Nigel George Planer (born 22 February 1953) is a British actor, writer and musician. His television credits include playing Neil in the sitcom The Young Ones, Ralph Filthy in the sitcom Filthy, Rich and Catflap and narrating the children's animated series Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids. He has appeared in many West End musicals, including as part of the original casts of Evita, Chicago, We Will Rock You, Wicked, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He has also appeared in Hairspray. He won a BRIT award in 1984 and has been nominated for Olivier, TMA, WhatsOnStage, and BAFTA awards.
Nigel Planer is the son of Dr George and Lesley Planer and was brought up in Mortlake, London. He has two brothers, Geoffrey and Roger, a businessman and a musician, respectively. His father, George (d. 2016), established a company that pioneered technology in controlled-rate freezers, IVF and stem cell research. His mother, Lesley (d. 2000), was a speech therapist. Nigel attended Westminster School in central London, where he wrote a satirical play about the school with fellow pupil Stephen Poliakoff. He began a degree course in African and Asian Studies at the University of Sussex, but dropped out to study acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
Planer was a founding member of the London Comedy Store and The Comic Strip – pioneers of the alternative comedy movement in the United Kingdom. Planer appeared with Peter Richardson as part of the double act "The Outer Limits". Planer and Richardson also wrote the That's Life! parody on Not the Nine O'Clock News. With Christopher Douglas, he created the spoof actor character Nicholas Craig, who appears in book, radio, TV and article form as well as live; including, in 2011, in Stewart Lee's At Last! The 1981 Show at the Royal Festival Hall, London, and in 2022 in Nicholas Craig's Podcom. Planer is also the author of several books, plays, radio plays and TV scripts as well as a small volume of poetry. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Arts degree by Edinburgh Napier University in June 2011.
Planer is best known for his role as Neil, the hippie housemate in the BBC comedy The Young Ones, which ran for two series broadcast in 1982 and 1984. He has starred in The Comic Strip Presents..., (and was a writer for) a series of short films broadcast from 1982 onwards, on Channel 4.
In 2003, Planer played Professor Dumbledore in a Harry Potter parody, Harry Potter and the Secret Chamber Pot of Azerbaijan. He appeared on a BBC Four programme in the guise of Nicholas Craig in 2007, in which he was interviewed by Mark Lawson.
Planer guest-starred in "The Pale Horse", a 2010 episode of Agatha Christie's Marple. He played Peter Mandelson in The Hunt for Tony Blair (2011).
Leading roles on television include Shine on Harvey Moon, The Young Ones, Filthy Rich and Catflap, The Grimleys, King and Castle, Bonjour La Classe and Roll Over, Beethoven. He also starred in Michael Palin's Number 27, Simon Gray's Two Lumps of Ice, Emma Tennant's Frankenstein's Baby, Blackeyes, by Dennis Potter, Marcella, Cockroaches, Ratburger, and Loaded.
Planer's guest appearances include Lockwood & Co, Inside No. 9, The Bill, French and Saunders, Jonathan Creek, Blackadder III, The Last Detective, The Paul Merton Show, The Lenny Henry Show, Death in Paradise, Songs from the Shows, This is Jinsy, Boomers, Father Brown, M.I. High, Grantchester, There She Goes, and Episodes.
Planer has appeared in films, including Flood, Virgin Territory, Bright Young Things, Terry Pratchett's Hogfather, The Colour of Magic, The Wind in the Willows, The Land Girls, Clockwork Mice, Carry On Columbus, Brazil, The Supergrass, I Give It a Year, Burn, Burn, Burn, The List and Yellowbeard.
His first break in the theatre was understudying David Essex as Che Guevara in the original West End run of Evita.
In 1990, he replaced Michael Gambon in Alan Ayckbourn's Man of the Moment in the West End. Leading roles followed in other productions at the Bush Theatre, the Lyric Theatre, the Traverse, the Young Vic, the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Regent's Park Open-Air Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre, Plymouth Drum and the Hampstead Theatre. For the 1993 English National Opera Christmas season he played the jailor Frosch in Die Fledermaus.
Planer was in the original cast playing Amos Hart for the 1997 London revival of Chicago. He was a member of the original West End cast of his co-star Ben Elton's Queen musical, playing Pop in We Will Rock You.
In 2006, he played the part of the narrator in The Rocky Horror Show. He then starred alongside Idina Menzel, at the Apollo Victoria Theatre on 27 September 2006, as The Wizard in the original West End production of Wicked.
He took over the role of Wilbur, opposite Michael Ball, in the West End production of Hairspray on 2 February 2009.
He featured in Doctor Who: Live touring the UK, as Vorgenson The Inter-Galactic Showman, before appearing in pantomime as Captain Hook at the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield.
Planer went on to star as Grandpa Joe in the original production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which opened in London's West End in 2013 for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award for best supporting actor in a musical.
From September 2018 to November 2018, Planer toured with Ade Edmondson in a play that they wrote together called Vulcan 7.
In 2020 he took on the role of Grandpa in the arena tour of David Walliams' Grandpa's Great Escape.