Stephen Fry
Actor, comedian, author and quiz host – and one of Britain’s best-known openly gay men, who also made mental health a public subject.
Stephen Fry grew up in Norfolk. As a teenager he was expelled from several schools, and at 17 he spent three months in prison for credit card fraud. He then turned his life around and studied English at Cambridge, where in the Footlights comedy club he met Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson.
With Laurie he made the sketch show “A Bit of Fry & Laurie” and the series “Jeeves and Wooster”, and he played in “Blackadder”. He became a national institution as the witty host of the quiz show “QI” from 2003 to 2016. He also wrote novels and books about Greek mythology. In 1997 he played Oscar Wilde in the film “Wilde”.
Fry has been openly gay since the 1980s and has campaigned against homophobia, for example in a documentary about the persecution of gay people around the world. In 2015 he married the comedian Elliott Spencer.
He has also spoken openly about his bipolar disorder and a suicide attempt, and for many years was president of the mental health charity Mind. In 2025 he was knighted for services to mental health awareness, the environment and charity.