and 1990s. These projects include the Blackadder series, A Bit of Fry and Laurie and Jeeves and Wooster. Their other projects include The Secret Policeman's Third Ball (a stage production), variety show Fry and Laurie Host a Christmas Night with the Stars, and the film Peter's Friends.

Laurie then independently worked on films Sense and Sensibility, 101 Dalmatians, Maybe Baby, Girl from Rio, The Flight of the Phoenix and the three Stuart Little films.

In 2004, Laurie gained recognition in the United States when he played Dr. Gregory House in the highly acclaimed FOX medical drama, House. A year later, he was nominated for an Emmy award for his work on the series. Although he did not win the award, he was able to take home the two Golden Globe awards in 2006 and 2007.

In talking to Playboy about his role as Dr. House, Laurie said, "House is a rather heroic figure. He's a man in search of some kind of truth, whether it's scientific or psychological or whatever. And he is prepared to give up a lot, to make sacrifices to get there. Also he has no friends because of his dedication to discovering and telling the truth. I suppose that's sort of the definition of a hero."